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Diet Culture vs Anti-Diet Culture
127 Plays1 year ago
My issues with both. (How is it possible that we have succeeded at ruining both ends of the pendulum?)
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Focus
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to outside of session. I'm your host, licensed clinical social worker and therapist BFF, Julie Hilton. We're going to cover all the things here, whether it's mental health, entrepreneurship, relationships, trauma, or just life. Nothing is off limits. Hopefully you'll laugh a little and learn a lot, but most importantly, feel encouraged on your journey to live empowered.
Weight Loss and Mental Health Themes
00:00:31
Speaker
Hey friends, welcome back. Another week another podcast talking about weight loss and mental health. This is like the third in the row that I have done and I promise this podcast is not becoming a weight loss podcast. I'm just on a roll with this right now.
00:00:48
Speaker
Mostly because I feel like I've said before I have these conversations all the time with clients and with friends and it's just a good topic for us to be talking about to bring awareness around how much a diet can really mess with our mental health if we're not really really protective and really careful with it.
Diet Culture vs Anti-Diet Culture
00:01:06
Speaker
So today I want to talk about a different topic in the realm of weight loss and that is diet culture versus anti-diet culture, which is like a new movement that we're seeing now, which is very needed, but I want to talk about it in both the pros and cons of it, right?
00:01:28
Speaker
And so when you think about diet culture and anti-diet culture, it's kind of like the two extremes that I was talking about in last week's episode, which if you didn't listen to that episode, go back and give it a listen first, because we really talked about what I think is the biggest thing that sabotages people when they are doing some kind of weight loss journey or like a different kind of diet or different health journey or something like that.
00:01:54
Speaker
And the thing that sabotages in my opinion is this black and white thinking of being either all in or all off like off the rails and how what we typically think of as the sabotaging behavior of being like completely off the wagon
00:02:12
Speaker
is not actually what's so detrimental to our weight loss journey.
Sustainable Weight Loss Approaches
00:02:17
Speaker
It's actually the other end of the spectrum that really, the thinking that is very strict and very rigid and very perfectionist, that's the behavior and those are the kind of thoughts that really end up sabotaging us in the end because they're not sustainable and because they are so strict and so rigid.
00:02:36
Speaker
So, go back and give that episode a listen because I think that it will help a lot of people realize like what extreme we go to when it comes to figuring out like being on a diet and how you can start to reel in some of those thoughts so that you can operate and function a little bit more in the gray area of life which
00:02:59
Speaker
is just what, that's where you're able to thrive. That's where you're able to do it in a healthy way. That's where you're able to do it in a sustainable way, right? So what goes hand in hand with that is, again, like really diving in today on what is diet culture and how has diet culture perpetuated those really extreme tendencies and those extreme thoughts that have been ingrained in some of us literally since like our childhood, right?
Impact of Diet Culture on Body Image
00:03:27
Speaker
Like I cannot, there's been a couple of like Instagram videos that I've seen lately where people are talking about like, no wonder I have such bad body image issues. And it goes through like these commercials from the early 2000s or the nineties. And it makes us realize like what we were exposed to really young. Like, um, one of them was like the special K diet, which when I think back on that, now it was, you were supposed to eat two bowls of cereal a day.
00:03:54
Speaker
and then one quote unquote balanced meal and there was another one that was like a Yoplait yogurt commercial where the girl is having like this total meltdown because she wants a piece of cheesecake so bad and she's just going back and forth like on whether or not she should eat the cheesecake and then this other girl comes in and she grabs the cheesecake flavored yogurt and she's like ah she's so happy with it right when it's just like no girl what you wanted was the size of cheesecake
00:04:25
Speaker
So anyway, so that's what we're gonna talk about today is like what has diet culture done to us and I want to take a moment to point out some of the things that just really irks me and gets under my skin.
