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.
In February, Valentine's Day is an opportunity to celebrate love. Healthy relationships, both romantic and platonic, consist of supporting another person through the good and bad times and being supported by them. However, when the person you are in a relationship with is struggling with or recovering from an eating disorder, you may wonder how to help support them throughout the healing process.
Valentine’s Day is associated with love, romance, and an occasional giant teddy bear. While the idea of the holiday is about feeling an abundance of love and sharing that with others, it can often be a challenging and lonely day, especially in recovery from an eating disorder.
It is no secret that holidays can be stressful if you are struggling with or recovering from an eating disorder. From parties to potlucks, this sort of anxiety is not exclusive to holidays. Social gatherings for sporting events can be just as tricky.
The months between January and March become filled with cold, chilly weather. However, winter may bring about seasonal affective disorder for those recovering from an eating disorder.
While it is no secret that eating disorders and food or body distress have an immense negative impact on your physical body, they also significantly impact your brain and thought patterns. In the recovery process, it is essential to take back your thoughts and reestablish a positive self-talk practice.
Have you ever been unhappy with your appearance and decided to go ‘on’ a diet? Perhaps at first, you feel really good about this decision. You cut out certain food groups and start to lose weight. Eventually, you miss the foods you are no longer ‘allowed’ to eat and decide to eat them. Once you’ve broken the seal, you choose to go ‘off’ the diet and eat what you want, maybe even more than you want. You are filled with guilt for ‘failing.’ Sound familiar? If so, you may have been trapped in the diet cycle.
Happy New Year! Diet culture takes advantage of this time when individuals feel they have a fresh start and a new year to look ahead to. It is easy to get swept up in the message that you must push yourself and make changes to have a meaningful year.
Setting a goal and working towards it can be an empowering feeling. New Year’s resolutions have become a landmark of goal-setting for millions of people in Western culture. However, diet culture has managed to co-opt the meaning of what is meant to be personal, individualized resolutions into toxic, fear-mongering, and often fatphobic messaging.
Now that it is 2023, everyone has been discussing their New Year’s resolutions and the “New Year, New Me” mindset. Often, these are followed up with wishes to lose weight, be “healthier,” and sign up for some fitness regimen. The diet culture industry takes advantage of this time by advertising different diet plans and gym discounts to fuel this idea even more.
The beginning of January brings about the potential for inspiring resolutions and goals. But unfortunately, the new year also provides an opportunity for diet culture to influence how people view their bodies and food.
The new year is right around the corner, and with it comes our culture’s fixation on resolutions. While new year’s resolutions aren’t explicitly bad, the overwhelming messaging behind resolutions creates pressure to change your body size, shape, eating habits, and lifestyle, emphasizing your value defined by your appearance.
