Top 10 Diet Culture Myths
Written by Priscilla Dean, LCPC, Owner and Clinical Director at Evergreen Counseling, LLC
I’ve been following Jameela Jamil, an actress and blogger for several years now, even though I usually don’t keep a close eye on celebrity culture.
I find her transparency on her eating disorder recovery journey to be refreshing.
She recently started openly challenging “Ozempic culture” among her fellow celebrities to be aggressively dangerous and misogynistic. She noted “the funeral of the body positive movement” is now here, as a decade or so ago there was a pretty notable shift in the 2010’s to be more “body inclusive”. However, since Ozempic hit the market (and let's be real, probably fascism too), celebrities and influencers seem to have abandoned any idea of body positivity lightning fast in favor of sharp collarbones and cheekbones, thigh gaps and razor thin arms. As an eating disorder specialist and trauma therapist working with disordered eating for 16 years, I too have been distressed at these dangerous trends returning.
How have we regressed so spectacularly as a society?
I’ve known for decades that diet culture and the wellness industry absolutely hates women, girls, and human bodies in general. It hates anything that is not white culture (cultural foods are not respected or celebrated, they are dismissed as unhealthy). The diet industry’s primary hate it peddles to us is the hatred of pleasure itself, in favor of the highest virtue of so-called “self discipline”, all while it makes abhorrent amounts of money on these body hatred beliefs that we unconsciously accept as facts.
“I’ve known for decades that diet culture and the wellness industry absolutely hates women, girls, and human bodies in general.”
While people literally die at alarming numbers from eating disorders (Eating disorders are the most fatal disorder in the DSM. More than Bipolar, Schizophrenia or Major Depressive Disorder).
But these so-called facts about diets, food and our bodies are mostly profit-driving myths.
As the saying goes, the fish don’t know the water is wet, right? Well, call me the fish prophetess declaring the wetness of water, so here we go:
“Weight loss = healthy.”Losing weight does not equal health. This diet culture assumption is quite dangerous. It literally kills people. For instance, one of the earliest symptoms of cancer detection is actually unexpected weight loss. Weight loss is also extremely common when you lose a significant other or loved one. Imagine if we treated weight loss as a concerning symptom instead of something to affirm as automatically healthy or something to praise? Of course, sometimes losing weight can increase health outcomes, but it equally can indicate poor health or a grief process. In fact, a very large study (millions of people over decades) proved something very bad for the profit margins of diet culture companies: people with lower BMIs actually had significantly lower levels of longevity than those who maintained an “overweight” status or a BMI of 25-30. Those with higher BMIs actually live longer, on average. But no one talks about that.
You’re lazy, which is why you can’t lose weight. “If you were more disciplined, you could keep the weight off. Gain more self control”. Billions of dollars are made by diet culture with this horrifically false idea every year. Shame and blame the human for lacking “discipline” because they “fall off the wagon” by needing more calories than their diet allows to function properly. If your body doesn’t lose weight on their diet or exercise plan, then you’re clearly doing it wrong. There’s nothing wrong with their diet. It’s YOU. When in fact, bodies need diverse kinds of calories to function, or they lose muscle mass, cognitive and organ function. Your eating “out of control” habits are you trying not to die, on a biological level. When you restrict your calorie intake, your cravings become intense so you make up for your calorie deficits. It’s literally how all bodies work.
Junk food and processed foods are bad, to be avoided at all costs. This is a very popular myth right now. The idea that types of food have a moral quality of “good or bad” dates back to Victorian times (back when we were romanticizing getting skinny and swooning from tuberculosis and the Spanish flu. Cool time to remember, right?). Time to update this myth for. Here are the facts: Foods with more processing simply don’t fuel our bodies the way that unprocessed foods do. Plain and simple. They’re simply less nutrient dense. That’s it. Not good, not bad. And yes, a lot of these foods are formatted in labs to be more addictive than broccoli, but that hardly makes them morally evil. I mean, no one calls coffee evil, but sure, those hot cheetos are basically Satan.
“You cannot trust your appetite. You will lose control.”You are guaranteed to gain too much weight if you trust your appetite and cravings. Basically, the myth here is that your body shape is bad, so your appetite must be, too. The “Lower your Appetite” message is ridiculous if you want to have a fun life. Embracing little to zero appetite is framed as a part of a happy, healthy life? Give me a break. Enjoying the pleasures of food is part of living a happy life! But true happiness is not what they’re selling.
