Why is Diet Culture So Normalized & What We Can Do About It

I feel like I am constantly being accosted on social media of all varieties by messages from other women asking if I want to join some form of a weight loss journey with them. It is often masked by the “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change” or “it’s not a diet, it’s just about being healthier” excuses. It is so normalized among women to commiserate over our bodies, our weight, our stretch marks, etc. BUT WHY? Why do we allow society to normalize diet culture to this extent? First things first...

What is Diet Culture?

Diet culture is not necessarily just being on a diet, it is a system of beliefs that worships thinness. That worship of thinness also equates it to health. Because this system of beliefs reveres thinness as the ideal, it encourages weight loss and shrinking our bodies. It sucks our time, money and life by convincing us we need to count every morsel we put in our mouths -  spend money on the latest hot item to help us achieve smallness. It demonizes certain foods and ways of eating while others are praised. Diet culture also loves to simplify the entire issue (which is at the intersection of genetics, societal influence, and so much more) to will power.

Diet culture is more than just specific diets, more recently The Wellness Diet is much more common, the sneaky sibling of diets. This encompasses things like “Clean eating,” cleanses, restriction of “bad” foods, restriction of foods in general, and so much more. While it may be less outright problematic than diets, it still demonizes certain foods and embeds the morality of food and types of bodies into our world.

The repercussion of all this is that, any of us who do not fit that “ideal size”, suddenly feel unworthy. It disconnects us from our intuition, pleasure and power. Diet culture demonizes the people who are unable to achieve this “ideal body” by making it their fault.

Why is Diet Culture so Prevalent?

being that we live in a capitalist society, it’s usually a good bet to turn to money as a reason why something is perpetuated, and diet culture is no exception. Diet culture is a $40 BILLION industry. That’s a lot of money making a lot of people very rich. These billions are made by exploiting our insecurities so we pay for anything and everything to help shrink our bodies so we can be closer to their “ideal”. Diet culture is targeted at everyone, but it’s especially targeted at women.

What Can We Do About It?

Acknowledge Privilege

First of all, let’s acknowledge our privilege in this conversation and how we show up to have these conversations. I would argue that it’s important to always be aware of intersecting identities and how they make conversations more nuanced. A good many of us - myself included - have some level of thin privilege and possibly white privilege as well. It’s important to be aware of those things when discussing this, people. For instance, while I might challenge my other smaller bodied friends to think about diet culture with a more critical eye, I likely wouldn’t have that conversation with someone in a larger body because they deal with so much more societal baggage than I ever have.

Educate Yourself

One thing people often bring up is obesity and how unhealthy it is, but that is categorized by the BMI scale which studies have determined that “the categories of normal, overweight, and obese is entirely arbitrary and at odds with the underlying evidence about the association between body mass index and mortality, a fact that destroys the index’s scientific pretensions and diagnostic value.” People often bring up weight in general as a factor in health and while physical activity and nutrition do play a role in health, weight does not. There are a variety of subjects we can educate ourselves on, but the more we know, the better equipped we can be to have difficult conversations.

Take Care of  Yourself

These conversations can often be triggering for those of us recovering from some form of disordered eating. Just remember that taking care of yourself is your number one priority, you do not have to engage with people if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. This can also look like unfollowing accounts that tout diet culture and might be triggering to you.

Speak Up When You Feel Called

You might feel comfortable calling outsome of your friends and family members when they engage with diet culture talk. @i_weigh is a great resource for learning how to have these difficult conversations.

At the end of the day, everyone is entitled to do what they want with their body, but starting to break down the societal-level structures that oppress people in bigger bodies is really important to all people living a life that isn’t so focused on body size. Women in general need to start thinking more critically about how we play a role in the normalization of diet culture in the way we talk to one another, the programs we promote, and the vernacular we use.