Candace Cameron Bure is opening up about the various weight-loss trends taking over Hollywood.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Bure – who released a new devotional, “100 Days of Joy and Strength: A Daily Devotional Journey” last week – got candid about the “scary” way certain fads are reshaping people’s perspectives on body image in Hollywood and explained how her faith has helped her in her own journey of finding and embracing body positivity.
“It can be scary, although I feel like this younger generation has already had so much more body positivity that I hope they understand that it’s a trend,” the “Full House” alum, 49, said. “I think of my daughter, and she just doesn’t have the same viewpoint of body image that I did growing up, and especially as a child of the ‘80s and ’90s. It’s like mine’s all messed up. I am middle-aged, and I still have all of these thoughts as to the perfect body and this and that, and it’s troubling.”
CANDACE CAMERON BURE SHARES THE UNEXPECTED WAY GOD SHOWS UP IN HER ‘SCARIEST MOMENTS’
“Yet my daughter and her friends and all of that have way less, they don’t think about bodies like that,” she continued. “So I hope that they do understand that it’s a trend. But yeah, it does freak me out. It makes me sad to see everyone suddenly becoming skinny because I think it’s very triggering for a lot of people our age that grew up in the ‘80s and ’90s. It was the ‘Kate Moss era’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is what we have to be attractive.’”
CANDACE CAMERON BURE ADMITS SHE ‘WHIPPED’ HERSELF FOR YEARS AS SHE STRUGGLED WITH BODY IMAGE
“But we know that’s not true,” she added. “And we also know just to apply it back to biblical principles, that God does not love us more or less dependent upon our weight or our body size or our shape. He doesn’t love us or value us anymore or less depending on how we look. He’s a God of the heart that judges the heart, and it’s all about who we are on the inside. And that is where I will continually go back to. No matter how the culture changes in terms of diet and what fad and what body type is in, I know that God loves me for who I am and my heart and doesn’t pay attention to the exterior and places no value in it whatsoever.”
WATCH: CANDACE CAMERON BURE ADMITS HER BODY IMAGE IS ‘ALL MESSED UP’
With drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro used as a weight-loss solution for many, Bure said it’s important to understand the “why” behind people’s decisions to use them.
“I don’t say this to just be a broad brush and be neutral when I say that you really do need to do what works for you,” she said. “I think the most important part is the ‘why’ are you doing these things? Why do you work out? Why do you eat well? Why do you want weight-loss drugs? Why? And those reasons are very different for all people.”
“For me, I have to come down to the ‘Why do I want to take care of myself the way that I do?’ I want to be healthy. I want to enjoy my later years as I age. I want to enjoy them to the fullest. So I want a strong body. I want to lift weights. I want to eat well to nourish my body so that I can have a long life with my children and my grandchildren and my husband and I want to be active. Those are my whys.”
“And whether weight-loss drugs are included for you in that journey to be your best, that’s up to each individual. And I kind of let that go,” she added. “You see so much of Hollywood getting skinny all of a sudden, and there’s a little place of jealousy as a woman that it’s like, ‘Oh, this is the easy way out.’ And yet I know that’s not true for everybody. And I really had to just take a step back and say, ‘Why am I jealous? Why am I feeling this way?’”
Earlier this year, Bure – who has three adult children with husband Valeri Bure – shared how she managed to develop healthy boundaries when it comes to body positivity.
“I’ve whipped my body,” an emotional Bure told podcast guests Allie Schnacky and daughter, Natasha Bure, during an episode of “The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast.” “I’ve spoken to it so harshly. So mean.”
Recounting a dream she once had, Bure said a certain Bible verse – Numbers 22 – allowed her to view her body in a different light.
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“And then God allowed my body to speak back, and my body said back to me, ‘Have I not been the body that’s carried you all the days of your life? Am I not your legs that allow you to walk? Am I not your arms that allow you to pick up and feed yourself?… Why do you hurt me so badly, and why do you talk to me so badly, and why do you treat me this way? I can lift you up… you have to tell me what to do. I’m following your lead.'”
“And it was like this amazing revelation in my life,” she continued. “And the weirdest story out of the Bible, that God spoke to me about how mean I’ve been to my body. I never saw it that way – it’s this beautiful, amazing thing that God gave me.”
WATCH: CANDACE CAMERON BURE REVEALS THE UNEXPECTED WAY GOD SHOWS UP IN HER ‘SCARIEST MOMENTS’
Bure admitted she now has “a whole different perspective of how I think about my body.”
The actress later took to social media to share a clip of the episode.
“I was so mean to myself… and looking back it breaks my heart. Learning to speak with kindness to my body has been a journey, and I know I’m not alone in this. To those who relate – I hope you can feel me giving you the biggest virtual hug right now. And I hope you’ll join me in showing ourselves the grace and love we truly deserve,” she said.
She said her faith eventually helped her recover. “It was never about the weight for me,” she told People in 2016. “It was an emotional issue.”
Ahead of her book’s release, Bure also opened up to Fox News Digital about her personal journey of growth, shared the unexpected ways God has shown up for her, and explained how her new book will offer guidance and encouragement to those seeking daily fulfillment.
“I am always amazed because He always shows up, and it’s sometimes in unexpected ways,” Bure said. “Sometimes it’s the way I want Him to show up, and sometimes it’s the way I was hoping He wouldn’t show up, but He did.”
“But what I’ve learned over the years in knowing Him and knowing His character is that He’s always there, literally always there,” she added. “So, sometimes, in the scariest moments, when I’m like, ‘God, I need you with me. I need to feel your presence. Bring me through this.’ And sometimes you want the win at the end, He brings you through, and you’re like, ‘Yes, I did it.’
“And sometimes you lose, sometimes you fail, but it’s in those moments that I’ve realized, ‘God, you were with me. You actually helped push me through, even if it ended up being a failure, even if I don’t feel very courageous, and I feel like it just wasn’t what I wanted it to be. The fact that I actually did it, I pushed through the fear, I had the courage, or I had the stamina to walk another step, that’s because of You.'”
