7 Ways to Resist Diet Culture
Written by ‘Ai Pono Hawaii Staff Writer
The pursuit of weight loss is all around us. You hear about it on the news, in commercials, on Instagram, TikTok, or even at home, school or at work.. Unfortunately, the focus on weight loss prioritizes the number on the scale rather than overall wellbeing including physical and mental health. The force behind this toxic hyperfixation is a result of Diet Culture, that impacts how we think about food, our bodies, and exercise. Whether or not you have struggled with disordered eating, Diet Culture is likely impacting you in ways you may not even realize at first.
Read on to learn more about:
What Diet Culture is
How to know if you are being influenced by Diet Culture
What the dangers of diet culture are
How to resist Diet Culture
What is Diet Culture?
Popular anti-diet dietitian Christy Harrison MPH, RD, CEDS defines diet culture as a system of beliefs 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.
Signs that you are being influenced by Diet Culture
Even if you are not actively on a diet, there are many behaviors that you may engage in without even realizing that may be heavily influenced by diet culture.
Labeling or categorizing foods as “good” or “bad” or “unhealthy” and “healthy” and feeling guilt when eating “bad” or “unhealthy” foods
Ignoring your hunger cues because of when you last ate, what you last ate, your weight
Eliminating food groups
Relying on the food label to decide how much to eat
You feel you must weigh yourself regularly and the number you see dictates how you feel about yourself, your body, and the choices you make around food
Believing health is only about weight and what you eat
Using terms such as “guilt-free,” “cheat day,” and “being good/bad”
Tracking calories and intake in an app like MyFitnessPal or other food journal or tracking apps
Viewing exercise and movement as a necessity to ‘make up for’ or ‘burn off’ food eaten, or earn food
Comparing your food choices with others
What is the Danger of Diet Culture?
Diet culture is one of the largest contributors to disordered eating habits. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, symptoms of disordered eating are:
Frequent dieting, anxiety associated with specific food groups, and meal skipping
Chronic weight fluctuations
Rigid rituals around food and exercise
Feelings of guilt and shame around eating
Preoccupation with food, weight, and body image negatively impacts the quality of life
Using exercise, food restriction, fasting or purging to ‘make up for bad foods’ consumed
These types of behaviors can create a dangerous cycle of shame, fear and anxiety and can ultimately lead to the development of a full blown eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) reports that 35% of dieting becomes obsessive, and 20-25% of dieting measures turn into eating disorders.
7 Ways to Resist Diet Culture
Resisting diet culture can seem overwhelming at first. There are so many ways our lives and minds have been molded by diet culture, it can take time to begin reclaiming your time, energy and peace from focusing on dieting. Below are 7 ways you can begin resisting diet culture.
1. Educate yourself
The first step to resisting diet culture is to really understand the impact it has on both you as an individual, but also on our society as a whole. This awareness and insight can provide you with the truth about the weight loss industry and how our concept of 'health' is extremely distorted to profit businesses and pharmaceutical companies. Whether it is reading articles online, reading a book, or listening to a podcast, here are some topics and keywords to look for:
- Diet Culture
- Intuitive Eating
- Health at Every Size
- Fat Liberation or Fat Acceptance
- Body Positivity/Neutrality
- Weight stigma
- Anti-diet
2. Don't engage in diet talk
Your friends, family or co-workers may frequently get into discussions about losing weight, dieting or commenting on their own or others weight. These types of conversations have unfortunately become neutral bonding topics that connect one another in the very common shared experience of constantly trying to improve their body or diet. When this type of dialogue is around you, you can choose to simply not engage, or gently try to change the conversation. If you are in recovery from an eating disorder and feel comfortable with those around you, you could kindly mention that those topics are unhelpful. Lastly, while it is not your job to educate or change others opinions, you may also find it empowering to try to inform others about what you've learned about diet culture. This may be met with curiosity or resistance, so make sure you feel confident and have your boundaries set.
3. Let go of things that keep you trapped in the diet mentality
Do you have a scale in the bathroom? Do you wear a FitBit or utilize the activity tracker on your phone or watch? Do you use a calorie tracker or MyFitnessPal? Do you subscribe to magazines that encourage disordered behaviors? Do you have diet books in the house that you tell yourself you'll one day try? Do you hold onto clothes that don't fit as inspiration to lose weight? These are all ways diet culture infiltrate our everyday lives without much notice. Tossing the scale, ditching the activity and calorie trackers, and throwing out those books or magazines and old clothes allows you to let go of the idea that your body is a constant work in progress. Whether or not you are actively dieting, the focus on maintaining or controlling your body and weight is exactly the type of freedom from the diet mentality you want to explore.
4. Stop dieting
How many times have you started a new diet or 'lifestyle' program? If its more than once, you are not alone. Americans spend $30 billion on diet products annually and an estimated 45 million diet every year. Oftentimes the decision to diet is inspired by wanting to be healthier, to lose weight, and to feel better about your body. Sometimes, those diets work in the beginning. The number on the scale shifts in the direction you were hoping, but quickly the obsession with off-limit foods creeps in and you eventually slip out of the strict routine or rules. This usually ends in feeling worse about yourself, food, and your body. Not only is it damaging both physically and mentally to be stuck in the diet cycle, but it also can lead to disordered eating and eating disorders. Deciding to give up dieting may sound scary, like you are 'giving up' on yourself. Giving up dieting in our society can feel strange when its so normalized, but letting go of the shame and pressure to lose weight and change your appearance can be liberating. The first step to finding true peace with yourself, food and your body is to give up dieting.
5. Let go of labeling food
Diet culture has led us to believe that food holds moral value. You may automatically view foods as good vs bad, healthy vs unhealthy, junk vs nutritious. This type of moralization can keep you stuck in a cycle of trying to eat a specific way, and then experiencing guilt and shame when you are unable to adhere to those strict guidelines. Developing a neutral relationship with food means removing all judgments from the food itself, and yourself. Providing yourself with unconditional permission to nourish your body. When you begin to trust yourself around food, rather than the rules you've adapted to in our society, you can reconnect with your hunger, fullness and satiety cues.
6. Discover joyful movement
With a disordered relationship with food often comes a disordered relationship with exercise. Many of us view exercise as a way to manipulate our weight and body. You may frequently hear or use language such as 'burn off fat/calories' or saying you've 'earned' the right to eat a certain off-limits food. This type of view on movement can make exercise feel like a punishment, forced, or feels like a chore. It has been estimated that up to nearly 32% of women and up to 28% of men report body dissatisfaction and engage in exercise to reduce their body size. Viewing movement as something to enjoy can seem impossible, but it can be found. Spend time exploring different activities and classes, find something that brings you joy and feels good to your body. If you feel conflicted, ask yourself, would I still engage in this activity if I knew it would bring about no changes to my body or weight? If the answer is no, then maybe it is time to explore something else. Whether it is stretching or running, you can rebuild a better relationship to movement.
7. Seek help to recover from disordered eating
If you are struggling with disordered eating behaviors such as binging, purging or restricting, addressing these behaviors is important. The opportunity to better your relationship to food, your body, and ultimately, yourself is the best way to fight back against diet culture. Working with a therapist and registered dietitian that specializes in eating disorders, or seeking a higher level of care such as outpatient or residential eating disorder treatment, can give you the space to dismantle all of the rules and lessons around food, your body and weight diet culture has contributed to. By helping yourself, you also may cause a ripple effect in those around you to be more aware about their own relationship to food, and how they talk about food, body and weight.
If you are looking for support on your journey to improve your relationship with food, our team at ‘Ai Pono would be honored to be a part of your recovery journey. Learn more about our programs by reaching out to us today.