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Diet culture is all around, from advertisements and food labels to social media and influencers. It is so pervasive that it has become normalized almost by default, to the point where it can become difficult to realize just how problematic all the messaging around it is.
That same pervasiveness can make it easy to internalize the ideas behind diet culture, such as the concept that there is only one acceptable type of body, and achieving it, whether through excessive exercise, eating “clean," or other means, should be prioritized over taking care of oneself.
Unfortunately, internalizing these messages, whether intentionally or not, can have powerful—and powerfully harmful—effects on mental and physical health, potentially leading to developing eating disorder symptoms.
Diet culture doesn’t have one clear definition, but it generally refers to a group of societal beliefs that overly value physical appearance, typically pitting thinness or muscularity as the ideal and equating the achievement of these body shapes with moral superiority.1
These kinds of messages are all around us, from marketing food as “skinny girl” or “guilt-free,” to magazines advertising celebrity weight loss programs, to apps that encourage and track weight loss or even food restriction, to social media influencers and the weight loss trends they push, regardless of health consequences.2
As people have become more aware of issues around weight and mental health over the years, the messaging of diet culture has also evolved, changing from more overt dieting tips to messages that claim to be health-focused. Influencers may now tout "eating clean," "lifting heavy," or doing other things to "focus on their health" rather than declaring that they're promoting weight loss.
But regardless of how it's presented, the core of the idea remains: thinness or muscularity are the only "true" body shapes, and anyone not actively working on achieving them is failing at a key aspect of life.
The problems with diet culture
Even when presented sincerely or unknowingly preached as health-promoting, diet culture is loaded with several problematic or objectively false ideas that can be dangerous if internalized.
One of the central tenets of diet culture is that a thin or toned body is the only "healthy" type of body. But this notion is patently untrue.
Health is multifaceted; it exists on a spectrum of physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being, and countless factors influence it. Health also means different things for different people, depending on everything from their physiology, age, and medical history to their cultural and religious beliefs. And overall, people can be healthy in a variety of body shapes and sizes.
Unfortunately, even medical community members have difficulty avoiding diet culture messaging. Weight stigma has increasingly been reported in the medical community by doctors and patients alike. These attitudes, whether active or subconscious, can impact a doctor's medical recommendations, influence how they perceive a larger patient's health, and even, in some cases, affect a doctor's willingness to help their patients.3
Aside from the concept that there is only one way to be healthy, diet culture pushes additional false and unhelpful ideas around food, diet, exercise, body weight, and physical well-being.
In many cases, diet culture will promote restrictive diets to achieve or maintain a particular look. These can include dietary restrictions around limiting caloric intake, limiting types of foods, or even an entire food group. Adhering to these types of rules and ideas around food and eating can lead to adopting extremely rigid eating patterns and enforcing an unhealthy relationship with food.
Diet culture is rooted in anti-fat bias and also perpetuates fat-shaming, outrightly or subconsciously pressuring people in larger bodies to lose weight. Through the types of ideas pushed by diet culture, many people have come to associate higher-weight bodies with laziness, immorality, and a lack of health. This can contribute to weight stigma, which is extremely damaging and contributes to physical and mental health problems, including eating disorders.4
Diet culture often explains, out loud or through insinuation, that certain foods are “good” while others are “bad.” This kind of black-and-white mentality can extend beyond the concept of food and impact the feelings of worthiness of the person eating the food.
The reinforcement of this false dichotomy and the idea of the world as a place of "good" or "bad" choices—and, therefore, "good" and "bad" people—can contribute to the way people talk to or think about themselves, their bodies, and their eating habits. They may believe that "bad" food choices are made by "bad" people and feel guilt or shame about their preferences or decisions.
For example, if the idea prevails that all desserts are bad, full stop, someone may be more likely to punish themself for eating something deemed “bad food." The mentality is dangerously close to that which often drives the compensatory behaviors in eating disorders and can also contribute to worse low self-esteem and poor body image that usually works to maintain or develop eating disorders.
Diet culture and eating disorders: overlapping traits
Indeed, the thinking behind diet culture overlaps with the thoughts that drive eating disorder behaviors in many ways.
Idealizing certain body types
The overall philosophy of diet culture can cause people to believe that they don’t have value or worth unless they have the “ideal” body—often considered thinness for women; lean, muscular builds for men; and thin, curveless versions of androgyny for nonbinary people.
When people don't have bodies that meet these arbitrary standards, they may feel ashamed, guilty, or angry. These feelings can contribute to negative body image and poor self-esteem, as well as mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, which are frequently considered major maintaining factors for disordered eating behaviors.
