What is Diet Culture?
Diet culture is a well-used term in the eating disorder/anti-diet space. Today we are revisiting an old post on diet culture, sharing updated information, and new insights so you can better understand and identify how diet culture shows up in your life.
Maybe you’ve seen an ad that says, “Lose 10 lbs. in one week and become a confident, better, healthier you!” Or maybe you’ve heard someone say any of these things: “Cauliflower pizza is much healthier for you”; “You need to watch what you eat if you want to stay in a healthy weight range”; “Close all your rings on your Apple Watch to feel accomplished for the day”; “I’m not dieting, I’m making healthy lifestyle changes”; “Buy these jeans, they will give you a slimming figure”; “America has an ob*sity problem”.
These are all statements that thrive in diet culture!
What is diet culture?
Diet culture is a system of beliefs - rooted in and upheld by white supremacy, anti-Blackness, ableism, capitalism, misogyny, and the patriarchy - that
worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue, which means you can spend your whole life thinking you’re irreparably broken just because you don’t look like the impossibly thin “ideal.”
promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status, which means you feel compelled to spend a massive amount of time, energy, and money trying to shrink your body, even though the research is very clear that almost no one can sustain intentional weight loss for more than a few years.
demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others, which means you’re forced to be hyper-vigilant about your eating, ashamed of making certain food choices and distracted from your pleasure, your purpose, and your power.
oppresses people who don't match up with its supposed picture of “health,” which disproportionately harms women, femmes, trans folks, people in larger bodies, people of color, and people with disabilities, damaging both their mental and physical health [1].
Intuitive Eating Dietitian, Anti-Diet Author, and Certified Eating Disorders Specialist Christy Harrison first shared this comprehensive definition back in 2019 and we believe it still holds true.
How diet culture can impact us.
Let’s examine how diet culture can impact people by following along with ‘Jillian’.
Jillian believes that thinness equals health. And to be healthy, you need to live in a thin body. Jillian believes that if you live in a thinner body you attain a level of higher status in society (Jillian isn’t exactly wrong here, is she?). Jillian wants to be healthy and she believes she must watch what she eats, work out daily, and supplement often. She demonizes certain foods, promoting the restriction of those foods to achieve the “ideal” shape and size. Jillian loves buzzwords like “guilt-free”, “fat/sugar-free”, “protein-packed”, “healthy”, and “antioxidant”.
She sees food as a way to shrink herself and feel more acceptable in our culture, instead of seeing eating as a pleasurable experience, cultural tradition, or a way to induce memories. Rather than moving for enjoyment, Jillian spends hours in the gym each week, following a rigid plan to maintain her body size. If she ever lacks the ‘willpower’ and gives in to any bad/unhealthy foods or skips a workout, she is quick to get back on the wagon the next day in order to maintain progress and ensure her body stays small. Though it might seem like she is living her best life, Jillian obsesses over her food and exercise choices and her body on a daily basis, so much that it consumes 75% of her day.
Perhaps you see parts of yourself in Jillian? Or your friends, family members, or co-workers?
Jillian is doing what thousands of other people in our culture do on a daily basis. Her behaviors, beliefs, and habits are seen as acceptable and even encouraged. Do you notice how many of Jillian’s behaviors are also characteristics of disordered eating?
Diet culture is all around us and it’s difficult to untangle ourselves from the web of discomfort, rigidity, and shame that it helps us so easily weave. Diet culture thrives in healthcare settings, gyms, retail stores, grocery stores, workplaces, schools, the transportation industry, and more.
How did diet culture start?
During the Renaissance period, being at a higher weight meant status. It was beauty. It meant you were well-nourished and were desired by all, both men and women.
In her book, Fearing the Black Body, author and sociologist Sabrina Strings shares how diet culture is rooted in anti-Blackness and anti-fatness. In the 18th century and during the time of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, colonists noticed the difference in body size between white Europeans and Africans, being that Africans tended to have more fat and live in larger bodies. As a way to differentiate themselves from Africans and show that they had more self-control, white settlers started to push a thin body type as the ‘ideal’. This continued once the slave trade was over as a way to identify those who were slaves versus those who were free.
By the early 19th century, body shaming and creating power and dominancy regarding health status became mainstream. We see the development of the Body Mass Index (BMI) and women’s magazines like Harpers Bazaar and Godey’s Lady’s Book regularly published articles rooted in anti-Blackness and anti-fatness [2, 3]. We HIGHLY recommend checking out Sabrina’s work on this topic, in addition to Christ Harrison’s Anti-Diet. While it might have looked different in the 18th and 19th centuries and prior, diet culture adapts to our changing culture.
