How to Navigate Diet Culture and Cultivate a Healthier Relationship with Yourself
Allison Osmer, Masters Level Clinician
What is Diet Culture?
“Diet culture” refers to a set of beliefs and practices that idealize a specific body size or shape, frequently emphasizes thinness with beauty and health. Within diet culture, there is an importance placed on dieting and weight loss as a means to gain happiness and social acceptance and normalizes the stigma of fat people and large bodies.
Additionally, diet culture tends to promote the false idea that individuals can control all their health and nutrition choices and that weight is a primary determinant of health. The mindset ingrained in diet culture has profound implications for mental health as well.
When food and exercise are prescribed primarily as a tool for weight control rather than recognized as a source of nourishment for overall bodily health and well-being, significant negative consequences can result. This emphasis on restriction and control can lead to disordered eating patterns, which can cause anxiety and guilt around food consumption.
The Negative Impacts of Diet Culture
Diet culture is all around us, and we may not even be aware of its influences. Some common examples of diet culture include placing moral value on certain foods as “good” or “bad,” complimenting people for weight loss, advertisements for quick weight loss “cures,” before and after photos of weight loss, and food with labels such as “skinny,” “guilt free,” “low carb,” and the like. All this messaging can negatively impact our self-perception and overall well-being. Below are further examples of how diet culture is problematic:
Perpetuates unrealistic beauty standards: One of the primary traps of dieting is its reinforcement of unrealistic beauty standards, and that beauty is related to weight. Diet culture often promotes an idealized body image that is unattainable for the majority of individuals and is based on standards of thinness and whiteness. This can lead to pervasive feelings of inadequacy, poor body image, the cycle of comparison as individuals strive to conform to often artificially constructed standards, and a bigger cycle of oppression of black and fat bodies.
Can cause weight cycling: Weight cycling, commonly known as yo-yo dieting, is a frequent outcome of restrictive diet practices. This cycle involves repeated weight loss patterns and subsequent regain, which can harm the body. Furthermore, research suggests that weight cycling may increase risk factors for various health conditions.
Activates destructive eating habits: Restrictive diets often encourage destructive eating habits. Rigid dietary rules may lead to nutrient deficiencies, disruptions in metabolism, and an unhealthy relationship with food. Additionally, restrictive eating patterns can contribute to binge-eating episodes, as the body compensates for periods of deprivation, creating a detrimental cycle that impacts both physical and mental health.
Negatively impacts mental health: The impact of dieting on mental health is profound. Constantly striving to meet unrealistic (and frankly unhealthy in many cases) weight and appearance standards can lead to heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. The preoccupation with food, body image, and weight control can contribute to the development or exacerbation of eating disorders, creating a significant burden on an individual's mental well-being.
Perpetuates Eurocentric beauty as the standard: Diet culture often promotes Eurocentric beauty ideals, glorifying features such as whiteness and thinness. This can result in the marginalization, oppression, and stigmatization of individuals whose bodies do not conform to these standards, particularly Black, fat, trans bodies.
Does not consider racial disparities in health outcomes: Societal factors, including racism and systemic inequality, contribute to health disparities among different racial and ethnic groups. Diet culture may exacerbate these disparities by promoting one-size-fits-all approaches to health that do not account for diverse cultural, genetic, and environmental factors. Further, some measures of “health,” such as BMI are rooted in racism.
Overemphasize individual responsibility: Diet culture tends to promote the idea that individuals can control all their health and nutrition choices and then discriminates against those who do not meet this standard of “health.” The reality is that many environmental and social factors impact a person's health, such as living in a community with access to affordable and healthy food options. Due to centuries of racism and systemic inequality, communities of color are more likely to live in areas that have limited access to affordable and nutritious food compared to white communities. Further, weight is not the only or even a primary determinant of health.
How to Navigate Diet Culture and Cultivate a Healthier Relationship with Yourself
While society may be slow to shift away from diet culture, there are things we can start doing on the individual level to heal our relationships with food, exercise, and our bodies.
Recognize Body Mass Index (BMI) is flawed: BMI (Body Mass Index) is often used to measure “health” but has many limitations. The BMI was normalized on white European men 200 years ago and cannot be generalized to other populations. Additionally, BMI does not account for body composition, muscle mass, or fat distribution variations. Recognizing the flaws in relying solely on BMI allows us to shift our focus towards a more comprehensive understanding of health that considers individual factors beyond a numerical scale.
Embrace diverse health and beauty standards: Shift your mindset to appreciate the diversity of health and beauty standards. Recognize that bodies come in various shapes, sizes, and appearances and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Celebrate the uniqueness of your own body and cultivate an environment that promotes inclusivity, fostering a sense of self-acceptance and appreciation for the beauty inherent in individual differences.
Identify and question diet culture messaging: Develop a critical eye towards pervasive diet culture messaging that infiltrates the various aspects of our lives. Question the societal norms and expectations surrounding dieting, weight loss, and beauty standards. Examine media, advertising, and social influences, actively seeking content that challenges harmful narratives and promotes body positivity, diversity, and authenticity.
Heal your relationship with food and exercise: Growing a healthy relationship with food involves avoiding giving moral judgements to food, moving away from restrictive diets and embracing intuitive eating. Avoid labeling food as “good” or “bad,” listen to your body's hunger and fullness cues, and overall try to view food as nourishment, social connection, and culture rather than a source of guilt or control. Similarly, reframing exercise as a joyful movement that contributes to overall well-being can shift the focus from weight control to holistic health.
Practice neutrality: Striving for neutrality involves detaching moral value from food choices and body size. Avoid attaching guilt or virtue to specific foods, recognizing that all foods can be part of a balanced and healthy diet. Similarly, practicing body neutrality involves accepting and appreciating your body for its functionality and resilience rather than solely focusing on its appearance.
Overall, diet culture is pervasive in our culture and it will take advocacy, unlearning and relearning, and time to change how society views health.
On the individual level, recognize that changing your relationship with your body will be a process, and you'll most likely have times when past emotions, thoughts, and behaviors around food and exercise will resurface.
When this happens, extend yourself some compassion and know that setbacks are part of the process of change.
You are just one person within a broader societal framework that is perpetuating harmful messages about dieting and health.
Our team is fat positive and committed to our own unlearning of white supremacy, including how it manifests as diet culture, and support our clients on their unlearning and re-learning journeys. While we all work with body image and eating concerns, Ashantis Jones is our resident expert. Book a consult call if you’d like to work with her or anyone else on our team!