00:04:37
Speaker
The first thing is that nothing about what diet culture preaches is sustainable. And again, last week we talked about being in that gray area is teaching people how to function in a way that is sustainable, right? So diet culture is so strict, so rigid, the rules are so inflexible. And here's the thing,
00:05:04
Speaker
They know that in diet culture. They know that it's too strict and that nobody is going to be able to stick with it. And they are depending on you failing. They need you to not be able to do this long-term.
00:05:22
Speaker
because that's what creates repeat customers. If it worked and it was sustainable, you would do it for a month and then you would never come back to them, right? But the way it's set up is that, God, this is such like a mind F. The way it's set up is it
00:05:42
Speaker
automatically makes you feel like you are to blame for failing, not the bullshit plan that they've put in place that's impossible. It's set up so that you think that you are the failure at the diet, not that the diet is what's wrong, right?
00:05:59
Speaker
And so they are counting on you seeing other people in the program, like they need just enough, like before and after pictures to show you that somebody else was able to do it. So that you think that, Oh, well, some people are able to do this. Some people can stick with it. It's just me that couldn't. And so you blame yourself because you say, um, I got distracted or I have no self control or I couldn't stick with it. And it's my fault.
00:06:25
Speaker
And after you've paid all of this money for the diet program and it doesn't work, you don't leave blaming them for giving a bad product. You blame yourself for not being able to stick with it. And they know that and they are counting on it. And so on the outside, it looks like you've got these before and after pictures of other clients that have done the program or done the diet.
Marketing Tactics of Diet Culture
00:06:47
Speaker
And it seems like, oh, well it worked for them, so it must just be me.
00:06:50
Speaker
and then you've got the creators of the program or the people that are like the spokesperson for it, they'll tell you that it's so effortless for them and that they do this all the time and they've been doing this diet for the past five years and they've been able to keep off the weight or it's just so effortless for them now. And that's just such a lie. Like these people are not in that calorie deficit or following that program strictly for years on end.
00:07:18
Speaker
Because that's not realistic. Like our logical brain can tell us there's no way they're actually living this. It is all marketing, right? And so, but they are counting on you being led by your emotional brain. And the emotional brain, again, is saying like, well, if somebody else can do it, maybe I can do it. Maybe I can look like that. And that's the biggest, one of the biggest things, problems that I have with diet culture is that it's so not sustainable, but it tells you that it is.
00:07:48
Speaker
So the next thing that I cannot stand about diet culture is that it doesn't account for diversity at all. Thin is just the goal. Skinny is just the goal. And there really are no other options or visuals of health or what health can look like.
00:08:09
Speaker
They give this message that the thinnest version of yourself is the best version of yourself and the healthiest version of yourself. So it doesn't take into any consideration different body types, different body shapes, just like the natural diversity that should be celebrated that makes us so unique.
00:08:30
Speaker
It doesn't account for any of that. It's just saying you need to look like this. You need to be as thin as possible. So it doesn't take into consideration how people's bodies store fat in different way. It doesn't take into consideration body composition. So thinking about like your ratio of muscle mass, right? So it doesn't take into consideration whether you carry weight in different places.
00:08:54
Speaker
That is something that should be very like natural and very celebrated. And instead diet culture is just like, no, if you work hard enough, you can get rid of that and look like us. And when I say us, it's usually like thin white women that are promoting a lot of this if we're being really honest here. And there really is no other conversation of what health looks like. It's only this image of get as thin as possible.
00:09:24
Speaker
And not just that you'll look like us, but that your life will be like ours too. So in every promotion that you see, people are having fun. They love themselves. They're in a relationship, which gives you the idea that you'll be more lovable. They have plenty of friends. And so it gives you this idea of you'll have so much connection. You'll have so many good people in your life. Like it paints this whole idea of
00:09:50
Speaker
Everything in your life that you're actually wanting can be fixed. If you do this diet and you get really thin, like you are guaranteed happiness, you're guaranteed to love yourself, you're guaranteed to have connection with a lot of people. And again, our logical brain can see that and say I know losing weight won't give me that but our emotional brain
00:10:15
Speaker
latches on to that. And without us even really like consciously making the decision of Oh, I want that our emotional brain is just like, Oh, if this is a way to get those needs met, we'll give it a try. So that's number two, things that I cannot stand about diet culture is that it doesn't account for any university.
