What is diet culture? Why does it exist? How do you end the dieting cycle for good?
Written by CCTC Staff Writer
Nearly one in five people over the age of 20 has tried a special diet, according to the CDC. Not just technically overweight or obese people diet, either. Why is “clean eating,” detoxing, and yo-yo dieting so popular? Why are diets so prevalent in society? Why do twice as many people diet now than they did ten years ago? Answer: the rapid spread of diet culture.
Read more about:
Why the very concept of a “diet” is incorrect
What diet culture is and why it’s seeped into every part of society
The negative consequences of dieting (there are many)
Why we keep hearing about the benefits of diets and weight loss, despite the mounting evidence that most diets are not sustainable or beneficial to our health
How to get out of diet culture, for yourself and for the next generation
The days of dieting have to end soon. The days of true health, of living in harmony with our bodies and our environments, are just starting.
The concept of a “diet” itself is problematic in today’s culture.
When you search up the word “diet” on Google, the first results include:
Best Keto Meals For Burn Fast - Keto Diet Food For Burn Fast
#I[ShàrkTɑnk]®WeightLoss Diet - Keto Diet Food For Burn Fast
-17 kg per month - #2021 One Shot Keto [Official] - caqin.top
These are, naturally, all paid ads.
When you enter #diet in the search bar on Instagram, the first results are:
Ads for weight loss products
What you “should” and “shouldn’t” eat (for weight loss)
“Incredible weight loss stories” that subtly advertise weight loss company substances or services by portraying the idea that if you just follow their plan, you can do exactly what the people featured in those posts did, despite having no knowledge of their personal life circumstances
Just about everything about “diets” is attached to the idea of weight loss — often rapid weight loss that is unsustainable at best and dangerous at worst.
Almost nothing in online or in-person conversations aligns with the actual meaning of the word “diet.”
The Actual Meaning of the Word “Diet”
The word diet actually stems from the Greek word diata, which means “way of life.” The word is meant to be taken holistically, and include eating, sleeping, and mindfulness practices.
However, as a society, we’ve drifted away from the idea that diets are:
Supposed to be sustainable
Influenced by our environment
Deeply connected with sleep patterns, hormones, and stressors
Supposed to work for your physical, mental, and emotional needs — not work against them
Now, diets are seen as specific restrictive meal plans designed for weight loss. These meal plans are not really sustainable, and they don’t consider the individual’s life circumstances and needs.
“Diet Culture”: A Fundamental Definition and Understanding
Culture, as defined by the Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition, is the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.
Diet culture is referring to the widespread obsession with and overvaluing of thinness and attractiveness over physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It permeates our day-to-day life in ways that you may not even notice.
It exists in language, in the way people discuss food as “good” and “bad.” It’s present in art and media, as the definition of “beauty” is always connected to thinness. It exists in our cognitive constructs, as we learn to overtly or subconsciously view fatness in a negative way.
A growing number of people are moving away from the “thin ideal” for female-presenting bodies, and the perfect level of muscle for male-presenting bodies.
However, most of society is still absorbing diet culture messaging and experiencing the negative effects from those messages. In fact, studies show that the more diet culture messaging about the “perfect body” a person is bombarded with, the more likely they are to also value that body type, and the more likely they are to be dissatisfied with their own bodies.
Related: Learn more about why male body image problems are so prevalent and complicated.
Popular Diets and Their Consequences
“Clean Eating” Diets, Otherwise Known as Orthorexia
“Clean eating” is a concept that stresses unprocessed, unrefined, “whole” foods. “Clean eating” diets instruct you to avoid many things that are normal, such as refined grains, sugars, oils, and any beverage besides water. Eating according to a “clean eating” plan leads to an unsustainable eating pattern and worsens your relationship with food.
Taken too far, clean eating can cause a person to develop a full-blown eating disorder, otherwise known as orthorexia.
Related: Read more about the relationship between “clean eating” and orthorexia — and how to tell whether your “clean eating” is actually healthy.
Detoxing, Also Known As Laxative Abuse
Detoxing is a new trend that promotes the idea that food is literally toxic, and you need a certain tea, supplement, or diet regimen (usually an expensive one) to rid your body of those toxins. Most detox products promote weight loss disguised as “healthy living.”
