When you hear the word ‘diet’ it automatically takes your mind to all the wrong things one shouldn’t practice. Well, it is true that diet culture might have taken a wrong turn in this age of social media where we are always wanting to look a certain way, and present a self that fits what is considered a healthy body just by the way it looks. We got celebrity nutritionist Shweta Shah, founder of Eatfit24/7, to elaborate on the culture of dieting in the age of body positivity.
Diet culture in the times of body positivity
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Diet culture is the widespread belief that appearance and body size are more important than physical and psychological well-being. Diet culture has become a rigid set of expectations about valuing thinness and attractiveness over physical health and emotional well-being, whereas body positivity has the goal in embracing our true bodies however they may look! Mind you, it doesn’t mean unhealthy bodies are accepted in body positivity, rather it is a way of loving our bodies so that we can make healthier choices for it.
Why is diet culture the enemy when it comes to body positivity?
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Diet culture has normalised the idea of cutting out whole food groups like carbs, dairy, sugar, etc., to attain a polished body that would run its course in a few years. It has also made a huge deal of restricting calories to lose weight without considering the mental health of a person.
Encouraging cheat meals and the idea of food being “earned” or a “prize” instead of a “necessity” to sustain life is the biggest part of diet culture talk. Categorizing food just solely on the basis of losing weight and not seeing food as something that nourishes our body is the problem that body positivity is going against.
How do you know whether you are practicing diet culture yourself?
Well, ask yourself this: If eating or not eating a particular food or food group is causing you more psychological stress than the benefits of eating that food, then you should definitely set your intentions right at that very moment and not fall under the influence of diet culture.
Health is a four-legged table
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Each leg represents an important factor that plays a role in keeping your health balanced. The four important pillars are—nutritious food, sleep, stress management and exercise.
If one leg is cut off or jiggles, it becomes really difficult to manage your overall health through the other pillars. The other pillars can make up for the lost leg for some time but, after a long period of time, the table loses its balance with just three legs.
What diet culture does is puts the pressure of losing weight or look a certain way on starving yourself, but it is also very important that you get in good amount of sleep, exercise and manage your stress for a healthy life, because it is very essential to try to keep all the pillars in check from time to time.
Only food is not the answer and it shouldn’t be. Diet culture has us believing that just by dieting, which literally translates to starving, you can lose weight, which is untrue and should be stopped.
Food gives nourishment to the cells, for us to be able to carry on our daily work and keep our body energized. Anything against that is diet culture, and realizing this fact and acting right towards food is the true essence of body positivity!
Lead Image Credit: Diana Penty, Instagram
