Dr. Nina Savelle-Rocklin
Rejecting Toxic Diet Culture for a Healthier You
“Never trust a four-letter word when the first three letters spell DIE.”
That’s how documentary filmmaker Taryn Brumfitt refers to the concept of dieting in her 2016 documentary, Embrace. The film explores the unrealistic beauty standards that are promoted by the media and the diet and beauty industries.
Not much has changed in the seven years since the documentary was released. Diet culture is more pervasive than ever, and it can be damaging to our emotional health.
In a world where images of perfection flood our screens and whispers of the latest “miracle” diet drift through our social circles, the impact of toxic diet culture is profound and far-reaching.
It's a culture that insists on equating your worth with your waistline, often prioritizing aesthetics over authentic health.
This culture includes the diet industry, which includes weight loss products, diets, and weight loss surgery, and the “wellness” industry, which in some cases perpetuates harmful myths about food and weight.
Internalizing these messages makes us feel as though we are never thin enough, or that our worth is directly tied to our weight.
This can lead to a cycle of dieting, bingeing, and feeling guilty about food choices, which can have serious negative impacts on both physical and mental health. Yet, it’s possible to develop resilience against diet culture, with the following strategies…
Table of Contents
- How to Reject Toxic Diet Culture and Embrace a Healthier You
- How to Deal with Dieters
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Question
How to Reject Toxic Diet Culture and Embrace a Healthier You
Confronting toxic diet culture head-on leads us toward self-acceptance and genuine well-being. By choosing a balanced approach to food, you empower yourself to focus on health and happiness, free from damaging societal pressures.
1. Practice Mindful Media Consumption
One of the primary ways that diet culture infiltrates our lives is through the media. From magazines and TV shows to social media, we are bombarded with images and messages that promote the idea that being thin is the key to happiness, success, and beauty.
To counteract this harmful messaging, it is important to be mindful of the media we consume and to limit exposure to content that reinforces negative body image. One way to do this is to only allow media that promotes body positivity and self-acceptance.
- Look for websites, podcasts, and social media accounts that celebrate diversity and promote a healthy relationship with food and our bodies.
- Surrounding ourselves with positive and supportive messages can help to counteract the harmful influence of diet culture and build our resilience to negative body image.
- Try unfollowing or muting accounts that promote unrealistic beauty standards or diets.
Social media can be a major source of diet culture, so curating your feed to include body-positive and health-focused accounts is important.
2. Surround Yourself with the Right People
The people we surround ourselves with impact our emotional well-being. When we’re around others who have a positive body image and are cultivating a healthy relationship with food, it’s easier for us to stay focused on our own journey.
On the other hand, being around people who talk about diets or are preoccupied with their weight can make us feel bad. So, to protect yourself from the toxic influence of diet culture,
- Surround yourself with people who consistently support and encourage you.
- Choose to spend time with friends, family members, or online communities celebrating self-acceptance and promoting healthy attitudes. You’ll feel better and have more fun.
3. Learn the Truth about Dieting
Diet culture and disordered eating have become increasingly prevalent in our society, and it’s important to understand the dangers they pose. The $60 billion diet industry sells the false idea that weight and body size are primarily determined by individual effort and willpower.
This leads to the belief that anyone can be thin if they just try hard enough. Yet, the science behind weight and body size is much more complex.
Many factors influence weight and body size, including genetics, hormones, stress levels, and overall health. Our bodies have an innate ability to regulate weight and body size, and trying to manipulate this regulation can negatively affect our health.
In fact, research has shown that dieting and restrictive eating can actually lead to weight gain over time. Here are some reasons why dieting leads to weight gain in the long run:
- Slow Metabolism: Diets often involve reducing caloric intake, leading to a slower metabolism. The body perceives the reduction in food as a threat to survival and adjusts by conserving energy and slowing down metabolic processes, making it harder to lose weight in the long run.
- Hormonal Imbalances: Dieting can disrupt the balance of hormones that regulate hunger, fullness, and metabolism, leading to increased hunger and decreased feelings of fullness, making it more difficult to maintain a healthy weight.
- Yo-Yo Effect: The rapid weight loss and gain that often occur with dieting can result in a yo-yo effect, where weight is lost and regained repeatedly. This can make it harder to lose weight and keep it off in the long run.
- Restrictive Eating: Weight loss diets always restrict certain foods or food groups, which lead to feelings of deprivation and a preoccupation with food. This can lead to binge eating and an unhealthy relationship with food, making it harder to maintain a healthy weight in the long run.
- Increased Stress: Dieting can be stressful, and stress has been linked to weight gain. The stress hormone cortisol can increase fat storage, particularly in the abdominal area, making it harder to lose weight.
- Decreased Muscle Mass: Diets restricting calories or certain food groups can lead to a loss of muscle mass, again lowering metabolism and making it harder to lose weight in the long run.
4. Consider Foods as Neither Good nor Bad
Food is often labeled as “good” or “bad” in diet culture, conveying that certain foods are healthy and others are unhealthy. This categorization can lead to guilt and shame when we eat so-called “bad” foods and can create a negative relationship with food.
