Written By: Lindy Winkler
By age 17, 78% of teenage girls will have experienced issues with body image. The root cause? Diet culture. It’s everywhere. There’s no escaping the influences of diets, whether good or bad. Family, friends, and especially social media play a huge role in producing the toxicity that is diet culture as society spreads health myths and extreme beauty standards.
Today, diet culture has developed into an extremely negative aspect of society that hinders many people's mental health and body image. Diet culture is centered around the belief that there is a correct way to eat in order to look a certain way and maintain a certain level of health. Most often, diets are pushed onto someone through social media and are commonly used for weight loss. Beyond diets, diet culture includes unhealthy behaviors regarding eating that can leave long-term effects on one’s physical body and mental health.
While the idea of dieting has existed since the beginning of the Victorian era in the 19th century, diet culture has evolved into something much larger. From the 1960s to the 2000s, diets like low fat and keto were very common. Those diets were mostly used to lose weight to meet a certain body standard that was considered by society to be “healthy”. This often meant that being skinny was the only way someone could be classified as healthy. However, people today are increasingly more aware of the falsity that surrounds diets and weight loss. Instead, people are often tricked into believing that they are not participating in diet culture but rather simply living a healthy lifestyle.
Therein lies a huge issue with diet culture. The word "healthy" does not look the same way for everyone, nor does it mean the same thing. It is a common misconception that there is a certain level of health that each individual should be able to meet to be considered healthy. In reality, every person has their own definition of health; being skinny doesn’t necessarily mean you are healthy, and having more fat does not make you unhealthy. Hence, one of the main issues with the toxicity of diet culture is that it has evolved into so many different meanings beyond diets and weight loss that create a feeling of negativity regarding one’s health.
Social media has played a huge role in this transformation of diet culture as people are being tricked into believing that ideas like wellness and health are not as destructive as diets in the past. Influencers have essentially helped rebrand diet culture with things like “What I Eat in a Day” and the latest healthy food trends that command audiences into believing health myths. These myths then lead to unhealthy behaviors that people believe will help them. Social media has also strongly affected people’s body images. Constant posts of influencers in bikinis and videos of models dancing to popular songs contribute to the expectations to meet beauty standards. This aspect of diet culture especially affects one's mental health, self-esteem, and how they view their body.
Now, you may be wondering, if diet culture is part of all aspects of our lives, how are we ever supposed to escape it? Well, there are many ways that you can avoid a toxic diet culture and live a healthy lifestyle.
Intuitive eating: One of the biggest factors to ignore diet culture is to eat intuitively. Rather than stressing about a diet, weight loss, or healthy eating, you should be eating to fuel your body. Intuitive eating essentially allows you to eat what you want, when you want it to make yourself feel satisfied and give yourself the energy to thrive.
Limit social media: Limiting your social media usage, or even going as far as to remove social media from your life is also a great way to avoid diet culture. As so much negativity regarding food and health stems from social media, removing it could provide you with relief from stress about your body image.
Self-care: Self-care can truly be a solution for so many things and its benefits extend into diet culture. Whether repeating empowering messages about your body, taking time out of your day to do things you enjoy, or working on acceptance and confidence, practicing self-care can boost your self-esteem and help you escape the toxicity of diet culture.
Seek professional help: Doctors, dietitians, and therapists can always help you with eating habits, diet culture, and mental health. Especially if the effects of diet culture make you practice unhealthy habits like disordered eating, seeking professional help can be extremely beneficial in breaking the cycle.
Being aware of the negativity that encompasses diet culture is the first step in avoiding it. It has become an ingrained part of today’s society, but each little action that every individual takes allows the malignant and shape-shifting nature of diet culture to be knocked down and limited in today’s society. Everyone can benefit from practicing mindful habits regarding food and health to improve mental health, self-esteem, and body image and avoid a toxic diet culture.
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