Why diet culture is problematic_Ep 3

Diet culture promotes an unhealthy view of body image and perpetuates discrimination. It has its roots in the 18th century and falsely equates thinness with health and virtue. Restrictive diets have a 98% failure rate, yet people still believe in them. Diet culture normalizes eating disorders and promotes unrealistic beauty standards. We can counter this by shifting our focus to weight inclusivity and prioritizing well-being over appearance. All bodies are beautiful and deserving of acceptance. This is Beauty Talks with The Fix, where we get together with like-minded women to discuss our personal journeys to self-love and self-acceptance. We are a movement of women who want to free ourselves from constant dieting, body shame, and social conditioning and behaviors that hold us back from living our biggest, boldest, and most beautiful lives. On this corner of the internet, we believe all bodies are the perfect fit. As we journey together to self-acceptance, we remind our fit baddies there is nothing wrong with your body and the only thing that needs adjusting is how you view your curves and, of course, your favorite undergarments from The Fix. Welcome to the Body Acceptance Podcast. Welcome to Beauty Talks with The Fix. Hi there, baddies. Welcome to Episode 3 of Beauty Talks with The Fit. I'm your host, Nelinde Mande, founder of The Fit, an underwear line for curvy bodies. In the last two episodes, we talked at length about how to love our bodies and the various steps we can take to be more confident in them. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome, and be sure to take a listen to those episodes, too. Today, we are talking diet culture and how it perpetuates a negative and shallow view of one's body image. Every year, billions of people continue a never-ending quest to lose weight and achieve the perfect physique. But this is a trap that keeps us sick, stressed, and depleted. Diet culture in itself is a multifaceted topic. We won't be able to cover all of its aspects in this episode. Instead, what we are going to look into is the brief history, where it comes from, why is it so harmful, how it presents itself, and how we can avoid falling into its trap. But first, let's define what we mean by diet culture, because the term seems to be making the rounds everywhere these days. It's all over the media, it's on social media, it comes up in anti-diet discussions, and it comes up in wellness conversations. The most obvious guess, I think, would be that it's about diets, but it's so much more complex than that. So then, what is the actual definition of diet culture? The short answer is, there is no definition. But there is a great explanation by the author of a book called Anti-Diet, Christy Harrison. Harrison describes diet culture as follows, a belief system that worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue. It promotes weight loss and maintaining a low weight to elevate social status, and demonizes certain foods and eating styles while elevating others. Diet culture also oppresses people who don't match up with its supposed picture of health, which disproportionately harms women, trans people, people in larger bodies, people of color, and people with disabilities. End quote. And that's a mouthful. So let's unpack this to get to the root of what that has to do with you and me. Even those of us who don't think are affected by diet culture may be surprised at how far reaching this phenomenon actually is. Just how far back does diet culture go? All the way back to the 18th century. Back then, American Protestants believed a strict vegetarian diet of fruit, veggies, and whole grains would prevent sexual urges, ensure moral virtue, and improve health, or rather make you thin. This was the birth of the idea that certain foods are bad and that we are morally corrupt for consuming them. Thankfully, we now know this to be false. There is no such thing as the so-called right body size, and even if it did exist, it wouldn't be attainable to anyone who does the so-called right thing. This is proven by the 98% failure rate of diets. Seriously, only 2% of the population can stick to a restrictive diet and manage to keep the weight off for a period of time. That alone should be enough evidence that we have been duped into following this no-win norm as society. You ate that cake today, so you should feel bad about yourself, and even worse, you can now go and judge other people too for doing the same thing. I can think of a long list of diets that have come up over the years, all of them suggesting that if you lose weight, you will feel better about yourself, and not one of them has been found or has been proven to actually give you this goal. It's just not possible. But why is diet culture so harmful? Well, firstly, it promotes discrimination. Those in large bodies are fat-shamed. Those in thinner bodies may have special societal privileges because they are the supposed ideal body type. Even those who have average-sized bodies can feel that they are not thin enough. This leads to people feeling ashamed in their bodies and striving to attain this ever-elusive thin body at all costs. Diet culture is directly linked to American culture and also by extension to patriarchy and racism. The reality is that what makes good behavior is much more accessible to white person, to men and to wealthy people than it is to people who do not fit those categories. It's designed to make you feel like a failure. Science has proven time and again that restrictive weight loss diets do not work. So why do we still believe that they will? It's the perseverance for me. I'm kidding, but also not kidding, because it's true. Only 2% of us will be successful at sticking to a strict diet that includes entire food groups. Remember that statistic that I mentioned a little earlier. 98% of restrictive diets do not work. Also, it normalizes eating disorders. Diet culture says, if you're not thin, it's your fault. You should be eating less, counting calories, working out at least 5 days a week. Just be so disciplined and be so strict and have the willpower. And honestly, who even has the time and the willpower for that? Discipline is great. When focused on things and habits that are actually healthy and good for you. Do you remember the side gap trend a few years ago? I think it was inspired by the Kardashians or Beyonce or one of those Hollywood superstars. Suddenly, everyone wanted a side gap. People in the media were saying women's size should not touch. Can you imagine the implications of that? Because seriously, even a thin person can have thighs that touch. So, it's just ridiculous. And again, it implies that you should be counting your calories so that you lose weight. And when you do lose weight, you will have a side gap. I think sometimes people in the media really need to do better to counter these kinds of views. Then there's also the BBL surgery. The one that removes fats from around your waist area and gives you a fuller and rounder bottom. The whole idea is so that you have a teeny tiny waist and then larger hips. Because that seems to be the trendy physique at the moment. And this one is not even a dietary issue but really a surgical. It takes a surgical intervention to achieve this shape. How many people have access to these kinds of surgical interventions? Very few. And they're very wealthy. Certainly not the average person. Yet somehow, we should still aspire to that ideal. We can counter the diet culture phenomenon by shifting how we view ourselves. We shouldn't judge our value based on what we look like. We have so many other meaningful roles to fulfill in our lives that we cannot reduce our existence to just weight. I say this all of the time but because it's true. Diet culture is a belief system that links food to morality. And where being thin is associated with goodness, health and beauty, it doesn't consider that alternate body types might be healthy and beautiful too. We must shift our focus to weight inclusivity, eating for well-being and making nutrition and movement choices that help us feel better so that we can maintain our healthy bodies. We love all bodies at The Fit and believe healthy bodies are beautiful, no matter the size. Thank you so much for tuning in to Beauty Talks with The Fit. I hope that this episode and every episode after this brings you closer to fully accepting your unique beauty. If you want to be part of our body acceptance movement, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. And make sure to leave a review to help us reach more baddies just like you. Remember, you are more than your physical appearance. And you deserve to live a big, bold and beautiful life free of insecurity. Bye baddies. See you in the next one.