One problem with labeling foods as “good” or “bad” is that it can lead to bingeing. Deprivation of certain foods only makes us want what we think we can’t have.
Putting food on the “bad” list means setting ourselves up for bingeing. Eventually, our willpower fails, and we eat everything on that “bad” list. Many people think, “I blew the whole day by eating those cookies, so I might as well have everything else in the kitchen.”
Essentially, deprivation leads to bingeing. This can lead to feelings of guilt and shame, which are temporarily resolved by bingeing, and the cycle continues.
- Resist messages about “good” and “bad” foods by adopting a non-diet approach to food. That means eliminating the deprivation mindset, learning to trust your body, and focusing on self-care, self-love, and self-acceptance.
- Taking a non-diet approach to health involves focusing on your overall well-being, rather than just on your weight, and recognizing that health and well-being are more than just the number on the scale.
5. Remember that Thinner is Not Healthier!
Diet culture promotes the idea that thinner is preferable and asserts that people are healthier at a lower weight. Yet this emphasis on thinness as a measure of health is not supported by scientific evidence.
People come in all shapes and sizes and can still be healthy at various weight ranges. Seeing weight as the sole indicator of health ignores the fact that health is a complex interplay of factors, including genetics, lifestyle, and overall well-being.
Focusing solely on weight ignores the importance of all these facts. When we become obsessed with our weight, we may develop unhealthy eating habits which actually undermine both our physical and emotional health.
- Diet culture promotes the idea that there is a quick fix for losing weight when sustainable weight loss and improved health are more complex.
- Dieting sets people up for disappointment and can lead to feelings of failure and hopelessness.
- When we repeatedly try and cannot meet our unrealistic weight loss goals, we may feel that we are not good enough and feel hopeless about ever achieving the “perfect” body promoted in the media.
Internalizing the message that being thin is the goal, means becoming hyper-focused on our bodies and constantly judging ourselves and others) based on appearance. This leads to feelings of shame, inadequacy, and low self-esteem, which can spiral into binge eating as a way of coping.
How to Deal with Dieters
If you have people in your life who are stuck in diet culture, they may stay stuck in their mindset and make comments about your food choices and their own. If this is a concern, here are some strategies to deal with people in those situations:
1. Prepare Clever Responses:
Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” If we reverse that notion, you will succeed by preparing.
If you struggle with binge eating or emotional eating, you may encounter dieters who want you to get onboard with diet culture.
Unfortunately, people stuck in diet culture don’t understand that binge eating or emotional eating is actually not about food. Having responses ready will help you get through these situations.
When people talk about their diets and food choices, here are some responses:
- I understand this is important to you, but I’d prefer not to discuss weight.
- You may disagree, but I’m confident in the choices I make for myself and my body.
- Talking about food and diets is triggering for me. Let’s talk about something else.
Many dieters focus not only on their own food choices and dieting goals but on everyone else’s as well. They can try to manage your food choices, which can be annoying and shaming. They often say things like:
- Do you really need to eat that?
- I haven’t eaten cake in five years. I feel amazing.
If that makes you cringe, here are some strategies to deal with those comments.
2. Set Limits and Boundaries:
St personal limits and boundaries to help protect your mental and emotional well-being:
- I’m not discussing what I’m eating or how much I weigh. That topic is off-limits.
- I don’t like speaking about my weight, so I prefer you don’t bring it up.
If they say anything about food, you can say: I like to live in a world with cake in it.
3. Use Humor:
If they say anything about your weight, you say:
- You know what? My weight is a number and it’s unlisted.
- Curvy is the new black, didn’t you hear?
- Wow, I actually HAVE gained weight. Thank you for letting me know because otherwise, it would have completely escaped my attention.
4. Deflect:
When they say, “Do you really need to eat that?” something about your weight, you completely change the subject.
- What’s new with you?
- So anyway, how are you these days?
- My weight really isn’t that interesting to me. What’s going on with you?
If they tell you that they are only asking because they are worried about your health, say: I appreciate your concern, but I do not want to discuss this.
Conclusion
Embracing the rejection of toxic diet culture is crucial to fostering mental and physical well-being. We can protect ourselves by understanding the damaging effects of unrealistic beauty standards and restrictive diet practices.
Diet culture is toxic and leads to an unhealthy obsession with weight, causing anxiety, self-doubt, and even disordered eating patterns.
To ensure lasting health and happiness, it's essential to prioritize sustainable health practices and embrace a kinder attitude toward your body.
This means resisting the allure of quick fixes and societal pressures and instead, focusing on balanced habits that enrich your life. Remember, real change comes from treating yourself and your body with kindness and respect.
Frequently Asked Question
In today’s society, toxic diet culture can deeply impact our relationship with food, our bodies, and our self-worth.
This FAQ section addresses common questions to help you better understand the harmful effects of diet culture and offers guidance on rejecting these damaging messages in favor of healthier, more sustainable habits.
