Diet Culture and Its Effects on Mental Health
You may know that diet culture is damaging, but what exactly makes it so harmful? Diet culture can affect mental health in many ways, even for those who do not have eating disorders. Because of exposure to diet culture our entire lives, it can be challenging to unlearn these mindsets, especially if one is not aware of how diet culture affects them.
By: Samreen Khan
Were you ever warned as a child that overconsumption of “unhealthy” foods would make you gain weight? Do New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and promises to achieve a bikini body for summer sound familiar? These ideas all find their roots in diet culture, a set of arbitrary ideas that have been ingrained into our society that value thinness over health and promote disordered mindsets around food and our bodies.
How Has the ‘Ideal Body’ Changed Over the Years?
Over time, diet culture has manifested in different ways; in earlier decades, it was no secret that being thin was attractive. Thinness was explicitly praised, and being skinny was always the goal. Although many people believe we have moved past these ideals as a society, the truth is that diet culture’s grip on society remains just as strong as before – perhaps slightly less obvious than before. In recent years, “fit” has become the new skinny. “Thinspo” morphed into “fitspo”, ribs turned into abs, and weight loss turned into fat loss (emphasizing the loss of fat instead of muscle, as being lean is the goal now). And yet, at its core, these concepts are all the same. They encourage disordered eating mindsets and actively value smaller bodies over larger ones, no matter if these smaller bodies are called “skinny” or “fit.”
The number of times I’ve heard friends or family call themselves “fat” for eating more than usual is saddening; not only is it usually a false perception of themselves, it suggests that being fat is inherently shameful, which is one of the foundational pillars of diet culture. Fatness is demonized to us from a young age as we are encouraged to watch our weight and bombarded with rules that assign moral value to food. Chips are “junk.” Candy is “bad.” Carbs are “fattening.” Fruit, oats, salad – but only without dressing! – are “clean,” but opinions even vary on the healthiness of these foods. In reality, health doesn’t reside in a single type of food. Health is the culmination of mental and physical wellness, the criteria for which varies from person to person. But diet culture insists on a “one size fits all” ideal for everyone, whether regarding their diet, appearance, or activity levels.
Diet Culture and Mental Health
Growing up constantly surrounded by diet culture can impact mental health in several ways. In general, it promotes low self-esteem and ties our self-worth to our appearance (which is considered indicative of our diet). Diet culture enforces the idea that we are not good enough as we are – we must always strive to be thinner, fitter, and smaller. It convinces us that smaller is better, so we are led to believe that we’re invaluable unless we’re small enough. This low self-esteem can, in turn, massively affect other mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. Diet culture forces us to believe that anyone not actively trying to become smaller is lazy and unmotivated. Corporations capitalize on these insecurities by pushing us to pursue different fad diets, weight loss programs, and detoxes. Constantly trying to achieve this false ideal of health leaves us feeling useless when we don’t achieve it. Because beauty standards are always evolving and new diets are constantly emerging, it is impossible to feel fulfilled while chasing this state of perfection.
How Does Diet Culture Contribute to Disordered Eating and ED Behaviors?
The worst part of it is that diet culture normalizes disordered eating thoughts and habits. Labeling foods as “good” or bad,” restricting or even fasting to make up for food guilt, and even the basic concept of feeling guilty about eating certain foods in the first place all stem from diet culture. These mindsets and behaviors are implemented from a young age, making them even more challenging to unlearn if someone tries to create a healthy relationship with food later in life. Teenagers are taught to count calories and monitor their weight as if their bodies aren’t supposed to be growing and changing at this point in their life. Ingraining these harmful ideas so deeply can make people more susceptible to developing eating disorders.
How Does Diet Culture Interfere with ED Recovery?
Because of the way diet culture praises disordered eating behaviors, it makes it more difficult for many individuals to pursue recovery. Trying to form a healthy relationship with food while being overwhelmed by so many different misconceptions about health can cause confusion and turmoil, making recovery seem scarier than it may already feel. Judgment from others about food choices or weight fluctuations in recovery – comments fueled by diet culture ideals – are especially harmful, creating a sense of shame in many individuals.
Awareness about the detrimental impacts of diet culture on mental health has slowly been gaining traction. However, the unfortunate reality is that a majority of our society still relies on and abides by ideals set by diet culture, whether they realize it or not. Recovery from an eating disorder in itself is an act against diet culture. By unlearning these concepts and redefining what health means for us and those around us, we can slowly make a difference in how diet culture plagues our society.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating and body image issues. In addition to our full-time Day Treatment Program and Weeknight Intensive Outpatient Program, we offer high-quality programming, nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support, and various other groups and resources to help those seeking help for food concerns.
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This post was written by BALANCE Blog Contributor, Samreen Khan (she/her/he/him).
Samreen is a high school graduate with an ardent drive to de-stigmatize mental illness and eating disorders. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she experienced the harmful effects of “fitspo” culture firsthand for most of her childhood. Throughout her own recovery journey, she became passionate about deconstructing diet culture and raising awareness about eating disorders in her everyday life. Samreen began extending her own ideology of intuitive eating and body neutrality to others by publishing her own writing online when she was fourteen, and has since received several awards for her prose and poetry. She has conducted research on the biological and evolutionary implications of familial mental illness, and is currently taking college-level Sociology and Psychology courses with hopes to delve further into the social and cultural constructs that bolster disordered eating, especially within marginalized communities. She’s grateful for the opportunity to combine two of her strongest passions — writing and mental health — by working with BALANCE!