How Diet Culture Fuels Disordered Eating
What is diet culture?
There isn’t a single, widely accepted description of diet culture, as it can present and provide impact in many different ways. In reality, diet culture is everywhere — it’s embedded in our books, social media, packaging materials, stores, and daily language. It may be something you heard a stranger or your neighbor say. It may be something your doctor said. It may be communicated through a commercial. It is everywhere you look, and you may not even notice the impact it plays on your daily life, and how it can fuel disordered eating. Unfortunately, I believe we all may be a bit numb or desensitized to it’s presence in life. The message behind diet culture influences an expectation for how someone must “look”, how someone must eat, and the goals to which people should be striving for. Diet culture typically praises weight loss, while stigmatizing weight gain. Diet culture emphasises the importance of “thinness” and is based on the idea of having such a ”discipline” around food. It does NOT emphasis true health, much less health at every size (HAES). Like eating disorders, diet culture feeds us harmful lies, and is rooted in narrow ideals about how our bodies should look, while ignoring our individuality, health, and innate self-worth.
Diet culture messages around us:
Some diet culture messages you may have encountered yourself, perhaps without even realizing it, include:
Labeling food as “good” or “bad”
“What I eat in a day” videos (wieiad)
Influencers promoting excessive dieting or exercising routines
Influencers judging food by packaging and suggesting “this” over “that” options
Restaurants’ “on the healthier side” option
Television embracing and encouraging smaller bodies
Comments from someone saying “You’ve lost weight! You look good!”
Ads for weight loss drugs
Size discrimination and representation in stores
These comments and presentations in society are highly damaging, directly correlating and contributing to individual’s perceived view of self. How good are you going to feel if you state you “ate bad today”? Food has no inherent value, yet society has given it one. What I Eat In A Day videos are often highly choreographed, not fact checked, and often are restrictive in nature. It’s not uncommon for influencers to have edited their photos or engaged with plastic surgery, but then report their exercise regimen has allowed them to “achieve” their body. “This” or “that” options on social media show impressionable viewers a perspective of what others, that often do NOT hold nutrition degrees, recommend. These recommendations and videos are often created to get views and followers, and are not research-based or scientifically-based recommendations.
Restaurants offering a “healthier” side of the menu, can create chaos for an individual struggling to eat intuitively, and may cause shame or anxiety associated with ordering off of the “less healthy” side of the menu.Television often shows bodies that are societally or ideally thin, meaning representation of different bodies is not equal. Compliments on weight loss often send the signal that your body is better now, or more worthy how, than it was when it was bigger. Ads for weight loss drugs send the signal that weight loss is of extreme importance, and that methods to do this are accessible and “safe.” Size discrimination in stores can look like brands not carrying plus-size options, limiting the accessibility to certain clothing styles to individuals in larger bodies.
Diet Culture and Eating Disorders
Diet culture can easily fuel an eating disorder, as they share many similarities. For instance, they both idealize thinness and fear weight gain, and emphasize and encourage fat-phobic thoughts or perceptions. Diet culture promotes disordered eating behaviors such as, restricting, fasting, excessive exercise, preoccupation with body image, and assuming a “whatever it takes” mentality. Both diet culture and eating disorders often present the outcomes of these behaviors as only positive; often leaving out the potential harmful or even catastrophic side effects. Diet culture not only normalizes disordered behaviors around food and body image, but also reinforces and supports them, often under the guise of “health” or “wellness.” Diet culture doesn’t just shape the way we view food and our bodies — it actually creates an environment where eating disorders can hide in plain site, or even be depathologized and praised.
Possible Solutions?
So, how can we take care of ourselves in a world so heavily influenced by social media and diet culture? Well, some steps can be to acknowledge the media you are consuming, consider making changes to the media you’re consuming, acknowledge the industry you are up against, take active steps to deconstruct from the messages you’ve repeatedly received, seek professional help, shop at the places that carry your sizes, and allow yourself to engage with food and exercise in the manner to which YOU want to, not how people have told you to. Practice daily affirmations, engage with perspectives like body neutrality, and. ask your therapist about the practice of intuitive eating (stage of potential ED recovery dependent) so that you can learn to develop peace and freedom with food.
If you take one thing away from this week’s post, let it be this: diet culture is built on misinformation — it feeds us lies, just like eating disorders do.
About the Authors:
Maria Ortiz is currently a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS). She is also personally recovered from an eating disorder, meaning this work is not only her profession, but her true passion as well. She is persistent in her efforts to provide awareness, education, and therapeutic services regarding all things eating disorders. “The road to recovery can be one of the most challenging processes one may ever face, and I'm so grateful that my story led me to helping others find their hope again. It gets better!” – Maria Ortiz, MS, LMHC, CEDS
Jenesis Vasquez is currently a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and in the process of earning her Certified Eating Disorder Specialist Credential. She strives to provide a safe place for everyone, and her desire and purpose is to provide awareness that reduces stigma surrounding eating disorders and overall therapeutic care. “To create an environment where everyone feels accepted and learns their self-worth is not defined by their body shape and/or size is my goal, and I truly believe recovery is possible for my clients. I will ensure to provide an individualized treatment approach to best fit each unique individual.” – Jenesis Vasquez, MS, LMHC