I Spy Diet Culture!

I spy diet culture everywhere.

•Diet culture values weight, size, and shape OVER health and well-being.
•Diet culture says thinness is health. (People can be healthy in big or small bodies).
•Diet culture says shrink yourself by any means. (Praising disordered eating and eating disorders for weight loss).
•Weight loss and food turn into moral issues in diet culture. (“I’m naughty, cheating, sinful, indulgent, good, bad” mentality with food and exercise)
•Food is labeled as simply “good or bad”. (Ex: Sugar is bad and broccoli is good). *I* am good if I eat the “good” and shameful if I eat a “bad” food.”
•Certain bodies are labeled as good or bad. (This shifts based on decade).

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️When we’re enmeshed with diet culture we don’t recognize it. We believe it’s fact and truth, when the fact is diet culture is damaging. ⠀

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️Let’s bring awareness to it’s pervasive and sneaky presence. It’s all over media. It’s in our children’s books. It’s part of our health system. It’s perpetuated by respected thought leaders. It’s in our daily conversations. It’s a cultural belief system that has consequences. ⠀⠀⠀

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️By becoming AWARE of the messages diet culture perpetuates, WE can mindfully navigate the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors we chose in response. Building awareness and mindful permission to do what’s best for OUR own body is a positive alternative to the shame-based false sense of self-worth that diet culture promises.

️I want to raise awareness of diet culture because I’m PRO-HEALTH. True health. Holistic health. As a person fully recovered from Anorexia, Bulimia, and Orthorexia, I know the stakes and consequences of obsession with weight and size over health and well-being. I know what it’s like for a culture to praise a disorder as long as our body looks small and fit. I know the damage it has on my clients. I know the generational debt that is passed on from parents to kids with each diet and body hate comment.

️ Have you started noticing diet culture since you learned about it?? What’s it like for you now?

(I want to acknowledge my thin privilege as someone without it would likely get hell for posting this same message).