Dependence and Lack of Education in Diet Programs
00:10:36
Speaker
The next thing that I wanted to talk about that I hate is that diet culture uses shame as motivation. And I know you've heard me say on this podcast a dozen times probably already, but shame is just not a good motivator for anything in life. But diet culture is counting on you hating yourself.
00:10:58
Speaker
That's the only way that diet culture can be successful is if you hate yourself. So it draws in people that are at their lowest point. And if you listen to the episode, let's see, two episodes ago about can weight loss ever be good for your mental health, or done in a way that doesn't negatively impact your mental health, go back and listen to that episode if you haven't listened to it. That was where I really talked about that there are a group of people
00:11:27
Speaker
that I think should not even begin a weight loss journey and it's the people that are really struggling with their own self-worth at the time. And diet culture is preying on people in this group because they don't want you to have self-esteem or a sense of self or a sense of groundedness because then they can't draw you in by saying
00:11:52
Speaker
like making this guarantee that you will love yourself more and be worth more if you're thin. Like if you already have a sense of groundedness in yourself, you're not going to fall for that marketing. But if you're at a place of being really low with your self worth and self esteem, and somebody is like dangling the carrot in front of you of like all your problems will be solved if you just do this diet, then
00:12:20
Speaker
That's what causes people to like go for it and to stay stuck in those cycle. They're using your shame to draw you in. And I feel like that is just so manipulative, right? It tells you that you'll love yourself more and more and that you'll be worth more if you're just thin. And even that language is just like all messed up, right? The idea of, um,
00:12:48
Speaker
feel better about yourself in 30 days or whatever it is, right? Like finally be able to put this to rest. Like just the language that's used is just so messed up. That's just another thing that I can't stand. So if a program is, if you can recognize that it's playing on people's insecurities,
00:13:13
Speaker
That's a good sign that it's entrenched in diet culture and you need to steer clear of it. Another point that I wanted to make is that with diet culture, you have to rely on someone else.
00:13:29
Speaker
instead of learning to rely on yourself. So it gives vibes of like, you clearly don't know what you're doing. But don't worry, because I know what you need. And it's my secret. And you'll only be able to succeed if you follow me. And that creates like a dependence on this person of Oh, they know what I need.
00:13:53
Speaker
I don't know how to figure that out for myself. Again, playing on that low self esteem or low self worth of I clearly don't know what I'm doing. And what they're trying to do is create a dependence, aka a long term client.
00:14:09
Speaker
because they're not teaching you how to make decisions for yourself. They're not providing education on what your body needs. They're not helping you work through how do you develop a routine that actually works for you and create sustainable habits that you can do long term. They don't want you to have any of that.
00:14:26
Speaker
because all of that you will be able to take and run with and that is living in the gray area. That is sustainable. They don't want you to have any of that because then you won't need them anymore, right? And so diets create a dependence on whatever the program is, whether it's pre-packaged foods, they'll sell it to you in a way that makes you feel like regular foods that you can just buy in the grocery store yourself are never going to get you these results. You need what we're creating in our facility.
00:14:54
Speaker
And that's the only way you're gonna succeed or it it's only gonna sit your only the only way you'll be able to do this is if you're paying for our program because we're so different we have it figured out. But then when you get in the program you're not actually learning anything about nutrition you're not learning anything about your habits.
