Breaking Up With Diet Culture

Posted by Suzanne Dietrich on Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Breaking Up With Diet Culture -

Feature Article in The Community Edition, Feb. 5, 2020

This might be one of the hardest relationships you’ll ever need to end – but I can almost guarantee that it’ll make you a much better version of yourself. As a non-diet-dietitian, it’s my job to help people move away from diet culture when that’s their intention.

Diet culture, refers to any factor in our environment that makes us want to change our food/drink, activity, medication or supplement choices in order to change our body shape or size.

Diet culture is rampant everywhere – permeating into our lives from the multi-billion dollar diet industry, the fashion and beauty industry and even through some health care providers. Diet culture messaging targets all ages – be it through my kids’ Berenstain Bears books, weight loss ads targeting teens or 96-year-olds in the dining room at the nursing homes.

Diet culture’s toxic message is “one size must fit all and one diet fits all.” It fails to share that weight is 80 percent determined by our genetics or that 80-95 percent of people on diets regain the weight they’ve lost and often more within three years. It also fails to talk about the dangers of yo-yo dieting or how it is okay (and can be healthy) to not be thin.

Read more here as I discuss hormones, fatphobia, body autonomy, mental health, intuitive eating and balance.

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