Promoting disordered eating behaviors
Disordered eating exists on a spectrum, describing a wide range of detrimental eating habits and behaviors that sit somewhere between adequate eating and eating disorders. However, diet culture often promotes many behaviors that meet this designation.
Some research has argued that all diets are a form of disordered eating, as they impose certain rules and restrictions around someone's otherwise natural hunger cues, enjoyment of food, or adequate eating behaviors. Other studies have concluded that dieting may cause more harm than good.4
Some people who engage in disordered eating do meet the criteria for an eating disorder, while others may not. But these habits can lead to full-blown eating disorders eventually. Frequent dieting, in particular, has been identified as a risk factor for developing binge eating disorder (BED).5
Both diet culture and eating disorders are often perpetuated by low self-esteem. The connection is so strong that some researchers have posited chronic low self-esteem as a prerequisite to developing an eating disorder of any kind.6
Diet culture can also work to lower self-esteem further. The entire premise of diet culture is that most people aren't in the "appropriate" bodies, and their lives won't be complete until they achieve a specific shape or weight.
The messaging of diet culture is so prevalent that signing onto Instagram or TikTok may result in an onslaught of dangerous, misinformed content about diets, exercise, and weight-loss miracles.2 This is particularly true for adolescents and young adults who are vulnerable to peer pressure and influence.
Rejecting diet culture for a healthier relationship with food
Rejecting diet culture is difficult, as the concepts behind it have been such a strong and regular presence in media and many Western cultures for so long.
But there are some strategies to help shift your mindset in a healthier direction regarding food, exercise, and body image.
Intuitive, mindful eating involves learning to listen to the body’s hunger and satiety cues and using those cues to discern when to eat, how much, and what to eat. It's about trusting one’s body to know what is best for it.
For people recovering from an eating disorder, more structure might be necessary at first to help them address nutritional deficiencies or establish a more regular and adequate pattern of eating. However, many recovery programs aim to help introduce skills that can facilitate eating more intuitively. Intuitive eating is not accessible to everyone due to various physical, psychological, financial, and logistical barriers. Still, many alternatives to diet culture can enable more positive and sustainable relationships with food.
Diet culture associates exercise with punishment for eating something deemed “bad” or marks it as a necessary chore to maintain the ideal body weight and shape.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Movement can—and should be—a joyful experience that can help improve the mind-body connection.
If it is safe for you to engage in movement and you are interested in doing so, you can explore many kinds of movement that may be pleasurable for you, including dancing, playing a sport, or practicing yoga. It’s also important to remember that rest isn't a sign of failure or giving up but rather an essential aspect of growth and part of the natural cycle.
Body neutrality involves having a neutral perspective about one’s body. In other words, it asks people not to think about their bodies as good or bad but as something to care for.
Many proponents of body neutrality prefer to focus on meeting their body where it is and figuring out how to care for it, whether or not they like how it looks.
Appreciating ways that bodies can support us, including allowing us to heal, spend time with others, or engage in things we enjoy, can be a source of happiness. Thinking of the body this way can help cultivate gratitude and care for having a body rather than focusing on the negative mindset of what it "should" be.
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Finding help for an eating disorder
If you or a loved one are struggling with disordered eating behaviors or an eating disorder, reaching out for help can be an important step towards healing.
Treatment can occur in a number of settings, including inpatient, residential, intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, outpatient, and virtual venues. And each level of care offers its own benefits for patients struggling with all kinds of conditions.
Help is within reach
At Within Health, our virtual program offers an intensive, inclusive experience that caters to people of diverse body sizes, shapes, and weights. Our treatment team understands the negative influence of diet culture, anti-fat bias, and weight stigma. With many different treatment modalities, from group counseling and art therapy to movement therapy and meal support, we can help you heal your relationship with food and movement.
Disclaimer about "overeating": Within Health hesitatingly uses the word "overeating" because it is the term currently associated with this condition in society, however, we believe it inherently overlooks the various psychological aspects of this condition which are often interconnected with internalized diet culture, and a restrictive mindset about food. For the remainder of this piece, we will therefore be putting "overeating" in quotations to recognize that the diagnosis itself pathologizes behavior that is potentially hardwired and adaptive to a restrictive mindset.
Disclaimer about weight loss drugs: Within does not endorse the use of any weight loss drug or behavior and seeks to provide education on the insidious nature of diet culture. We understand the complex nature of disordered eating and eating disorders and strongly encourage anyone engaging in these behaviors to reach out for help as soon as possible. No statement should be taken as healthcare advice. All healthcare decisions should be made with your individual healthcare provider.
