How to Break Free from Diet Culture and Optimize Your Wellbeing

In a world filled with constant diet trends and impossible beauty standards, recognizing your body’s inherent worth can be tough. But here’s the truth: your body is already perfect as it is. This realization is crucial for breaking free from diet culture and starting a journey towards better wellbeing. Instead of focusing on changing through restrictive diets, it’s time to celebrate the body you have, it's time to treat your body well, and it's time to stop criticizing yourself. Self-acceptance is the most powerful form of body care.

Understanding the Harm of Diet Culture

Diet culture is a widespread problem that is feeding off of insecurities in children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. In many ways, diet culture is disguised as "self-care" but the extreme, non-personalized, caloric limitations diet culture suggests will only end up worsening your overall wellness. Why? Because diet culture does not know your body type, your family history, or your muscle/fat ratio. It simply just equates thinness with self-worth. According to a research study posted on the National Eating Disorder Association website, 22% of children and adolescents worldwide show signs of disordered eating. Unfortunately, the impact of diet culture has become more and more prevalent over recent years and continues to put pressure on people of all ages.

"A smile is the most important thing you wear" -Tyra Banks

Inadequate Intake

Trying to limit your intake, whether limiting certain foods or calories, often causes nutrient deficits which overall causes more harm for your mental and physical health. Whether you eat a well balanced diet or are restricting yourself in some way, your intake majorly impacts your mental health for the good or bad. Your gut microbiome communicates directly with your brain and when people feel anxious, it is common to have physical symptoms manifest in things such as nausea or an upset stomach. Likewise, when people feel sick, tired, or nausous, they become more irritable and anxious.

Not only do people experience physical complications with restricting and dieting; diet culture also often bring feelings of shame and failure. This directly worsens people's mental health in ways that often can cause spiraling. According to National Eating Disorder Association website, suicide is one of the leading causes of death for those with eating disorders.

Embracing a New Mindset

To work towards real wellness, to create long-term sustainable change, you need to let go of the continuous weight loss programs, detox ads, expensive supplements, etc. You need to bring it back to the basics of nutrition and movement. No supplement or medication is going to be an easy, quick, fix the way you want it to be; like the common quote by Ntsiki KaCaleni, "what comes easy won't last, and what lasts won't come easy." Therefore, to escape the claws of diet culture, you need to engage in treating your body with respect and kindness, providing it adequate nutrition that is balanced and consistent.

One effective way to change your outlook is to practice body neutrality. When body positivity feels to complicated, it is always acceptable to take a more neutral approach. Body neutrality encourages you to appreciate your body for what it can do, rather than concentrating solely on how it appears. For example, if you love playing tennis, focus on the joy and excitement it provides you instead of focusing on the size of your shorts. By celebrating what your body achieves, and by appreciating what you are grateful for, you will stray away from diet culture and societal standards.

Nutrition as Self-Care

Looking at food as a form of self-care can transform your relationship with it. In other words, your perspective of nutrition should be to nourish your body rather than serve as a means for weight management. Invest time into learning about the different functions of food, outside of calories. Food aids in tradition, culture, contributes to joy and happiness, is the star of holidays and special events, and is also the fuel you need to live a long and full life.

Physical Activity for Joy

Exercise doesn’t have to feel like a chore. Instead of viewing it merely as a way to lose weight, discover activities that you genuinely enjoy. Whether it’s dancing in your living room, going for a hike, or playing basketball, find what makes you happy and do it to feel better.

When you engage in movements that bring you joy, you cultivate a healthier relationship with your body. Rather than fixating on weight loss, focus on how physical activity boosts your mood and enhances your overall health.

Move because it's a blessing, not because it's a chore.

Sources and Evidence Based Information:

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/statistics/

López-Gil, J. F., García-Hermoso, A., Smith, L., Firth, J., Trott, M., Mesas, A. E., Jiménez-López, E., Gutiérrez-Espinoza, H., Tárraga-López, P. J., & Victoria-Montesinos, D. (2023). Global Proportion of Disordered Eating in Children and Adolescents. JAMA Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.5848

Goldstein, A., & Gvion, Y. (2019). Socio-demographic and psychological risk factors for suicidal behavior among individuals with anorexia and bulimia nervosa: A systematic review. Journal of affective disorders, 245, 1149–1167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.015