The hidden message here is even more sinister: “trust our company, and our special diet plan–don’t trust yourself or your appetite, you need our product/exercise plan/subscription.” The idea that bodies’ appetites need to be controlled is fascist, sexist, and racist. (If you feel out of control with food, I can tell you with 100% certainty that it isn’t food or your body’s fault, but it might be some very strong beliefs and somatic and moral associations with the idea of ‘self control’ that were planted by diet culture long ago that you’ve accepted as fact…)“I feel so fat.”Okay if I could erase this one myth from the entire human society this might be it. It’s extremely powerful. Fat is not a feeling, plain and simple. It’s utterly ridiculous when you stop to think critically about it. But it absolutely matters how you’re feeling when you say this to yourself. If you catch yourself saying this to yourself, perhaps take another moment to ask yourself, “what feeling is ‘fat’, anyway? Do I feel sad? Unattractive? Embarrassed? Humiliated? Those real feelings you feel when you use the word fat as a feeling matter. Significantly.
“Your ideal weight exists! You have a natural weight range of 2-5lbs, throughout your entire lifespan. Your “ideal weight” is, or can be, permanent.” This is a very popular idea in weight loss programs–”get to your goal weight”, with zero space made for intuitive eating, your genetic factors, your health issues, or your stage of life. This is a highly simplistic and damaging idea. In reality, your “ideal weight” doesn’t exist. Your weight will increase or decrease, depending on a variety of physiological, emotional, psychological, age and genetic factors. Your acceptance of the ever changing shape and needs of your body, however, can be a permanent state of mindful acceptance.
It’s also okay if you want to change your body, just be mindful of the brainwashing, and your “why”. We are told to change our body almost constantly by those who do not have our best interests at heart. In my opinion, body acceptance is the best kind of rebellion, even while trying to increase more balance in our food intake.“Improve your health. Improve your body, the time is now!”On the surface, this myth seems pretty harmless. However, this overarching theme of addiction to health improvement is present in almost all wellness and diet companies marketing strategies. You’re always URGENTLY chasing the next best thing for your health, always striving to be better, healthier. It’s always a crisis, and it’s never okay to accept where your health is at today. God, isn’t that just so exhausting? When we’re constantly trying to improve our health, we forget to take joy and pleasure in what IS working in our bodies, today. Only downside here for slowing down that urgency is for the diet industry: body acceptance and gratitude hardly drives profit for diet culture companies.
“People who restrict food or who are obsessed with dieting are vain and overly focused on their appearance.” This is a sexist idea, pointed mostly at girls and women (even though there are plenty of men and gender fluid folks who struggle too). Like it’s an affliction of vapid, shallow women, and if they were more informed or evolved, they wouldn’t struggle with food or their body. It doesn’t account for so many real lives of humans who struggle with food and body image. For instance, struggles with balanced food intake due to sensory sensitivities? Extremely common–amongst all genders, too. Even if you struggle with accepting your body’s appearance, the fixation is rarely about the food itself, it’s the desperate need to control something tangible (like food! Or the number on the scale!) when everything feels desperately out of control. This is not about vanity. This is a deeply painful experience that deserves more respect and compassion.
The “bounce back” movement is a healthy way to return to exercise after having a baby.” This myth openly hates mothers. It’s so infuriatingly normal for “post baby” workouts to sneak in messages of “get your body back” (like where did your body go?). Your body— who just did the most incredible miraculous thing— needs to be changed. As quickly as possible. New moms are extremely medically and psychologically vulnerable postpartum, but sure, they need to start pilates immediately (there’s that pesky urgency again). This predatory branding targets women at an already dangerous and fragile stage of their life (and don’t get me started on how I feel about the branding targeted at pregnant people who want to be fit by being “visibly pregnant only from the front”).
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”Okay this one always makes me deeply sad. It’s basically telling women that your right to have pleasure in your food is now revoked. You’re not allowed to enjoy food, because feeling skinny is always better. God, how heartbreaking is that. Can you imagine telling your 6 year old niece that? Then don’t say it to yourself. It is a human right to enjoy and take pleasure in your food.
Here’s what all humans have a right to claim about our bodies:
In this ocean of diet culture and wellness industry we all swim in, we've been told (“fed”, if you will) what our bodies should look, feel and do to be acceptable (not even happy, just acceptable!). But some of us are waking up.
Here’s what all humans have a right to claim about our bodies*:
I have the right to take pleasure in my body, including enjoying all kinds of foods that are available to me.
I have the right to gain weight and lose it without judgment, acknowledging and even celebrating my body as it changes, evolves and develops as I age. This body is simply my home. My body is not morally superior or inferior to any other kind of body.
I have the right to trust my body’s cravings and food preferences, without being told my cravings are wrong or morally inferior.
I have the right to experience health at every stage and size my body is in.
*If these are uncomfortable to accept, you’re on the right track! This feels discordant for most of us, because we are FAR more comfortable with hating our bodies than loving and accepting them. Keep going! You deserve to feel good and happy in the Home that is your body.
With Love,
Priscilla
Priscilla Dean, LCPC, Owner and Clinical Director at Evergreen Counseling, LLC