A simple Google search of diet trends since the 1970s shares 45 diet trends from the 1970s until the article was published in 2016. From Weight Watchers in the 1970s, Jenny Craig in the 1980s, the low-fat diets of the 90s and low-carb diets (Atkins, South Beach, etc.) of the 00s, to gluten-free/Paleo of the 2010s [4] and Noom of the 2020s. Even Weight Watchers has adapted and relaunched their program in the last few years.
All these diets, or as they might be called now ‘lifestyle plans’, ‘wellness programs’, ‘clean eating’, aim to make our body and self more acceptable in a society with ever-changing standards, while demonizing other bodies that do not fit the standard. Diet culture also heavily promotes healthism, teaching us that we can essentially assign a health score to a person based on what their body looks like, which is false.
What can you do to ditch diet culture?
The diet industry is anticipated to make $299 billion in 2023. We can spend money and valuable time attempting to hit a moving target, or we can recognize the damage that diet culture has done and will continue to do, and choose to opt out.
Recognize how diet culture shows up in your life on a daily basis.
Consider the thoughts you have about your body and the food you eat each day. Or the thoughts you have about others. Do you feel guilt or shame about your body or food choices? Do you judge others’ food choices? Is your ‘lifestyle program or change’ actually a diet in disguise? How has diet culture shown up in your life and in the lives of those you interact with on a daily basis?
Explore how diet culture and dieting have harmed you and impacted your life.
Did you know that dieting increases binges and cravings? That it causes satiety cues to atrophy and changes body shape and size, including set point (more on this in an upcoming post). Dieting is linked to eating disorders. It can cause increased stress, decrease confidence and self-trust [5], and generally make us feel like we will never be enough. Dieting increases the amount of time in a day we spend thinking about food, our body, and exercise, which means we are losing valuable brain space that could be used doing things that bring us joy. How has diet culture impacted and harmed your life?
Examine and clean your social media feed.
Studies have shown that the increased concern and hatred of our bodies come from us comparing ourselves to those whom we follow on social media. The longer we view others’ bodies, the more we compare, resulting in more unfavorable thoughts and feelings.
Read/listen/speak to anti-diet resources.
Becoming educated is one of the best ways to fight against diet culture. You’ll eventually be able to call BS on all things diet culture – and what a rewarding feeling that is!
It is important to know that diet culture was most likely instilled in you at a young age. Whether you heard your parent or sibling talking about food or their weight, you were trying to fit in during middle school or high school, or even if you heard your doctor say they were “concerned for your health” and prescribed weight loss, believing the falsities of diet cultures and engaging in it is NOT your fault. You are not to blame.
Find support.
The good news is that the anti-diet/fat liberation/weight inclusivity movements have gained significant traction and recognition in the last handful of years. Because of this, there are countless resources in the form of books, podcasts, social media accounts, workshops, and more. There is a large Anti-Diet Culture community out there willing to guide you through or walk with you out of, diet culture. We’ve put together a short list of resources for you to get started. To find more, check out the accounts that each of these resources follows or engages with.
Resources to check out:
IG Accounts:
@projectheal
@heydrsand
@theshirarose
@heysharonmaxwell
@dr.jenniewh
@heytiffanyroe
@nondiet_trainer
@thefatdoctor
@iamchrissyking
@thebodylovesociety
@tiffanyima
@dietitiananna
@mynameisjessamyn
@meganjaynecrabbe
@your.latina.nutritionist
@yrfatfriend
Books
Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings
Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison
Reclaiming Body Trust by Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant
Why Diets Make Us Fat by Sandra Aamodt
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubry Gordon
Belly of the Beast by Da'Shaun Harrison
Sources Used:
[1] Harrison, C. (2019, March 8). What is diet culture? Christy Harrison - Intuitive Eating Dietitian, Anti-Diet Author, & Certified Eating Disorders Specialist. https://christyharrison.com/blog/what-is-diet-culture
[2] HARRISON, C. (2020). ANTI-DIET: Reclaim your time, money, well-being and happiness through intuitive eating. Place of publication not identified: YELLOW KITE.
[3] Strings, S. (2019). Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (First edition.). NYU Press.
[4] Lefave, S. (2022, June 3). The biggest diet trend the year you were born. Redbook. https://www.redbookmag.com/body/health-fitness/g3552/diet-trend-year-you-were-born/
[5] Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (2020). Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition (Updated). St. Martin’s Essentials.
Collaborative Counseling & Nutrition is an outpatient nutrition and body image counseling center, with locations in Indianapolis and Carmel, that provides compassionate, holistic eating disorder treatment. Through practicing mindfulness, intuition, and Health At Every Size, we are on a mission to help you find a true state of well-being! We take an anti-diet, weight-inclusive approach with all our clients and work to help guide you towards a way of healthy living designed by you, just for you! This post is for education purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for treatment for an eating disorder. If you are looking for a registered dietitian or therapist to assist you on your recovery journey, please reach out today!
