Why it’s Time to Reject Diet Culture

YOU’VE BEEN LIED TO! Yes, YOU!

If you think your body needs to look a certain way for you to be acceptable, you’ve been lied to!

If you think your body needs to be a certain shape to be worthy of love, you’ve been lied to!

If you think your value and worth come from the way you look, you’ve been lied to!

If you think there’s a good way of eating, and a bad way of eating, you’ve been lied to!

Diet culture has lied to you, to make you think you need to change your body before you can truly live and enjoy your life.

Diet culture is the system of contrived societal beliefs that idolizes thin, young, wrinkle-less, gray-less bodies, while demonizing fat, certain shapes, and larger bodies. Diet culture also demonizes certain foods while elevating others. We are bombarded with diet culture from the moment we are born, in the media, our institutions, and embedded into our families.

In a world so captivated by appearances, it can be tough to think about anything but. It’s so easy to become obsessed with our bodies and food. We go out into the world (pre-COVID times, of course) to meet new people, have new experiences, go on dates, do things that bring us joy, and oftentimes all we can think in our heads is,

“Do I look okay?”

“Can they see my belly rolls through my shirt?”

“I bet they’re looking at my double chin.”

“I really want a burger, but I better go with this salad.”

THANKS TO DIET CULTURE, WE HAVE BEEN CONDITIONED TO BELIEVE THAT OUR LOOKS MATTER MOST, AND THAT BEING THIN, YOUNG (and usually white) IS THE GATEWAY TO HEALTH AND HAPPINESS.

Why make us feel that way, though? What’s in it for them?

The US weight loss industry is worth $69.8 billion. And the anti-aging industry is worth $14.2 Billion.

The concept of “obesity” was created and continues to be leveraged largely by weight loss surgeons, and pharmaceutical companies creating weight loss pills… by those with financial interest in “treating obesity.”

Unbiased research (not funded by diet industries) shows that “obesity” is not a threat to health as it’s painted to be, diets ultimately lead to weight gain over time in 95+% of people, and that weight stigma is more harmful than weight itself.

Not to mention they’ve made aging just about the most unattractive thing you can do… and it’s the one thing we are ALL doing.

The industries fueling diet culture literally profit off our pain.

They profit off our discomfort. They profit off us being so unhappy with ourselves that we will pay for products, diet foods, procedures, workout plans, body treatments, and anything else that will make us younger, smaller and/or the “right” shape.

Not to mention, over 95% of people who pursue intentional weight loss gain back all the weight they lost (often more) after a period of 5 years. So the methods these industries push ultimately lead us back to where we started. We become unhappy with ourselves, we blame ourselves, and we start over. Obsessed, uncomfortable, pained, and shamed.

YOU DESERVE BETTER!

It is time to reject the diet mentality.

Your body does not need to be a certain size or shape to be beautiful, desirable, or worthy.

Your body does not need to be smaller in order to be healthy.

Great variety in body shape and size among the human population is natural. It’s the way we are designed to be.

Great variety in the body shapes and sizes that folks find desirable is also natural. There’s somebody for everybody. And there is great beauty in everyone.

YOU are beautiful, just the way you are!

You are also worthy, valuable, lovable, and ENOUGH-- regardless of your weight, body shape, size, or appearance in any way.

WE ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN OUR BODIES!!

Now you have full permission to stop trying to fit the societal (AKA fake) beauty standards, and to start DOING MORE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY!