Diet Culture - a belief system and industry that focuses on and values, weight, shape, and size, over well-being. Variations of diet culture include eating patterns that on the surface are in the name of health, but in reality- are about aesthetics. Thin is considered ideal and is equated to health, success, status, and beauty. People who don’t match these specific standards are seen as less than. You don’t have to be “on a diet” to be participating in diet culture.

Let’s unpack this.

Real life examples of diet culture you see every single day-

1. Exercise being advertised as a means for weight loss, toning up, or as a means for visual “improvement”

2. Weight loss challenges among friends, coworkers, and family

3. Doctors focusing on BMI (we will get to this later) and overlooking other health markers like fitness, muscle composition, mobility, and psychological well-being

4. Praise and compliments for weight loss (think Adele) or comments on someones “disciplined” eating

5. Detoxes, unsustainable diets

History of the BMI (Body Mass Index)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by the BMI? The first time I was introduced to BMI was on my Wii Fit (lol) when it told me i was “overweight” in what was probably 6th grade. I was HORRIFIED. I find it really problematic now that this would be a main feature in a game for children. More recently, I went to a local quick clinic for an allergic reaction and walked away with a pamphlet on what a “healthy” diet looks like and the benefits of regular exercise. All because my BMI was at a certain range. This time I wasn’t embarrassed, I was mad.

The Body Mass index system was developed in 1830 by an astronomer as a purely STATISTICAL study. It is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in meters. After the statistical study, insurance companies started using it to categorize people as underweight, healthy, overweight, and obese to calculate their insurance rates. To be clear- BMI was not created by a doctor and neither were the ranges or classifications.

Doctor Louise Metz, board-certified internal medicine physician stated, “BMI was designed for populations, not for individuals, and was not designed to define health in any way. In the modern age, it was used to define health somewhere in the 1900’s. In the late 90’s, what we found is that these arbitrary categories for BMI were suddenly changed. So the definitions of obesity and overweight were suddenly decreased, and 29 million people suddenly became “overweight or obese” overnight. These changes really were not based on any research that shows that there was a direct link between these BMI categories and health”.

Why would they change these classifications?? Lot’s of companies and individuals benefit from this, but not the patient.

The Billion Dollar Industry

Doctor Metz continues, “Many researches in who are in the field of so-called obesity research are financed and funded by the pharmaceutical industry, and the pharmaceutical industry is funded by the diet industry. Many of them have their own diet plans and programs that they are selling and have this financing that’s coming from people with a vested interest in making Americans fear weight gain and think that their body size is a problem”

There is an entire MULTI BILLION DOLLAR industry that is powered by our weight and body insecurities and they will go to great lengths to continue the cycle.

A study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) found “a high percentage of college females consider themselves overweight or obese, despite having a BMI in the normal range.” Another study by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) found that, by age 6, girls begin to “express concerns about their own weight or shape.” In elementary school (ages 6-12), 40-60 percent of girls worry about their weight and becoming “too fat.” Diet culture is so deeply ingrained in American culture that even when women or girls are perfectly healthy, they are frequently tricked into believing that they should lose weight. It is so ingrained that girls as young as six—literally children in kindergarten—can believe that they need to lose weight.

In order to dismantle diet culture, it’s important to re-evaluate how we look at health and wellness. We need to stop equating health and wellness with thinness and weight loss—because until we do, perfectly healthy people will continue to believe that their bodies should be smaller.’

The diet industry profits on quick fixes (detoxes, diet pills, metabolism boosters, meal replacement shakes, random supplements, wraps: all of which ARE NOT MEANT TO IMPROVE HEALTH), not long term solutions. If the results were long term, they would lose a customer!

Here are some health goals that don’t include weight or appearance:

• mental wellbeing

• improved skin

• lower blood pressure

• feeling rested/energized

• being social

• enjoying workouts

• feeling nourished

Conclusion

The purpose of this is not to say that losing weight is always bad, that you should never buy a green juice, or that it’s not okay to be health conscience. The goal is to understand the underlying drivers that “diet culture” wants you to believe about yourself and WHY. They make money off of the insecurity that society normalizes. When we are conscience of the fake standards we are conditioned to believe about ourselves, we can combat it, reject it, and replace it with our own genuine feelings, needs, and goals.

Stop trying to make your unique body type fit into a cookie cutter standard.

Once I hopped off the cycle of dieting and restricting myself, my body/weight/mental health took care of itself. The benefits I’ve experienced since then have made me so passionate about learning more about the roots of this industry.

xo Eliza

helpful resource:

The podcast “Diet Starts Tomorrow” has helped me completely change my mindset about dieting and opened my eyes to diet culture. I highly recommend.