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recognizing diet culture

1 · Feb 27, 2020 · Leave a Comment

understanding the sneaky ways in which diet culture infiltrates our thinking is paramount to being able to shut it down and truly free yourself from it.

Photo by Jennifer Burk on Unsplash

I talk a lot about diet culture in my nutrition posts, and given that this week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, I wanted to take a step back and talk about what exactly diet culture is.

Understanding this is paramount for so many reasons but the two most important being that 1) SO many eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors begin by simply “going on a diet” and 2) because understanding the sneaky ways that it infiltrates our society is crucial to being able to stop it from negatively impacting you.

Contrary to what it sounds like, diet culture is so much larger than just the fad diets and diet products we see out there. It’s become such a large force that it’s likely you might not even recognize the many different ways in which it’s a part of your every day life and thinking.

When I refer to “diet culture” what I mean is the system of beliefs that:

  • Promotes weight loss, the way you eat and exercise as the single path to health and wellness.
  • Has created and continues to hold up “thinness” as the ideal while tearing down any body that doesn’t fit its unrealistic standard.
  • Equates the way you eat, exercise or how you look with virtuousness (i.e. you’re ‘good’ if you eat & move a certain way and ‘bad’ if you break from that).
  • Believes certain patterns of eating or certain foods are ‘right’ and others are ‘wrong,’ creating a society constantly confused about, obsessed with and anxious over what they should and shouldn’t eat (so as not to sin against the impossible standards of diet culture).
  • Neglects the many other important aspects of health and ultimately pulls people away from their passions and purpose in life as they pursue thinness, the ‘perfect’ body and the ‘perfect’ way of eating.
  • Normalizes disordered patterns & behaviors (such as constant obsession with and monitoring of weight, food & exercise, causing us to feel we need to ‘get back on track’ if we’ve skipped a workout, eaten something ‘off limits’ or our weight has fluctuated, attaches our worth and value as humans to what we’ve eaten, how we move our bodies and the way we look) and makes us feel wrong or irresponsible if we refuse to participate in them.

Maybe the above opens your eyes to some ways that it has snuck into your thinking. Or maybe you read it and think “well, DUH – those are so obvious.” The tricky thing about diet culture is that it has found ways to morph and change so that it can sneak its messaging in without you even realizing it.

Here are just some of the sneaky way diet culture can pop up in your lives:

Touting that it’s “a lifestyle, not a diet.” This is one of the sneakier ways diet culture has transformed their message to feel gentler or more acceptable. If you see this messaging and the plan includes restricting certain food groups, eating in a formulaic manner, timing your meals by the clock rather than your internal signals, focusing on your weight or weight loss, counting calories/macros/carbs/fat, etc. – it’s a diet. And if it becomes a lifestyle, it can be really harmful both physically and mentally.

Celebrating weight loss or body transformations. We’re so deeply entrenched in the “thinner is better” line thinking that we often don’t even realize the harm in telling someone they “look great!” when they’ve lost weight. It is common place to see before and after pictures from fitness gurus and even our friends and family on social media; and the common reaction to those images is complimenting the individual on their ‘success.’ But here’s the thing: embedded in those celebrations and words of congratulations is the diet culture message “you’re better now because you’re thinner.”

These messages celebrate the thin ideal and glorify the idea that you need to transform your body in some way (whether by losing weight, inches or gaining muscle) in order to be thought of as ‘attractive,’ ‘worthy’ or ‘successful.’ Often we have NO idea what a person has gone through to achieve that transformation. What we may be celebrating when we compliment these transformations is disordered eating or even a full-blown eating disorder. As a society, we need try to move away from commenting on people’s bodies in any way. Let’s work to recognize and commend positive personality traits, expertise in a certain area, charity, artistry, etc. The values and qualities that truly make someone who they are, rather than focusing on the way they look.

