I’m sure you have heard me use the term “diet culture” but you may still wonder what that actually means. I want to use this post to break down the term and shed light on why diet culture can be harmful and may be standing in your way of going down the intuitive eating path. 

Diet culture doesn’t necessarily mean you are on a diet, rather it means you’re caught up in the mindset enforced by dieting. Diet culture upholds thinness as the ideal body type, and demands that in a way that can put your mental and physical well being at stake. Thinness is viewed as good, while a larger body is viewed as bad. Morality is placed on our body sizes and worth as an individual comes into question. Diet culture wants your mission in life to be aiming for thinness.

Diet culture rears its head at such a young age that it becomes ingrained in us. Think back to when you first remember hearing someone comment on their weight or yours. How old were you? Why wasn’t this questioned until now? Exactly, that is how instilled in us diet culture is. I mean, it is everywhere: from schools, to healthcare, to public health, to social media, to television, advertisements, and I could go on and on. Understanding and recognizing diet culture is the first step in dismantling the thing. The next is being able to recognize the shift changer.

Where to find diet culture in our world:

• Magazines for women

• Weight loss ads that have rebranded or are posing as intuitive- ex: Noom & Weight Watchers

• “Diet starts Monday”

• Going to the doctor for a sinus infection and being told to lose weight

• Dinner outings with people who “have to work that meal off tomorrow”

• Anyone who comments “You look great! Have you lost weight?”

• Fat people on TV being portrayed as the funny or bad guy

• #cleaneating

Diet culture is the reason our relationship with food is so messed up to begin with! In a way, diet culture is omnipresent. This is why it can be so tricky to identify. Many people don’t diet and are not always trying to lose weight, however, as mentioned above you can still be stuck in the culture of dieting. An example of this is “wellness.” Examples of wellness include: detoxes, cleanses, restarts, gluten free trends, carb restriction, clean eating, etc. Although these are not weight-loss-focused, per se, they continue to moralize foods as good vs bad.

Intuitive eating (IE) encourages us to live in the gray area. Good vs bad puts us in a white vs black mindset. Rejecting the diet mentality (principle #1 in IE) is how we can start to live in the gray area and view food as just food, with no morality attached. Challenge your thoughts and beliefs when it comes to food. 

One way to do this would be to write down how dieting or diet culture has harmed you. How does this make you feel? This is a great prompt in opening your mind and heart to how terrible diet culture really is. 

You can break up with diet culture and live a happier life. You can change how you feel about yourself without losing weight.