Trigger warning: mention of weight loss, weight, diet, eating disorders, mental health
Whenever I write an article, I always write with the intention of sharing my experiences or the experiences of people that surround me, through an open and honest lens. Writing about dieting, diet culture and weight is always going to be difficult and sensitive topic to discuss for not only me but those around me.
TRIGGER WARNING: For me, writing this article was unfortunately motivated, by the ‘promotional placing’ of the diet products in the Boots on the University of Nottingham Campus. Now some of you may be thinking Amy what do you mean ‘promotional placing’ and why in inverted commas? Well, like any university student, I was in a mad rush in the morning to make it in time for my 9am Spanish seminar and I didn’t have time to make my lunch, so naturally I went to Boots to get myself a meal deal to set me up for the day…. It wasn’t until my friend pointed out to me and said, ‘Amy look the diet and fitness section is right next to the confectionary/ chocolate section’. To my absolute horror I realise that the appetite control tablets, the dual action carb and fat control tablets, and the slimfast milkshakes are right next to the confectionary display.
Immediately, I realised how damaging this is and what’s worse is that this ‘promotional placing’ is in a shop in a university’s student union. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), eating disorders typically begin between 18 and 21 years of age; and the association estimates that between 10-20% of women and 4-10% of men in college suffer from an eating disorder, and rates are unfortunately on the rise. Similarly, the NEDA reports that 35% of ‘normal’ dieter’s progress to unhealthy dieting, and of those 20-25% develop partial or full syndrome eating disorders.
Now, the aim of stating these statistics wasn’t to overwhelm you with data, but it was rather for you to realise how prevalent eating disorders are, particularly within the young adult demographic, and that having appetite suppressants next to the confectionary section is always going to be so harmful.
Another thing that we must realise is that many eating disorders/ disordered eating habits go untreated/ unnoticed, for many opening up about eating habits is hard, myself included. The morning of writing this article, I was searching detox weight loss camps- why, why was I doing this??!! I was doing this because in recent weeks there has been a spike in the number of adverts and mentioning’s across social media platforms that it’s not too late to get into shape for summer- ‘get bikini body ready’. – EVERY BODY IS A BIKINI BODY.
Unfortunately, there is a whole lexicon around diet culture, that we do not even realise is in our day to day language- such as saying ‘I’m going to the gym to burn off that dessert I had yesterday’, asking ourselves is the food we want worth it, we even have gone as far as ascribing virtue to our food choices- naughty foods and good foods (btw foods that the diet culture has deemed healthy to be ‘good’). All of these aspects are so inextricably woven into the fabric of our society that for many we are not even consciously aware of how prevalent it has become in our daily lexicon.
According to the anti-diet dietitian Christy Harrison, the author of anti-diet, diet culture has many nuances in its definition but, in a nutshell, it is a set of beliefs that worships thinness and equates it with health and moral virtue. Diet culture in essence creates a lens that colours our judgements and decisions about how we actively treat ourselves and thus feel about our overall appearance.
The fact of the matter is, there is no ‘right’ body size, this is advice that I even need to start telling myself more often, because it is true. No diet, no person, no company should be telling you how you should look. As evidenced by the 98% failure rate of diets, diet culture essentially just sets us up to failure (in most cases), whilst setting us up to feel bad about ourselves, so we try the next fad diet. It is an endless cycle of capitalism, the upsetting truth is that the diet industry in the UK is worth an estimated £2bn a year according to the British Heart Foundation, with some estimates suggesting that the typical diet last only 19 days.
Diet culture is unfortunately everywhere, and with diet trends, and ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures taking over many of our ‘for you pages’ on TikTok, it is so clear how damaging it is to our society. The fact that even at the first sign of hunger, instead of giving your body the food it needs, you are told or even think, you should delay eating and instead have a glass of water ‘in case you’re actually just thirsty’. And I mean I could go on and on with examples of how much the diet culture permeates our society and culture, but the fact of the matter is that it is so damaging, but it is so integrated into our society that it is hard to get out of the so-called ‘diet-culture’ mindset.
Having said this, the anti-diet movement is working to debunk the diet culture myth that thinness equals health and is working to reject diets for the purposes of weight loss. If anyone is looking to seek help with/ or is struggling with an eating disorder, please call 0808 801 0677 (England) for the Beat eating disorders helpline or get into contact with someone that you trust to offer you more support and guidance.