My Thoughts on Diet Culture
Let’s be honest, “diet culture” is real.
Here are some ways I’ve seen diet culture manifest itself, taken from my own personal experiences, and from those of my clients:
Completely unsustainable or extremely restrictive food and fitness programs, like 75 Hard. I guess, power to you if you want to take on something like that, but understand that the results you may or may not get from it may not be lasting, and it’s unlikely that you’d keep up with the workouts and food plans on a long-term basis. (I fully believe that any food or fitness plan we do should be one that fits your life and that we can see ourselves doing for an extended period of time.)
1200 calorie per day recommendations from My Fitness Pal for full grown adults (check out a post I wrote on this here, image from that post below, and more on this below.)
Edited photos being shared by influences across social media platforms that make us and our bodies feel inadequate for being completely normal.
Even the use of terms like “good foods” and “bad foods” to describe food choices can make us feel guilty for eating certain things, when all foods can be a part of a balanced and nutritious food plan.
Demonizing snacking, when snacks can be totally appropriate ways for people to get nutritious foods in, and balance energy throughout the day.
I had a client tell me she’s been on a diet for 38 years because she’s never felt like her body was “good enough.”
With all of this being said, I do believe we can find a sweet spot between moving away from diet culture, and the negative societal/emotional influences that come along with it, and still supporting people in reaching their goals.
For example, I don’t believe it’s inherently evil to track your food. In fact, I track my food from time to time, and support some of my clients to do so, if it’s right for them. However, for some people, it can become obsessive, or be too time consuming to be sustainable, and in which case, it may not be the right course of action in working towards your goals.
Equally, I think it’s critical to get enough protein, and so I buck up against some aspects of an intuitive eating approach, because there is value in making sure we eat enough protein.
With all of this being said, what I really want to support people in doing is EXACTLY WHAT’S RIGHT FOR THEM.
If an intuitive approach to eating, where there are zero limits and goals around food intake, is what’s necessary for you to move away from guilt around what you’re eating and remove judgements around yourself and your food choices, then that’s exactly what you should do.
If you’re someone who wants to kick it up a notch in the gym, and thus want to focus on your pre-workout snacks and post-workout meals, then that’s exactly what you should do.
If for years you’ve been reluctant to wear that bikini or take your shirt off at the beach, then working on embracing your body and taking on that boldness required to take those actions is exactly what you should work towards.
I certainly recognize that diet culture can be a negative influence on all individuals and their mental and emotional health. But I don’t think that people wanting to make physical changes, and thus monitoring food or nutrition in ways that support those physical changes, is necessarily a bad thing.
I do think that My Fitness Pal recommending people eat 1200 calories is inappropriate because the app knows nothing about you and your experiences with food. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing for people to use the app to monitor their intake, if appropriate.
Balancing the negative impacts of diet culture with your personal goals and what’s best for you can absolutely be challenging. And digging deeper to see how all of these pieces impact you personally is CRITICAL.
In my opinion, the blanket statements I see out there about the evils of “diets” aren't helpful, because for some, certain food plans can be helpful, but for some others, they may not be at all. For this reason, it may be helpful for us to curate what we see on our social media feeds or what we expose ourselves to to protect our own well-being and support our personal goals. Listening to reputable sources or people we trust is very important.
To navigate all of this, you have to know yourself. Or, get to know yourself. Before you jump into any kind of nutrition or exercise program, making sure you do it for reasons that you care about, and in a way that’s sustainable for your life is critical.
Now, this is simply my opinion and experience with diet culture. I’m totally open to conversation around this and hearing about your thoughts or perspectives. Please share in the comments or contact me if you’d like to share your thoughts or speak further (@nutritionforlifeproject on Instagram, or sara@nutritionforlifeproject.com).
Thank you for reading!
xoxo,
Sara