Assuming individuals in larger bodies are lazy, unmotivated or don’t care about their health. Do you often look at individuals in larger bodies and assume they’re simply lazy or don’t care about their health? Similar to celebrating weight loss, diet culture loves to push the notion that larger bodied people simply don’t take care of themselves and must be unhappy because they don’t fit the thin ideal and are physically incapable of things their thinner counterparts can do (Ragen Chastain has something to say about that!).

Shows like The Biggest Loser promote the idea that anyone in a larger body must sit around drinking liters of soda downing fast food or candy – and all it takes is for them to get off their bottoms, start dieting and exercising to have a better life (for more on just how false that notion is, check out this Food Psych podcast episode). From a young age it is pounded into our heads by diet culture’s subtle messages that fat is ‘bad’ and thin is ‘good.’ It tells us that in order to be beautiful, worthy and accepted, you must be thin and if you’re not working to be thin, you must be lazy, unmotivated or unconcerned with your health. It takes a lot of educating yourself and exposing yourself to individuals of all shapes and sizes to be begin to undo this thinking and understand that no one body type holds a moral high ground. All bodies are good bodies and capable of whatever it is they want in life, no matter their size or shape.

The ‘For Your Health‘ Claim. Another really sneaky way that diet culture has managed to shift & change is by reframing the focus of their message from directly mentioning ‘weight’ or ‘weight loss’ to making it all about ‘health’ ‘wellness’ or even ‘increased energy.’ Here’s the thing – we know from the research that obsessing over our food intake is not good for our health. The strict and stringent rules of diet culture have created a society so stressed out and anxious over what the ‘right’ thing to eat is, that we’re actually harming our health in the process.

For myself when I struggled, and many others I’ve talked to, this “for your health” notion ultimately creates an eating plan so restrictive that there’s no way to be either mentally or physically healthy while trying to adhere to it. Furthermore, as the restrictions of ‘unhealthy’ foods pile on, our variety, nutrient and energy intake decreases to a severely low level. This not only harms our physical health, but it becomes almost impossible to think about anything other than food, let alone have any sort of well-rounded life. It becomes an obsession and often leads to an eating disorder known as Orthorexia (for more on this, there’s a great Food Psych podcast episode here).

We also know that weight cycling (losing and gaining weight over and over again) which is commonly seen among dieters, negatively impacts our health.

Finally, as often is the case with diet culture, it puts far too much emphasis on what we’re eating in terms of impact on our overall wellbeing and disregards many of the other important determinants of overall health.

Promoting cleanses, detoxes or resets. Please know that our bodies are set up with built-in detoxification systems. Properly functioning lungs, livers and kidneys already do a great job of this and no plan we follow, food, juice, serum, oil etc. that we ingest or don’t ingest will do a better job than these systems. You do not need to “reset” or “detox” from things like sugar or gluten. It is not necessary to “eat clean” in order to keep your health intact. Often these types of diets and eating patterns end up leading to digestive issues, food obsession, anxiety & stress around food, episodes of bingeing and a lack of trust between you and your body. Want more on this? I recommend this article.

Elevating certain foods or nutrients above others. There is no one food that can do everything for you. And in fact, the idea that “more is better” is often not the case when it comes to nutrients. When someone starts promoting certain foods or nutrients as the end all be all to health, be weary. Variety and a wide range of nutrients is key to good health (as is not stressing about our food choices!). Any plan that decreases your opportunity for these variety or causes you to stress about your choices, is not truly health promoting.

Co-Opting Intuitive Eating for profit. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing individuals with influence trying to co-op bits and pieces of the Intuitive Eating message for their own profit.

Brands or people (doctors, dietitians and other medical professionals included!) selling meal plans, formulas, detoxes, cleanses or promoting certain diets for the purposes of weight loss or changing one’s body then turning around and throwing out messages of “listening to your body” and “the importance of not stressing over your food choices” do nothing but confuse individuals working to free themselves from diet culture. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: if you see messaging that includes restricting certain food groups, eating in a formulaic manner or according to a plan, timing your meals by the clock rather than your internal signals, counting calories/macros/carbs/fat, etc. It is not Intuitive Eating and it has the potential to do harm. This is particularly true when the other messaging, products or plans promoted focus on weight loss or ‘achieving a better body.’

