The Demonization Of Carbs: How Social Media Is Bringing Back Toxic Diet Culture

Imagine watching a psychological thriller where the villain is a piece of bread – absurd, right? Unfortunately this unreasonable plot encapsulates the toxic approach that people, especially those who are chronically involved in online diet culture, have towards food. Social media platforms, including Tiktok and Instagram, have once again returned with a ‘trend’ that undermines healthy eating habits by villainizing essential nutrients like carbohydrates and normalising starvation under the guise of a ‘calorie deficit’ diet. Creators posing as professional nutritionists online either fail to recognise or choose not to acknowledge that the millions of likes they receive on their ‘healthy’ videos come at the cost of promoting risky behaviour and body image issues, particularly amongst teenagers, who seem to be their target audience.  

While scrolling through social media, one might come across a typical ‘what I eat in a day’ video which usually consists of a self-proclaimed nutritionist indulging in overnight oats for breakfast, ‘healthy’ açai bowls for lunch, and herbal tea for dinner. These so-called ‘meals’ often exclude entire food groups especially carbohydrates and fibre since they are negatively perceived as catalysts of weight gain. The videos place heavy emphasis on calories either by including the number of calories next to every food item shown or by promoting calorie tracker apps like Myfitnesspal, compelling their audience to rethink their diet and develop, if not worsen, their disordered eating habits. The misinformation in the video shines as brightly as their ‘healthy green smoothies’: e.g. the flawed notion that weight is the most accurate indicator of one’s health. Furthermore, the uncanny focus on kilograms promotes abnormal habits. For instance, a gym enthusiast posted a video of himself eating ice to lessen his daily food intake, while another creator attempted to restrain her sweet cravings by smelling a bar of chocolate while eating ice cubes. 

The recurring pattern of social media misusing certain words has not spared the term ‘calorie deficit’, which seems to be a part of every influencer’s diet. While a calorie deficit refers to consuming fewer calories than an individual burns, leading to gradual weight loss, influencers have exploited this concept to promote unhealthy lifestyles through products that they are paid to market. These ‘meal replacement’ products like juices and shakes allegedly keep users full for hours, in exchange for their nutrition. Furthermore, creators exploit terms like ‘pilates princess’ and ‘that girl aesthetic’– to advertise excessive gym routines, low-carb meals, and strict deficit under the guise of ‘health’ and ‘fitness’  – giving these labels negative connotations. 

One cannot entirely blame influencers and their desperation to profit by encouraging unhealthy behavior. Audiences who follow the advice of influencers without consulting an actual nutritionist or dietician create health and psychological problems for themselves, like the starvation syndrome, that can completely destroy their relationship with food. For example, many users skip their meals in an attempt to lower their daily calorie intake and lose weight, not realising the long-term, negative consequences. Dr. Fatima Cody Standford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, notes how the idea of “‘a calorie in and a calorie out’ when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it’s just wrong”. These destructive habits don’t only cause mental and physical problems, but have detrimental effects on an individuals social life, causing them to self-isolate, withdraw from interactions, and neglect their personal hygiene. The audience fails to recognise the genetic factors that contribute in creating the culturally deemed ‘perfect body’ that they see online, causing them to depend entirely on toxic habits to replicate it.  However, by blindly applying social media advice to one’s lifestyle, it becomes obvious who paid attention in their biology class and who didn’t. 

The sudden rise in diet culture is encouraged through algorithms which often promote weight loss content, amplify influencer endorsements, and prioritise posts that generate high engagement. However, this trend represents the broader issue of social media impacting the lifestyles and mindsets of individuals in a harmful manner. These fifteen second videos have the power to create body image issues, feelings of anxiety and depression, and body dysmorphia, through a constant comparison with others’ virtually curated personas that last a lifetime. These habits don’t only create self-esteem issues, but also restrict people from leading happy lives by condemning them to be cautious about everything they eat. There’s a huge difference between watching what one eats and fearing food to the extent that it ruins one’s mental and ironically, physical health, leading to issues including hair loss, low iron, or low calcium.

The resemblance of 2025 diet culture to the current Y2K trend to mimic the early 2000’s is uncanny. For instance, the ‘heroin chic’ body beauty standard, which was popular in 1990’s fashion, has made a comeback. This trend was characterised by traits associated with the abuse of heroin: pale skin, dark circles, and stringy hair, and is being mimicked through the calorie deficit diet today. Though the latter doesn’t promote any type of drug intake, it aims to promote an unhealthy lifestyle similar to achieving a heroin chic-esque look. Furthermore, the Size 0 culture of the 2000’s has been rebranded as a ‘lean’ or ‘toned’ body that is achieved through starvation, and has interestingly coincided with, if not been promoted by the return of low-rise jeans. A report published by Vogue Business under its 2025 spring/summer inclusivity review noted the heavy decline in the body positivity movement as its “progress has stalled and we are facing a worrying return to using extremely thin models, amid the Ozempic boom’. The increasing popularity of semaglutide drugs being used for weight loss and the “shaming of women for their body size” as described by Renee Engeln, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, amplifies the effect of toxic diet culture. 

The spread of toxic diet culture stands as yet another example of why social media beauty standards should not be normalised, regardless of how convincing the pseudo daily routines of certain influencers may be. As Dr. Anita Johnston says, “counting calories is not the answer, because eating is not the problem”,  one needs to start respecting the food on their plate instead of attaching numbers to every grain. There are numerous products already being marketed on the internet, and an unhealthy relationship with food should definitely not be one of them. 

• beauty
• college
• culture
• diet
• health
• social media