What is Diet Culture?

Diet culture has been rampant for sometime. Commercials advertising weight loss diets and exercise videos have circulated for decades. Viewers were—and are—consistently encouraged to join fad diets and exercise programs so that they can achieve health and beauty, with the latter subtly pushed to the forefront. 

For many, diet culture is now more dangerous than ever due to its increased prevalence. Whereas its reach was once somewhat limited, it is now inescapable. You can open any social media app or web browser and be easily bombarded with various diet culture-centered posts, such as “Fruit Contains Sugar So We Shouldn’t Eat Them!” or “Why Cutting Out This Major Food Group is Actually Better for You and the Environment!” Most times, these posts aren’t created by professionals with expertise; most posts are created by average citizens with little to only several years of personal experience. 

It’s important to understand exactly what diet culture is because the negative effects of it can wreak havoc on the perception of one’s own body image, mental and physical health, and overall happiness. 

What Does Diet Culture Tell Us?

Although many find it hard to differentiate, there is a strong difference between diet culture and actually living a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Diet culture rests upon superficiality; it emphasizes our vanity. Conversely, a healthy, balanced lifestyle centers upon internal well-being. It emphasizes our happiness. The two rarely coexist.

Diet culture tells us that the beauty and sex appeal exuded by celebrities and social media influencers can be achieved only if we both restrict our diets and workout religiously as they claim to do. Celebrities are infamously known for their paid participation in diet culture.

They can be seen on the cover of magazines and boasting in interviews about lifestyle choices that they swear correlate with health, beauty, and sex appeal. Social media influencers are similarly infamous for their daily promotions of fad diets and strenuous workouts that they promise are needed to achieve the looks they are known for.

Celebrities and influencers often omit any additional steps they’ve taken to achieve their looks when promoting diet culture. They rarely admit to usage of highly skilled dermatologists, plastic surgeons, nutritionists, chefs, and so many other personnel. People without access to such luxuries are left to feel inadequate when they are unable to achieve those looks or maintain the lifestyle. Negative self talk and poor body image begins to take over for many.

Diet culture’s response to this is even more damaging. This culture tells us to simply work harder and think positively. Diet culture is reward-based. Cheat and rest days are just another component to make it seem even more gratifying. If we follow the strict diet and workout guidelines, we can be rewarded with one good-tasting or “unhealthy” meal a week and maybe two days of rest from exercise. 

Diet Culture’s Effect on the Holidays

It’s safe to say that diet culture can outright ruin the holiday season for many people, mainly women. 

The holidays mean something different to everyone. For some, the holidays are a time to celebrate religiously and/or culturally significant events. For others, the holidays are a time to join loved ones and celebrate family, friendship, and everything in between. Diet culture always barges in the door to join the festivities. 

Diet culture’s focus on restriction is maximized during the holidays. What this culture tells us during this time of year is that we should not indulge. We should remain true to the restrictive diet practiced all year long. If we indulge in holiday treats and meals, we will endure consequences.

This message prevents an overwhelming amount of people from enjoying the holiday season as it should be. They are consumed with thoughts such as, “If I eat this second slice of pie, I’ll never be bikini ready.” Tomorrow’s body image is the focal point of not enjoying the warm festivities of today. 

On the opposite end, preparation for overeating is common practice. Wearing sweatpants to Thanksgiving dinner so that you can eat more plates than your belly can hold is a running joke in our culture. However, this joke rarely ends with a laugh. It’s almost just as common for those who do eat multiple servings to feel guilty about doing so. Negative self talk rears its head in the worst way.

How to Do you Escape Diet During the Holidays

Acknowledgement

“The first step is acceptance.” That’s the cliche phrase that rings true. In order to escape diet culture, we must first acknowledge its presence in society and our lives. There are multiple ways to do this. One major step towards acknowledgement is recognizing your own fatphobia and/or thin privilege. Earnestly think to yourself the real reason you are afraid to eat another slice of pumpkin pie. Are you more fearful of gaining weight and being further away from society’s idealized body image than anything else? If so, you have been directly impacted by diet culture.

Remember Food is Food

Your worth is not an outcome of what you eat. You are no more worthy if you eat a salad and sweet potatoes than if you were to eat three slices of sweet potato casserole. More importantly, you are not cheating yourself if you enjoy holiday foods. You, and your doctor, are the experts of your body and health. Eat according to your expertise and happiness.

It’s Okay to Miss A Workout

As with food, your worth is not an outcome of how hard and how often you exercise. It’s okay to miss a workout or multiple in favor of enjoying the holidays. Allow yourself to workout intuitively. Trust your expertise and exercise for personal satisfaction and not as a reward or punishment for what you eat (or anything else for that matter). 

Escaping diet culture is incredibly hard. It’s much easier to succumb to society’s expectations and inevitably feel the negative effects it always brings. The best thing you can do to escape diet culture, especially during the holidays, is to practice unconditional self-love and forgiveness. You’ll likely come across a social media post, hear a commercial, or speak with a relative at a holiday dinner that in some way promotes diet culture. 

Remind yourself of the truth: you are valuable regardless of what you eat, how often you exercise, and what size you are.