1. What is a Toxic Diet?
A toxic diet is any eating regime that encourages the elimination or demonization of specific food groups or enforces an unsustainable eating pattern.
These diets often promise rapid, extreme weight loss, focusing more on outward appearance than on genuine health and well-being. Common examples include fad diets that claim quick fixes, such as extreme low-carb diets or juice cleanses.
2. What are Examples of Toxic Diets
Perhaps one of the clearest examples of diet culture is the pervasive glorification of thinness across media, advertising, and social platforms.
Campaigns promising to get you “beach body ready” often flood the summer season, reinforcing the notion that only specific body types are worthy of such attention and visibility. This messaging inevitably seeps into public consciousness, subtly suggesting that thinner is better.
Furthermore, popular diets like Keto and Intermittent Fasting often contribute to this perception by promoting restriction as a lifestyle.
While some individuals find health benefits through these approaches, the underlying message can imply that certain bodies or ways of living are superior to others. This can perpetuate the cycle of striving for an often unattainable ideal.
Such toxic diets operate on the principles of toxic diet culture, which prioritizes aesthetics over wellness, leading individuals to develop unhealthy relationships with food and body image.
In many cases, they perpetuate cycles of restriction, binge eating, and guilt, further damaging both mental and physical health.
By understanding these dynamics, you can begin to recognize the pervasive influence of toxic diet culture and move towards a more balanced and health-centric approach to eating.
3. What are the Causes of Diet Culture?
Diet culture, a pervasive force in today’s society, stems from multiple cultural and societal factors. At its core is media influence, where the relentless promotion of idealized body types permeates our screens and page spreads.
This portrayal is intricately linked with the weight loss industry, which capitalizes on these standards by selling the promise of attaining this “ideal” self.
a. Historical Roots – Historically, diet culture is entrenched in anti-fat bias and patriarchal standards. This bias dates back to eras where being thin was equated with moral superiority and self-discipline. Moreover, patriarchal views often dictated women's worth by their appearance, further embedding these ideals in societal norms.
b. The Wellness Industry – The wellness industry also plays a significant role by marketing weight-loss products under the guise of self-care. This packaging implies that losing weight is a necessary component of a healthy lifestyle, subtly reinforcing the notion that thinner is always better.
c. Economic Factors – Economically, the diet industry thrives on its profitability. With billions at stake, this industry continually pushes products and programs promising quick fixes and transformative results. This creates a cycle where consumer dissatisfaction is a constant, feeding the industry's growth and perpetuation of diet culture.
d. Social Media Influence – Lastly, the rise of social media influencers has further entrenched diet culture. Influencers often promote certain body types and diets, subtly implying endorsement of these ideals. Their expansive reach and impact can amplify diet culture messages, making it more challenging for individuals to ignore or escape these pervasive ideals.
4. Why is Diet Culture Toxic to Our Mental Health?
But why is this cultural phenomenon considered toxic to our mental health? Primarily, it promotes the unhealthy notion that your intrinsic value is tied to how you look rather than who you are. This can lead to a host of emotional and psychological issues, including:
a. Guilt, shame, and anxiety surrounding food choices.
b. Encouraging disordered eating behaviors such as restricting, bingeing, or purging.
c. Body dissatisfaction resulting in an unending cycle of self-scrutiny and self-criticism.
d. Low self-esteem, as the constant pursuit of an unattainable ideal leaves you feeling insufficient.
Diet culture has a pervasive way of whispering that you are never enough, no matter how you look, eat, or live. Rejecting these toxic messages is crucial for reclaiming mental space and fostering true well-being.
The emotional and psychological toll of toxic diet culture is significant, often undervalued, yet deeply impactful on one’s quality of life.
By raising awareness of these issues, you can start disentangling yourself from these harmful narratives and take steps towards a healthier, more positive relationship with your body and yourself.
5. What is the Impact of Diet Culture on Relationships?
Diet culture can also have a toxic impact on both our relationship with ourselves and with others. When we constantly judge ourselves and others based on appearance, it creates negative self-esteem.
This can lead to feelings of isolation, disconnection, and a general sense of dissatisfaction with life.
People caught up in diet culture may find that it’s difficult to enjoy social events or engage in activities they want to do, as thoughts of food and their bodies take up so much of their thoughts.
Instead of thinking about how much of a good time they’re having, they’re worrying about what others might think about their appearance.
They may also be hard on themselves, constantly monitoring their food intake and their bodies, and attacking themselves for not being good enough or having enough willpower.
This harsh attitude toward the self creates feelings of inadequacy, shame, guilt, and self-hatred, and can lead to bingeing as a way of self-soothing.
The Author
Dr. Nina Savelle-Rocklin is a renowned author and podcast host and one of the nation’s leading psychoanalysts known for the psychology of eating. Her signature message of, “It’s not what you’re eating, it’s what’s eating ‘at’ you” has resonated with hundreds of thousands of listeners from around the globe in 40 countries. As founder of The Binge Cure Method, she guides emotional eaters to create lasting food freedom so they can take back control of their lives and feel good in their bodies.
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