00:15:13
Speaker
If all you're having to do is eat a prepackaged meal or snack or whatever it is that only they can provide you, then you haven't learned anything about what your body needs. And it creates a dependence. And guess what, when you stop using their program and you gain the weight back, it goes back to that original thing that I was saying, which is you have failed because you stopped buying into our program. And so the failure is not seen as
00:15:37
Speaker
Well, I gained back all the weight when I got off their program. So they look at that as evidence of see our program works because you were losing weight when you were on it. And when you tried to go off and do it on your own, you gained the weight back. But to me, that's like, no, that shows that you didn't teach me anything about myself. And you were just creating a long term client. That's all it was.
00:16:01
Speaker
Another point that I wanted to make is that diet culture is very much based on extremes.
Extreme Approaches in Diet Culture
00:16:09
Speaker
which is, again, like when we think of the black and white thinking, it's the end of the spectrum that is just very extreme and very strict ways. So diet culture will tell you that you can lose as much as possible, as fast as possible, and as easy as possible. And so it's based on these big extremes of
00:16:34
Speaker
We're the only people that can help you. You don't know how to help yourself. But if you come to us, your results are going to be so fast, like we can make these guarantees, right?
00:16:46
Speaker
And none of that, like none of it is taken into consideration. Like what is that doing to your metabolism? What is that doing to your eating patterns? Like how is this affecting your mental health? Like how is this affecting if you have disordered eating patterns from the past? Like none of that is taken into consideration. They just want you to be attracted to these extremes because it makes you feel like, uh,
00:17:10
Speaker
All the answers to all of my problems is just right around the corner and this is gonna be so easy and so fast. I just have to like put my head in the sand and bury it and just push through these next few weeks whether it's a six week diet or a 30 day or whatever it is. They want you to buy in to these extremes to get you to think that it's not that big of a deal and it's not gonna take that much effort. It's not gonna be a lot of work because they have this all figured out for you.
00:17:38
Speaker
And it's not taking into consideration long-term results, long-term sustainability and long-term health. So overall, I want to point out that diet culture thrives on you being overweight and staying overweight. Because if you weren't overweight, you wouldn't need them. And if you don't need them, then they don't make money. And this is just capitalism.
00:18:08
Speaker
Like all these diet programs that say how much they love working with their clients and they're so excited to help people.
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah, but they need you to pay for their program again next month so they don't want you to improve too much, right? Like we always say in therapy, the goal at the end of the day is for you not to need me anymore. And so it's a feeling of like, I want to work myself out of a job, right? So I don't want repeat clients. I want people to stay in therapy exactly as long as they want to and they need to, but then I want them eventually to be able to say, Julie was a part of my past.
00:18:43
Speaker
No diet program is that way. No diet program is like, Oh, I want to hear that you haven't contacted us in 10 years, you know, they need you to stay in this cycle of yo yo dieting, because that's what makes them money.
00:18:59
Speaker
And I'm not saying that there's not some people that end up being like, I don't know, like a coach or working with them that don't have some real passion with that. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying if you look at the model in the long run, if, if you finally get to a place of figuring out your weight for yourself and get to a place where you feel good and you feel like you have your rhythm, and it's not even it's like a non issue anymore, you're not even thinking about it anymore.
00:19:25
Speaker
That is like the long term goal for you, but that is not the long term goal for diet culture because then you don't need diet culture anymore. Okay, now get ready for this.
Introduction to Anti-Diet Culture
00:19:41
Speaker
I also want to talk about anti diet culture, which is like, like so many other things, when we identify that one thing is really bad,
00:19:51
Speaker
we swing too far, like the pendulum swings too far in the other direction and we take it too far. So when we talk about like true anti-diet culture, I think it's fantastic. I think it is exactly what I just did, which is like naming why diet culture is so toxic for so many different people and trying to repair some of the damage that is done.
00:20:16
Speaker
And the reason why I want to talk about it in almost like a little bit of a calling it out, it's gone too far light is because I've seen some things lately, over the past few years that have really just caused a lot of confusion for me, even in my own life of like getting to a place of feeling like something is wrong with me for wanting to make any kind of changes.