As the Intuitive Eating messaging becomes more popular, you have to become an even more vigilant consumer to avoid the confusion that can be created by these individuals. They are simply choosing a few key phrases from the framework to throw into their messaging because it’s currently “in” and capitalizing on that type of messaging can better serve their own bottom line. Don’t let it fool you. There is no way to promote true Intuitive Eating when there is any focus on weight loss or external control of the way you eat.

The “Wellness Diet.” Christy Harrison does such a great job of breaking down this term she coined that I’m going to simply redirect you to her blog post on this concept and how to avoid falling for it.

The bottom line here is that when and if there are messages of restriction, cutting out certain foods or food groups, regulating your eating based on external factors (such as formulas, meal plans, by the clock) rather than listening to your body, categorizing foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ demonizing certain foods/nutrients and elevating others, these are diet culture messages; many of which have very little scientific evidence to back up their claims. These are patterns and behaviors that harm your relationship with food and your body and have the potential to create a number of both physical and mental struggles for years to come.

Diet culture doesn’t care about that. Diet culture cares about making money and continuing to grow a $72 billion dollar + industry selling a faulty product that doesn’t work and blaming the consumer for that failure. Learning to recognize diet culture for what it is will help you save precious time, money and energy that you can invest into things that will truly improve your life.

Please note: If you are happily a part of diet culture, I have no judgement. I always advocate for the individual to do what feels best to them. I just want to provide resources, support and information for those who have felt harmed by diet culture so that they can understand they are not alone.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder or disordered eating, please know that there is help available. Eating disorders and disordered eating do no discriminate based on age, gender, sexual preference, socioeconomic status, race, etc. Anyone who is suffering should seek help immediately.

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i’m cait, a registered dietitian and mom. i believe in a realistic approach to wellness. on this site you'll find easy recipes, nutrition content, motherhood tips and more! read more →

