Taking Back Healthy Living

What does 'diet culture' actually mean?

According to Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDRD (author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating), "Diet Culture" is described in 4 ways:

• It worships thinness and equates it with health and moral virtue...

• It promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status...

• It demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others...

• and it oppresses people who don't match up with its' supposed picture of health... (https://christyharrison.com/blog/what-is-diet-culture)

Diet culture has hijacked so much.

It has hijacked our thoughts.

It has hijacked the idea of health.

It has hijacked nutritious food.

It has hijacked the experience of moving our bodies.

Often, when people are introduced to the concept of intuitive eating, they push back.

"You're saying it's okay to eat donuts, but it's not healthy to eat 32 donuts every day!!".

"You're saying it doesn't matter if you're fat or skinny but it can't be healthy to be fat, it causes all sorts of health issues!".

"You're saying I should just eat all day?!".

"OK, I'll just eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and watch my health improve...".

These are examples of ways in which diet culture has insidiously wrapped itself so tightly around our brains. The mere mention of an idea that is anti-diet is often hard to even try to understand.

If we unpack all of the above statements, we'll see that none of them are based in reality.

Intuitive Eating does not encourage people to eat 32 donuts every single day. Intuitive Eating encourages people to tune into their bodies' cues and eat what their bodies want.

For as long as we can remember, diet culture has cultivated in us the belief that our body wants food that is bad for it. We must control our body's urge for unhealthy foods, by restricting it and reigning it in with strict food rules that dictate what and when we should eat-- never mind what or when our body wants to eat.

In reality, our bodies, when they trust that we allow them unconditional permission to eat all foods, will crave a variety of foods. Our bodies will sometimes crave foods that are sweet, or savory, sometimes salty, perhaps bitter, or umami. Sometimes it will crave more nutritious food, sometimes more nostalgic food, and sometimes it will crave less nutritious but very enjoyable food. Our bodies will also guide us to eat the right amount for our healthy growth and functioning.

Intuitive Eating, and Health at Every Size, does not insist that it is healthy to be fat. It also (unlike diet culture) does not insist that it is healthy to be thin. Intuitive Eating, in fact, insists that one's weight has much less to do with his health than we've been conditioned to believe.

What impacts health, if not for weight?

Among other things (for example, genetics):

Our overall nutritional intake--do we eat a varied diet that includes fruits, veggies, whole grains, protein, carbs, omega 3's?

Our activity level--do we move our bodies? Strengthen our heart and our skeletal muscle and raise our level of "feel-good hormones"?

Our water intake--do we drink at least 8 cups of water each day?

Our sleep habits--do we do what we can do get adequate and restful sleep each night?

All of those things can be accomplished equally well by a fat person and a thin person, and without any regard for how weight is affected by them.

Diet culture has hijacked some, if not all of these things (maybe water drinking and sleep have been spared?).

Instead of being related to as a form of self-care, they are often associated with restriction and negative body-image and trying to shrink one's body to make it more acceptable.

But the thing is, your health does not improve any more if you eat nutritious food that you don't enjoy, or force yourself to endure exercise that you hate every minute of.

By actively working towards a mindset of accepting our bodies as they are and appreciating them for what they enable us to do, we can set SMART goals to create habits that will improve our health from the viewpoint of caring for ourselves, instead of punishing our bodies (which have done nothing wrong).

Think, adding nutrition to your diet through healthy foods you enjoy, without worrying about restricting your intake or forcing yourself to eat foods that you don't like. Or, trying to fit in any physical activity in a way that you do enjoy and focusing on the benefits it gives you unrelated to your weight.

In all likelihood, these activities will then engender more joy and positive experiences and less frustration, guilt, shame, and resentment. This is the road to truly improved health.