00:20:41
Speaker
feeling guilt or feeling like oh like there's no way that diet being on a diet can come from a place of self-love or like wanting to lose weight can come from a place of self-love and that's where I feel like we've gone a little bit too far so when I was looking for some show notes I actually just started to do some research about like who's talking about diet culture how is it being explained things like that and I came across this article that's in
00:21:12
Speaker
I think it was published on healthline.com. And the definition that they use there is that anti diet culture is an approach that centers the whole person and their overall health rather than solely focusing on how much the scale moves. And I love that so much like that in and of itself, I think is a phenomenal definition of where we should be with like moving away from diet culture. But the problem is, is that
00:21:41
Speaker
It's like it's gone too far in a lot of ways. So here are some just like points that I want to make and some of the problems that maybe I see with where anti-diet culture is going a little bit too far. First of all, I'm starting to notice that it also uses shame to motivate and shame is never a good motivator.
Critique and Balance in Anti-Diet Culture
00:22:04
Speaker
It shames people away from wanting to make any kind of change.
00:22:10
Speaker
and says that you are fat phobic if you want to make any kind of change like automatically hands down no questions asked wanting to lose weight equals being fat phobic and I disagree with that and the thing is nobody wants to carry that label
00:22:27
Speaker
And so people are moving away from wanting to make changes for themselves because they're questioning like, Oh, like, does that mean that I don't actually love myself? And I have definitely been there in this cycle of feeling like, especially as a therapist, like if I want to lose any weight, like am I perpetuating some really big biases, which there is a time and a place for sure to talk about those things. But again, it's not that black and white and people are trying to make it very black and white.
00:22:57
Speaker
using this shame, it leaves, it leaves you with no reason of your own to want to lose weight and just kind of tells you that whatever that reason is, is wrong and that it's a mental health issue. It's a self-worth issue. It's something that needs to be worked out and that the only appropriate response is to accept yourself just as you are. And again, I just really disagree because that means that whatever we have going on in life, we should just accept and not try to change about ourselves.
00:23:28
Speaker
Another thing that I find problematic is that it uses some of them the same language in some ways. It just it uses the language differently. But like for instance, there's a lot of this is bad, this is good language. And that's always just like a red flag for me because it's a very blanket statement. Because again, if someone is going to like it someone else telling you what you really need to figure out for yourself.
00:23:53
Speaker
So if if anti-diet culture says this is always good or this is always bad, I just want to question that because I'm like, well, hang on a second, because that's the same thing that diet culture was doing about certain things. And over in that realm, we were saying it's not good to label things good or bad for everyone. So why is it any different in anti-diet culture?
00:24:17
Speaker
Another thing that I've noticed is that it confuses discipline with restriction.
00:24:26
Speaker
And clinically, these are very different. And this is something that I'm gonna talk about a lot in my book that I'm writing when I eventually get back to it. But those two things are very different. And diet culture does this too, by the way. Like it confuses discipline with restriction, but just like almost in the opposite way. Like there are times where I feel like
00:24:52
Speaker
diet culture promotes restriction, but they call it discipline. And then I feel like anti-diet culture almost like shames people who are trying to have discipline and they're labeling it as restriction when it's not.
00:25:08
Speaker
Like if you if anyone who eats a specific diet gets labeled as disordered eating or that that's too restrictive then you would need to look at every single like elite athlete in the world and you would label every single one of them as having disordered eating but it's just like no they're just really disciplined and they know what their body needs to perform the tasks that they are asking it to perform right and
00:25:32
Speaker
if you're an everyday person like you and I who are not in a professional sports league, we're not asking our body to do things. So we don't need to model our diet after them. That's totally for sure. But just because someone is really disciplined in the way that they decide to eat, that does not mean that they are
00:25:53
Speaker
in any realm of disordered eating or even in a restrictive pattern, right? Like, I see that a lot where people are trying to be disciplined in what they're doing and they're getting the message of, ooh, you've got some disordered eating patterns and it's just like,
00:26:10
Speaker
No, I really don't like I'm being really intentional about this a really good example of this for me has been If I'm like portioning out certain things on my plate I've heard a lot of people say like that is a disordered eating habit and
00:26:27
Speaker
And my response to that is if I were making a recipe and I had certain amounts of things in it so that the recipe came out correctly, that wouldn't be seen. Like if you measured flour and baking powder when you're baking something, you wouldn't say like, oh, you're restricting that flour, that's not good. You would say like, no, that's part of the recipe. And it's going to help me make the thing that I'm trying to make if I measure it.