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hear me out. I know we've been taught to celebrat hear me out.  I know we've been taught to celebrate things like weight loss, toned muscles, beauty procedures that help us look younger...but here's why I always caution against putting so much focus on appearance:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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bodies change.  weight fluctuates. skin sags and wrinkles.  hair grays.  these are all part of the natural process (& privilege) of aging.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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we live in a society that promotes this backward idea that our appearance should remain stable despite years passing.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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rather than internalizing the false idea that we need always be reaching backward and working to re-obtain what once was, allow your body to showcase the beautiful signs that you were given yet another day to walk this earth.  another chance to pursue your passion and purpose...both of which are so much more important than how you look.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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to anyone that needs this reminder today: you are not your body.  your worth and well-being is not dependent on your appearance.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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#caitsplatenutrition #caitsplate #antidietculture #nondietapproach #antidietdietitian #intuitiveeatingjourney #youareworthy
tweaked my slow cooker turkey, bean & veggie chili tweaked my slow cooker turkey, bean & veggie chili this past week to make it meatless and it was 🙌🏼⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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here’s how I did it:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1/2 red onion, finely chopped⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 cup diced bell peppers (I used a mixture)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 3 cloves garlic, minced⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 (28-oz.) can diced tomatoes⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1  15-oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 1/2 cups veggie broth⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 3 teaspoons chili powder (+/- as desired)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into 2 inch cubes⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- Salt & pepper, to taste⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 2-4 tbsp. olive oil⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 2 cups cooked quinoa⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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place everything but the quinoa into a slow cooker & place on HIGH for 4 hours.  Stir in cooked quinoa & add additional salt / pepper / spices to taste.  top with your favorite toppings (I love cheese, avocado, yogurt & hot sauce).⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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this chili is great right away (even better after a day to marinate in the fridge) and is an easy make-ahead meal you can enjoy all week!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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#caitsplatefood #caitsplate #chilirecipe #vegetarianrecipe #vegetrianmeal #vegetarianmealprep #slowcooker #slowercookermeals #crockpotrecipes
what's a diet culture rule you've never quite unde what's a diet culture rule you've never quite understood?
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for me it was definitely the "don't eat after 6pm" rule 🤔
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hunger and digestion are not run by the clock.  there are so many factors that can go into why we feel hungry from one moment to the next, and that feeling of hunger is always valid and should be honored, regardless of the time of day.
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similarly, there are no 'right' or 'wrong' times to eat a meal.  breakfast, lunch and dinner are not bound to specific windows of time.  each can be eaten whenever you & your body deem it appropriate.
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hope this reaches anyone who might need these reminders today ❤️
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#caitsplatenutrition #caitsplate #antidietdietitian #mindsetmatters #allfoodsfit #edwarriors #rdchat #dietitiansofinstagram #healthateverysize #dietculturedropout #nondietdietitian #antidietculture #antidietrevolution #intuitiveeatingjourney
these greek spinach & feta turkey meatballs make f these greek spinach & feta turkey meatballs make for a super simple weeknight meal.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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I'm partial to serving them over some couscous or quinoa, slathering them in tzatziki sauce then adding some fresh cucumbers, red onions, tomatoes & pita bread.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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but you can really serve them up in whatever way you like best!  done in 35 minutes and makes enough to eat for several meals 🙌🏼⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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grab the recipe on @caitsplate (link in bio): https://caitsplate.com/greek-spinach-feta-turkey-meatballs/⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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#caitsplatefood #caitsplate #dinnerrecipes #dinnerathome #easydinner #easymeals #thefeedfeed #f52community #huffposttaste #recipeideas
just to add a little perspective around the messag just to add a little perspective around the messaging that’s out there telling us all how to “lose the COVID 15...”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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let's reframe the fear mongering language around weight gain during this pandemic as a sign of privilege.  having enough, at a time where so many have lost so much, should be looked at as nothing but a positive.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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our bodies are meant to shift and change with different seasons of life.  using food as one way to cope with hard emotions is completely common and part of a peaceful relationship with food.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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we are in unprecedented times.  seeking self-comfort and care in whatever way works for you is OKAY.  having gained weight during this pandemic is OKAY and not something you need to be jumping to 'fix' or 'correct.' and most importantly, it's okay to reframe comfort eating to something you can be grateful for, a coping skill you have the privilege and opportunity to enjoy, rather than berating yourself for it.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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sending everyone a great big virtual hug today 🤍⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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#caitsplatenutrition #caitsplate #nondietapproach #antidietdietitian #antidietculture #intuitiveeatingjourney #intuitiveeating #nondietdietitian #youareenough #youareworthy
another favorite from the archives!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ another favorite from the archives!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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this veggie sushi grain bowl takes all your favorite flavors from a veggie sushi roll and deconstructs it into an easy lunch.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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finished off with an Asian ginger vinaigrette, it will definitely be a meal you make time and time again.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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here’s what you need: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
for the grain bowl:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 2 cups cooked rice⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 cup steamed shelled edamame⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 2 cups carrots, peeled & cut into ribbons (you can also shredded or thinly slice them)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1/2 cup cucumbers, thinly sliced⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1 avocado, sliced⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- Optional: black sesame seeds⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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for the dressing (recipe from all recipes):⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 3 cloves garlic, minced⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, peeled & minced⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 3/4 cup olive oil⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1/3 cup soy sauce⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 3 tablespoons honey⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- 1/4 cup water⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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full recipe details on @caitsplate (link in profile): https://caitsplate.com/veggie-sushi-grain-bowl/⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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#caitsplatefood #caitsplate #vegetarianrecipe #vegetarianeats #vegetarianlunch #huffposttaste #thefeedfeed #f52community #lunchtoday

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