Overcoming the Damaging Effects of Diet Culture

By: DeAndrea LaNette Payne, Nutrition & Physical Performance Dietetic Intern and Graduate Student

Diet culture is dangerous and harms people of all sizes. But when it comes to identifying diet culture in a world that is sadly rife with it, there can be plenty of confusion. There are times when the presence of diet culture can be easily seen, but there are some practices in which it finds tight niche. As health professionals fighting a culture driven by social media and societal influences, we are often overlooked in the conversation of health and health nutrition. From this a push for anti-diet professionals has grown to conquer the war against diet culture and the harmful belief systems it promotes.

What is Diet Culture? 

Diet culture is a multi-faceted word with many definitions, but for basic understanding, “it’s a set of beliefs that worships thinness and equates it with health and moral virtue”, according to anti-diet dietitian, Christy Harrison, M.P.H., R.D., C.D.N., author of Anti-Diet and host of the Food Psych podcast. Diet culture is a belief system that focuses on and values weight, shape, and size over well-being. 

There are many variations of diet culture that include rigid eating patterns, excessive fitness routines, and overall unhealthy practices all for the sake of health, but in reality weight shape and size are the underlying reasons. This is why diet culture is problematic. It reshapes the understanding that diets are designed to be failed and instead tacks on statements about health and happiness that keeps the mass public on a continuous loop. And with social media and fitness influencers being the scapegoat to promote the messages of diet culture, many individuals find themselves believing that by any means necessary, losing weight automatically means healthier. That by restricting, denying, and eliminating food groups, you are happier and healthier. 

Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality for most who get pulled into the social media web of health and fitness. This by-any-means-necessary ideology promotes dangerous diet behaviors that do not always equate to health or happiness, or sometimes even the main goal: weight loss. This is diet culture. On the opposite end of the spectrum, diet culture also promotes the idea that those who are thin don’t need to consider their health because of the idea that thinness equals health. And with many finding their information about health and fitness from self-proclaimed health and fitness influencers, these messages have become deeply embedded in diet culture.

Breaking Up with Diet Culture 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where scientifically evidenced based knowledge and those who promote it are placed second and third to fitness influencers, health coaches, nutritionist, etc. 

Registered Dietitians are often not considered at all or considered last in this conversation of weight loss, dieting, and concept of being healthy by the general public. Therefore, it is important that the messages we do promote are those that empower the masses and appeal to them in individualized practices without compromising the integrity of the data on living a healthy lifestyle. With that being said it is important to state that being resistant to diet culture is also not anti-health or anti-nutrition: It’s quite the opposite. 

Breaking up with diet culture encourages and gives people the proper tools to eat and move their bodies in a healthy way. The anti-diet movement advocates for evidence-backed measures of health that are not about body weight. There are even anti-diet dietitians and health professionals, like Harrison, who help guide patients out of diet culture and into decisions that are healthy for body and mind — and that don’t aim to modify the body’s appearance.

When breaking up with diet culture, we must provide alternatives to put an end to this detrimental cycle of restriction and guilt. Here are two ways that can benefit the anti-diet culture:

• Consider intuitive eating, an approach that was created in 1995 by registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. It is based on 10 core principles — like honoring your hunger, challenging the food police, and coping with your emotions with kindness — by which you let your body guide you in what and how much to eat. (For more information, visit https://www.intuitiveeating.org/.)

• Look into Health at Every Size (HAES), a movement that recognizes “that health outcomes are primarily driven by social, economic, and environmental factors,” not weight, to encourage the pursuit of health without a focus on weight loss. HAES is built on pillars of weight inclusivity, health enhancement, respectful care, eating for well-being, and life-enhancing movement, all with the ultimate goal of tuning into your body’s innate guidance to make food and movement choices that help you feel confident, nourished, fulfilled, and healthy inside your body without trying to change its appearance. HAES is built upon the belief that you are worthy of love and respect, regardless of your size. (For more information, visit HAES official website https://haescommunity.com/.)