00:26:51
Speaker
And I kind of look at it the same as like when I'm thinking about the portions on my plate or making sure that I have enough protein or making sure that I have enough carbs on my plate. That's not me measuring it to restrict it. That's me measuring it to say like I'm trying to find balance and I want balance for myself and that is not disordered eating. It's just not the same thing. And I think that
00:27:12
Speaker
A lot of the things that can help us with discipline and can be used in a really productive, healthy way, like non-restrictive way, is getting labeled by anti-diet culture as disordered eating habits, and I really just disagree with that.
00:27:28
Speaker
And I'll be honest, this is a really complicated topic because for sure there are so many different things to explore here, right? Like anti-diet culture is something that's really intriguing to me. And I read a couple of different articles today already that just I'm like, Oh my gosh, those are such good points about how, um, I don't know. There's just like so many different factors that go into it.
00:27:50
Speaker
And I am absolutely not the most educated on it and I freely admit that. But what I will say is that I have lots and lots of clients and friends saying that they would like to lose weight and take care of their health to feel better and to have better mobility and longevity. And they want to do it in a way that honors their body. And now they're feeling really confused because people have made them feel like they're wrong for having this desire to start with.
00:28:21
Speaker
And to me that just says, okay, so somewhere along the way, we're trying to like make a new path away from diet culture. And we're trying to like carve out a new space for myself. But when I have a lot of people feeling like they are wrong for having that desire, it just makes me feel like, okay, we've gotten a little bit off track here. So I want to leave you with the reminder that weight and weight loss will not give you more worth.
00:28:51
Speaker
And weight loss also does not equal better health. And also that thin does not mean healthy.
Health Beyond Size and Personal Agency
00:29:01
Speaker
And I think that that's a huge thing that we get wrong is that there's an assumption if I'm thinner, I'm more healthy, or someone who is thin automatically is healthy. And that's not true. On the flip side of that, someone who is in a bigger body absolutely does not mean that they're less healthy.
00:29:20
Speaker
And that's where a lot of the conversation about like medical bias, medical discrimination comes in for sure. Another thought is that desiring weight loss does not equal fat phobia or self hatred.
00:29:36
Speaker
And that rejecting the notion of wanting to lose weight or needing to lose weight is absolutely right. Like for some people getting to a place of saying like, I reject wanting to lose weight anymore. I have wanted that my whole life and I don't want that for myself anymore. And like in embracing size that absolutely is right for some people.
00:30:00
Speaker
And like I say, over and over again, what is right for one person is not automatically right for the next person.
Conclusion: Personal Health Path and Therapy Reminder
00:30:08
Speaker
You are your own expert and you have to find what is right for you. And you cannot get
00:30:15
Speaker
You cannot figure that out by listening to someone else. You can't get it from a diet program. You can't get it from a podcast, not even this one. That is something that you truly have to find for yourself because nobody else could do that work for you. This is your journey and you get to decide the destination that you land up on.
00:30:35
Speaker
So that's it for today. I hope this was a good discussion on diet culture versus anti diet culture. If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to leave them, um, on the show or DM me on Instagram at underscore empower, wait, no at empower underscore counseling. And we'll talk to you later.
00:30:56
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Outside of Session. Remember, while I am a licensed therapist, this podcast is not a substitute for individual therapy. The contents of this episode are for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you are having a mental health emergency, please dial 911 for immediate assistance or dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.