How Can I Ditch Diet Culture for Good?
Welcome to this new series where I answer your questions about diet culture, HAES, intuitive eating/non-diet eating, and health! If you like it, please consider subscribing.
This newsletter addresses a question from Alex:
How can I make the shift from diet culture to not?
What a great question, Alex! Before I dive into it, I want to give a disclaimer that the information provided in this newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for individualized medical care. Please speak to your medical professional if you have any questions.
I remember when I had one foot in diet culture and another foot in the anti-diet space. It took me some time to have both feet on the anti-diet side. That process took some time and work, and it’s a lifelong process. But, it is so worth it in the end!
Now you might be wondering how do I make that shift? How do I let go of diet culture and all the sneaky ways it shows up?
Before we look into that, it’s important to understand what diet culture truly is. We can’t fight against something we don’t know.
What is diet culture?
Diet culture is a set of beliefs that prioritizes thinness above all else and equates it to health. It also values health and oppresses those who can’t conform to this perfect picture of health.
Diet culture is also about prioritizing some foods and ways of eating over others. You are a good person if you can eat ‘right’, and a bad person if you can’t.
However, diets aren’t as popular and well-seen as they were. Why? Because we now know that most people regain the weight they lost and more after dieting. There are also a lot of harms associated with dieting. For that reason, diet culture changed its language.
That’s where lifestyle changes come into play. You’re no longer “dieting”, but implementing a lifestyle change to feel better and get healthier. But, the end goal is still thinness. Which means, you are still dieting.
The perfect example of this is when Weight Watchers changed its name to WW in 2018. By removing the word weight from their name, they want the focus to be on wellness and not on weight. However, when you look at the website, it’s clear that their goal is still selling you weight loss.
Same for Noom who sells you this way of losing weight saying it’s an anti-diet approach. Because dieting isn’t cool anymore. But, anything that requires you to control what you eat for the purpose of losing weight, is still a diet. (P.S. No anti-diet approach would promote intentional weight loss).
Now that we understand what diet culture is and how it disguises itself, we can talk about how to ditch diet culture.
Clean up your social media platform and set boundaries
The first thing I did when I started my journey to ditch diet culture was unfollow everyone on my social media platforms that promoted weight loss and diets of any kind. I even muted or unfriended people who constantly talked about their weight loss journey and posted before and after pictures.
That way, I wasn’t bombarded with diet culture every time I logged on to social media. It’s bad enough that diet culture is around us all day every day in the real world, we don’t need those messages in our online spaces either.
To minimize the diet culture I came across in the real world, I set boundaries with friends and family members. I did my best to talk to everyone about what I learned about diet culture (if they were up for it) and asked everyone to not bring up weight, weight loss, or diets when I was around.
It’s also important to acknowledge that this looks different for everyone. Those who don’t benefit from thin privilege (who live in a bigger body) might have a more difficult time setting those boundaries because others constantly share weight loss advice because they’re “worried for their health.”
Of course, diet culture always sneaks up once in a while. But once you’ve cleaned up your social media platforms and set boundaries, you can have a little bit more space to breathe.
Keep learning
The best way to ditch diet culture is to learn about diet culture and its origins. Learning about its fatphobic, racist, and misogynic roots can be a great way to divest from diet culture. Understanding the ways diet culture causes harm can be your why. It’s a great reminder when things get a little tougher.
For example, when I have a bad body image day and I get a thought about trying to lose weight, I think of the origins of diet culture and where that thought comes from. Why do I need to lose weight? Who would benefit from me spending my time trying to lose weight and shrink myself?
Here are some great books to read to learn more about diet culture and its origins:
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia - Sabrina Strings
Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness - Da'Shaun L. Harrison
Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating - Christy Harrison
The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses, and Find Your True Well-Being - Christy Harrison
Food Isn't Medicine - Joshua Wolrich
The Body Liberation Project - Chrissy King
Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture - Virignia Sole-Smith
“You Just Need to Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People - Aubrey Gordon
I would also recommend subscribing and reading these great Substacks, publications and Patreons:
by by by by byYour Fat Friend by Aubrey Gordon
Body Liberation with Lindley Ashline
Fattening by Marquisele Mercedes
Pay attention to your thoughts (and reframe them)
Now that you know how to spot diet culture and you understand its harmful origins, you can work on your mindset. Since most of us have been internalizing diet culture’s messages for most of our lives, and because these messages are around us all the time, we will inevitably have diet-culture thoughts that come up.
The goal here is to notice when they come up and work through them. Question them.
For example, you have a thought that x food is ‘bad’ for you. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
Why is bad? You might say it’s bad because it’s ‘high in calories and has a lot of sugar’.
Who decided that? Is it based on any kind of science or did a fitness influencer say so on Instagram?
Is it true? Eating food high in calories and sugar is not a bad thing. Food is more than fuel and this food makes you happy or brings back nostalgic memories. Plus, you need calories and sugar (carbs) for your body to function.
When you hear nutrition info online or out in the wild, it’s important to take it with a grain of salt. Especially if the information doesn’t come from a registered dietitian. Did you hear that celery juice is the next best thing, that it will cure all illnesses under the sun? Does it sound too good to be true?
Being curious and looking into nutrition claims can be super helpful. It is difficult to untangle myth from fact, but reading the books and publications above can be a great start! And if you can, going to see a dietitian can help you untangle all of that information and eat in a way that works best for you!
Be there for the lifelong journey
I wish I could say that after two months, you’ll be able to ditch diet culture for good. In reality, it’s a lifelong journey. It gets better, I promise! But the thoughts occasionally come back, or you hear another news article about how if you eat x food, you will suffer great consequences. But once you know how to spot sensational articles and disinformation, it won’t require as much effort to research and untangle all of that information.
It’s a journey full of ups and downs. Sometimes, you might think of restricting food or get the urge to lose weight intentionally. The goal here is not to get mad at yourself. It’s normal, it happens. But now, you’re armed with the tools and information you need to move forward.
It’s important to note that some people - like those who experience marginalization due to the size of their bodies - might want to lose weight intentionally in order to experience less discrimination. I believe in body autonomy, if someone wants to lose weight, I am not judging you!
Another thing that can help is finding a community with like-minded individuals. When things get tough, it helps to talk to people who get it. That’s why I created the Uniquely Healthy Discord server, Subreddit, and Facebook group.
Without online communities, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I found an amazing community on Twitter by following a lot of anti-diet professionals and fat activists. I also connected with trainers and dietitians on Instagram that were on a similar journey to mine. Following these accounts also allowed me to question my biases, learn and grow. That and the many other communities I joined on Facebook, Reddit, and Discord have helped me process my thoughts and feel less alone.
Now, I want to know, where are you in your journey of ditching diet culture? Do you have tips you’d like to share with the community?
Do you have any questions you would like me to address in a future newsletter or article? Respond to this email or leave a comment!