Debunking Diet Culture

Diet culture is one of the most harmful enemies of today.

We hear, see and consume it in mass amounts, yet hardly realise it’s negative affects. It disguises itself behind words we idolise such as ‘healthy,’ and ‘skinny’.

It edges its way into our thinking to the point where we start relying on it to make food choices which often prove more detrimental to our health than beneficial.

We ignore the fact that its exact definition is the same as the cause behind eating disorders such as Orthorexia.

Diet culture needs to go. But first, it's important to understand why.

DEFINING DIET CULTURE

Diet culture is defined as “a belief system that focuses on and values weight, shape, and size, over well-being.” If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you should immediately be thinking - RED FLAG.

Its definition goes on to say variations of diet culture include “rigid eating patterns that on the surface are in the name of health, but in reality, are about weight shape or size.” - RED FLAG NUMBER TWO

Essentially, diet culture idolises anything which focuses on ones image as the ultimate goal. Although it disguises itself as encouraging a healthy way of living, diet culture is only concerned with how you look, not how you feel or how healthy your body is.

“As a culture, we continue to equate thinness with wellness, and weight loss with effort. Thin = healthy, overweight = unhealthy. Losing weight = accomplishment, gaining weight = failure.”

Diet culture normalises the pursuit of thinness.

When you scroll through Instagram and see an influencer marketing a ‘detox tea’ supposed to help you lose weight – that’s diet culture. When you see a fitness blogger post a workout titled ‘flat stomach, weight loss workout’ – that’s diet culture. When you hear a friend complain about the number of carbs in their lunch – that’s diet culture.

If you consciously take notice, you’ll be shocked by how much diet culture-driven content you see, hear and consume on the daily.

WHY DIET CULTURE IS SO HARMFUL

What makes diet culture so harmful is the fact that it values image over health.

It makes us believe that our body and it’s needs come second to how we look physically.

This is an incredibly harmful belief system as it can lead to eating disorders, undernourishment and negative relationships with food.

With social media one of the driving forces of diet culture and platforms such as Instagram being so heavily used by young people today, it’s no surprise we're seeing a spike in eating disorders.

The UK saw an alarming rise in hospital admissions for eating disorders last year. Figures show a year-on-year rise in hospital visits, with admission numbers more than doubling from 7,260 in 2010-2011 to 16,023 in the year to April 2018. The latest figure is up from 13,885 the year before – the highest spike in eight years.

What's driving this statistic is the belief that the world favours a certain image and if we don’t fit that image, we need to do everything in our power to come as close to it as possible.

Diet mentality is packed with food rules, judgement, and guilt. Because of diet culture, many people believe they will be happy if only they could change their weight, shape, size, and looks. On the flip side, people believe if they gain weight it’s a sign of laziness or failure.

Neither of these is true. Your body’s health should always come first and the physical side will follow. If you look after your body and mind when it comes to food and fitness habits, you will feel and look healthier.

THE MYTHS OF DIET CULTURE

Diet culture is packed with myths to make us believe if we follow a specific eating plan or use a certain product, we’ll be thinner, and therefore, happier.

The detox diet 

How many times have you heard someone say they were going to go on a detox diet after a holiday or weekend of eating out? Additionally, how often do you see products marketed to help you detox, cleanse and lose weight?

The word 'detox' has become somewhat of a hero in diet culture. It coincides with the belief that we need to rid our body of toxins that we accumulate from eating ‘unhealthy food’.

Detox diets can include liquid diets, drastically cutting all sugars (including those in fruit), drinking detox teas ... if you google search ‘detox diet’ you’ll be greeted by a raft of products promising you a quick-fix.

Detox diets can not only be harmful to your body, they’re not proven to be effective.

Instead of going on a short-term detox diet, make healthful long-term changes to your diet such as eating more plant-based foods, drinking more water and cutting back on caffeine and alcohol intake.

You’ll be happy at ‘x’ weight

As someone who used to believe this myth, I can honestly tell you it’s not true. Happiness is not reached by a number on a scale. Weighing a certain amount will not make you happy. In fact, it can have extremely detrimental effects on you and your health.

Diet culture, however, encourages this. It tells us that if we can drop 5-10kg we will be happy with our bodies. Being human, we have to accept that we’re never going to be truly happy with every part of our appearance. We’re always going to see a fault. Of course, we need to learn to accept ourselves for who we are, but believing that a certain weight will make you happy isn’t the way to do it.

‘Healthy’ isn't measured by a specific weight. Nor does it have a set body type. Everyone’s version of healthy is different dependant on the person, their body type, their genetics and their lifestyle.

Thin does not equal happiness.

It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change

Typical diet culture talk includes what we should and shouldn’t eat all in the name of health. Cut this, eliminate that, eat only this for five days, carb-less is best, increase fat, only eat white meat ... the list goes on.

As diet culture evolves, new fad diets are introduced all promising to help us lose weight and look our best. In a dieting culture, behaviours such as over-exercising, fasting, restricting meals, and cutting out essential food groups, are all normalised and praised practices.

Diet culture disguises these practices, however, by using words such as ‘healthy,’ and ‘well-being’ to make us think we’re changing our lifestyle for the better. What we’re actually doing is falling into a weight cycle.

People become obsessed with dieting and because diets don’t work, people get stuck in an endless weight cycle. Research shows that weight cycling is associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes, including metabolic disturbance, type 2 diabetes, depression and cardiovascular events. Therefore, diets can actually make you more unhealthy in the long term.

The myth here is that diet culture is pro-health whereas it’s actually pro-image. Making a lifestyle change doesn’t come from dieting, it comes from doing what’s best for your body.

Eat whole foods, exercise regularly, get enough sleep, eat enough calories, drink plenty of water and take care of your mental health.

THE BOTTOM LINE

It makes me sad how image-driven our society has become, specifically for women. Young girls are growing up with a belief system built around trying to meet unrealistic beauty standards and it's mostly thanks to diet culture.

The problem is, influencers are not going to stop posting, companies are not going to stop marketing and advertisers are not going to stop pointing out your flaws in a bid to sell you their product.

We need to be the change. We need to stop falling for the lies, stop buying the fad products, stop following people who promote messages of image over health and stop helping society build a culture that's seeing millions of young girls around the world harm their bodies in the name of beauty.

Diet culture, consider yourself debunked.