Popular detox practices out there right now include:
Detox teas and “teatoxing” plans
Detox supplements
Juice “cleanses”
Fasting and extreme diets
Most detox products are just really strong laxatives with dangerous side effects such as dehydration, laxative abuse issues, electrolyte imbalances, gastrointestinal issues, and malnutrition.
Related: Read this for a more in-depth look at the types and consequences of detoxing.
Yo-Yo Dieting: Weight Cycling at its Worst
Yo-yo dieting is another term for weight cycling, which is a pattern of losing weight, regaining the weight, then dieting to lose it again. It’s extremely common, and it’s why the weight loss industry is so successful, financially speaking.
People don’t regain the weight they lost because they “lost their willpower.” It’s because the weight suppression tactics involved in an extreme weight loss diet are not sustainable. When the individual goes back to eating normally, they regain all the weight, because their body is not supposed to be below their set point weight.
The body is smart: it adapts to the caloric deficit involved in dieting. The body’s metabolism slows to conserve energy, and learns to operate on less calories. Once a person starts eating normally again, the body interprets this as an excess number of calories, and they gain back all the weight they lost — and more.
Yo-yo dieting does serious damage to your metabolism, making weight loss difficult to maintain, and it can destroy your natural relationship with food.
Related: This is how to break the binge-restrict cycle, once and for all.
Why do diets persist, even when they are ineffective and harmful?
Short answer: money.
According to the July 2021 ResearchAndMarkets report, the diet products and services industry should grow from $254.9 billion in 2021 to reach $377.3 billion by 2026 — despite the growing understanding of genetics, evolution, and psychology.
Misinformation about the benefits of weight loss, the best ways to lose weight, and the possibility of long-term sustainable weight loss are permeated by influencers earning commissions on products, by gyms and fitness centers, and by friends and family members participating in diet culture.
With all the messaging about how easy and great weight loss is, how could one not want to lose weight? If it supposedly makes you “healthier” and happier, doesn’t it make sense to spend as much time and money as possible on weight loss?
That line of thinking — that diets are the way to weight loss, and weight loss is so great for you — is how diet culture remains profitable.
Don’t some people need to lose weight?
“Being overweight isn’t healthy,” many fitness influencers — and even some doctors — often say. This “concern” that lingers in the comments of social media posts and in some doctors’ offices is just another form of weight stigma.
A lot of people don’t actually need to “lose weight.”
They may need to include a wider variety of food in their diet, or may benefit from adding some form of exercise to their daily life.
But no one needs to entirely cut out foods that they’re not allergic to. No one needs to exercise six days a week. No one needs to see any food as “good” or “bad.”
You can be healthy and be overweight. It’s entirely possible to be obese and be fit. In fact, a lot of overweight and obese people are stronger and faster than thinner people.
Related: This is how to handle weight bias and stigma in healthcare.
How can you avoid diet culture?
Diet culture is pervasive, but you don’t need to be a part of it. You can stop the generational cycle of food guilt, poor body image, and constant dieting. This is how to do that.
1. Watch out for diet culture lies.
Weight loss will not automatically make you happier, and no one but a qualified, weight neutral physician can tell you what your body needs.
2. Get rid of the concept of “good” and “bad” when it comes to food
Adopt an all-foods-fit mentality.
3. Learn to listen to your body. Start by learning about intuitive eating.
Don’t replace restriction with other restrictive weight-suppression behaviors. Don’t try to compensate for the foods you eat by starting up an intense exercise regimen or another form of purging calories.
4. Work on accepting your body as it is.
No matter how much weight you lose, you won’t be happy in your body if you don’t learn to just accept it in the moment.
Rejecting diet culture — eating and moving your body in a way that is not motivated by appearance — is bold, daring, and incomprehensible to many. Some people may be confused or judgmental. But look at a child near you, and think about what it would be like to be a positive example in their lives. Think about what it would mean to be an accepting, positive force in the world, instead of a negative one. Think about what it would mean to be at peace with food and with yourself.
Doesn’t that sound more worthwhile than unsustainable, often temporary weight loss?
If you or a loved one is struggling with eating disorder behaviors or body image issues, take the first step today and talk to someone about eating disorder recovery or simply learn more about the holistic, flexible eating disorder recovery programs we offer.