What Is Diet Culture? – The 1 Thing You Need To Know

Diets are what keeps people stuck in a cycle of restriction and binging and what led people to cultivate an unhealthy relationship with food. The term has become present in modern society and being used by many anti-diet movements. But, many might not understand what it actually means.

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What is diet culture?

Only by learning what diet culture truly is all about, we’re able to identify how it’s present in our lives and how we can step away from it. Diet culture doesn’t just mean that someone’s on a diet. As defined by Christy Harrison, it’s a system of beliefs. It’s about the belief that being thin is the only key to happiness.

It worships thinness where only someone who’s skinny is considered healthy and worthy to be socially accepted. This promotes the feeling of never feeling good enough, feeling broken simply because one doesn’t look like the thin ideal, an ideal that’s mostly not even real or attainable.

By seeing skinny as the only way to be socially accepted, it promotes weight loss. Diet culture leads us to the belief that we have to lose weight and spend massive amounts of energy, time, and money on it.

There’s a false belief that diets for weight loss create health and happiness. Diet mentality tells you should delay your dreams until you have lost some weight. It makes you hate your body, erodes trust in it, and makes you feel ashamed of it.

It’s the voice in your head that tells you rules such as “carbs are bad”, “no eating after 7pm”, or “you can only have dessert when you work out”. Diet mentality made us believe that we’re weak, that we don’t have control, that we didn’t try hard enough… It’s the voice in your head that keeps you from living a happy healthy life.

Think about it: what has your focus on weight loss done to your mind? What has it done to your body? Where has it brought you in life?

Aaaand here’s the thing, diets are set up for failure!

It’s not about you, your lack of willpower or you being a failure. Diets make us feel restricted. It’s a type of forced starvation and our bodies are wired for survival. When you start to restrict types of food your body switches into survival mode, which can lead to cravings, overeating, and binges.

So why am I talking about this when maybe you just want to know how to overcome emotional eating? Because the first step in overcoming bad eating behaviors is letting go of that diet mentality and breaking free of that vicious cycle.

Get rid of the idea that diets are good and helpful. Unfollow social media accounts that make you feel bad about yourself, that promote diets. Instead, follow accounts that share positive body image and positive eating behaviors.

Not following any sort of diet doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t caught up in it. Many of my clients believe they’re not actually dieting but once we dig into their relationship with food, they realize that they’re pursuing an ideal of health that is very similar to a diet.

If you’re ready to break free from that vicious cycle, to finally live the life you deserve where food is the least of your worries, learn more about my program here or book your FREE Manifesting Food Freedom Discovery Call.