Happy New Year!
As we kick off 2023 you can be rest assured that weight loss programs will waste no time. Their PR teams are already pumping out commercials and targeted ads for their bullsh*t diet programs. They are all the same and will set you up for failure — yippee!
In accordance with this festive tradition of being bombarded with promises of easy weight loss every January, I have been witness to quite a few of these commercials while my parents watch Food Network. The other day, my younger sibling and I burst out laughing over Nutrisystem’s ad this year because of the phone number they provided: 877-396-THIN.
It saddens me that it still needs to be reiterated in 2023 that thin ≠ healthy! And if these diet programs were really trying to encourage a healthy lifestyle, the words “thin,” “slim” or “skinny” would be nowhere near their advertising.
The diet industry does not care if you are healthy or not. It simply preys on insecurity, profits off of it and when their promises of shedding pounds in no time proves to be a sham, these companies make even more money when their dissatisfied customers come back for another solution.
Diets don’t work because they are often incredibly restrictive and encourage you to not listen to your body and eat intuitively. I’m not a medical professional and I do not claim to be, but I am positive that your eating schedule shouldn’t rule your life, leave you consistently unsatisfied and rid your life of foods that bring you joy.
Diet culture impacts everyone in some shape or form, but the ways in which it goes about it can differ. For younger generations, social media seems to be one of the most common ways harmful diet culture rhetoric is distributed. In viewing these weight loss program commercials, however, it seemed that they were mostly targeting middle-aged women.
This reminded me of the “almond a day mom” trend on TikTok where people, typically teenage daughters, would make jokes about their mothers’ problematic language, behavior and restriction around food and what it was like being raised around this kind of mentality. While they are comedic and often quite relatable, they are also quite depressing.
Impossible beauty standards, disordered eating and the cultural expectations of thinness are obviously still rampant today, but there is also significantly more advocacy against these pressures as well as support for those struggling with eating disorders or disordered eating. Our parents were assailed by the same ED and diet culture rhetoric that we are today, but outlets for or spaces to discuss the pain that it inflicts aren’t where they are now, and that undoubtedly sticks with a person.
In 2023, commit to being anti-diet. Commit to being anti “quick fix” and anti-fad diet. Commit to showing compassion for your body and giving it the adequate fuel that it needs.
Commit to breaking the cycle of diet advice being passed down from generation to generation.
Whether diet culture manifests itself in your life through weight loss program commercials, “almond a day mothers,” social media or any other vehicle for shame and misguided advice this New Year, you have the power to rise above it! Taking care of yourself, asking for help and encouraging others to do the same is the coolest thing you can do.