Diet culture

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Diet culture refers to a common set of trends and norms that may specifically affect those undertaking dieting or monitoring their caloric or nutritional intake. It often describes a set of societal beliefs pertaining to food and body image, primarily focused on losing weight, an endorsement of thinness as a high moral standard, and the alteration of food consumption. Scholars and activists believe that diet culture is often intertwined with racism and other forms of prejudice, and rely on an intersectional approach to discuss the interactions of prejudice based on gender, race, and weight. [1] As a term, "diet culture" is used as a framework for social analysis and as a critique of contemporary social standards and their impact on body images and health as it pertains to those classified as overweight and engaged in a diet regimen. [2]

Contents

History

While dieting for health reasons can be traced to ancient Greece, and a type of spiritually-focused eating disorder called holy anorexia was known in the Middle Ages, [3] the movement of dieting motivated specifically by weight loss emerged in the middle of the 19th century. William Banting's A Letter on Corpulence was a self-published work documenting his weight loss directed towards white middle-class men and is considered the earliest significant work on the topic. [4] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a move from plumpness to thinness as a sign of attractiveness in women led to women's magazines including dieting advice; other social changes include the popularisation of calorie counting as a dieting method, which was originally used for rationing in wartime. [4]

The second half of the 20th century marked the emergence of the fat acceptance movement, followed in the early 21st century by the body positivity movement. At the same time, there was widespread pressure applied to women to lose weight and remain thin, including through fad diets and public social pressure. [4] "Diet culture" as a term likely emerged in the early 2010s and has since been used to analyze past and current cultural and social sentiments. [5] The emergence of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic at the beginning of the 2020s and the associated cultural and social changes have led to arguments that a regression of diet culture has taken place. [4]

Use

Diet culture is often used as a framework for social analysis and critique. Among the topics primarily discussed is the use of critical terms for foods and their consumption, but also of the impact of diet culture on the social and medical treatment of overweight people. [2] The term is used by activists who believe that it causes harm, which can be considered a shared belief among anti-diet movements. [6] [7] Intuitive eating is considered by some to be a remedy against the negative effects of diet culture. [8]

The use of diet culture as an analytical framework is often associated with intersectionality and anti-racism based on the outsized impact of diet culture on people of color. [9] [10] Sabrina Strings, sociologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, argues that diet culture is used to enforce existing social hierarchies in a way that disadvantages marginalized groups. [11] Beginning in the late 19th century, scientific racism was used as a tool for criticizing the eating habits and weight of Black people, leading black women in particular to diet due to social pressure. [4] Black women were often accused by the medical community of having an "inability to control their 'animal appetites'", despite the lack of any scientific evidence. [4] [12] Diet culture has also been criticized for its outsized impact on the body image and mental health of the Latino community, and for denigrating its traditional foods and social structures in favor of western diets and culture. [13]

Language

The diet culture has its own jargon, including words such as: [14]

Reception

Diet culture is generally a term used to discuss contemporary approaches to dieting and body images in a critical way. There are concerns that it could promote body image issues, eating disorders, and other mental health issues. Due to these concerns and the negative appeal surrounding the term, diet culture has been reframed as a focus on fitness and health. This perspective centered around prioritizing individual well-being and health rather than emphasizing the improvement of one's physique by losing weight. [23] Commonly, there is a significant difference between what is recommended by healthcare professionals and what social media influencers advocate for. [24]

At the same time, those advocating against diet culture have faced accusations of spreading inaccurate information by denying or minimizing the health impact of excessive weight and unhealthy diets. Registered dietitian and research scientist Kevin Klatt described the claims by some junk food companies and paid influencers about the link between high body fat and chronic illness as "a fantasy and a total fairy tale", because having excess fat tissue is scientifically proven to cause some diseases. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients, have been shown to be no more effective than one another. As weight regain is common, diet success is best predicted by long-term adherence. Regardless, the outcome of a diet can vary widely depending on the individual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junk food</span> Unhealthy food high in sugar or fat

"Junk food" is a term used to describe food that is high in calories from macronutrients such as sugar and fat, and often also high in sodium, making it hyperpalatable, and low in dietary fiber, protein, or micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. It is also known as "high in fat, salt and sugar food". The term junk food is a pejorative dating back to the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fasting</span> Willing abstinence from, or reduced consumption of, food and/or drink

Fasting is abstention from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight, or to the metabolic state achieved after complete digestion and absorption of a meal. Metabolic changes in the fasting state begin after absorption of a meal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Fuhrman</span> American celebrity doctor (born 1953)

Joel Fuhrman is an American celebrity doctor who advocates a plant-based diet termed the "nutritarian" diet which emphasizes nutrient-dense foods. His practice is based on his nutrition-based approach to obesity and chronic disease, as well as promoting his products and books. He has written books promoting his dietary approaches including the bestsellers Eat to Live, Super Immunity, The Eat to Live Cookbook, The End of Dieting (2016) and The End of Heart Disease (2016). He sells a related line of nutrition-related products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eating</span> Ingestion of food

Eating is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, omnivores consume a mixture of both plant and animal matter, and detritivores eat detritus. Fungi digest organic matter outside their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies.

Orthorexia nervosa is a proposed eating disorder characterized by an excessive preoccupation with eating healthy food. The term was introduced in 1997 by American physician Steven Bratman, who suggested that some people's dietary restrictions intended to promote health may paradoxically lead to unhealthy consequences, such as social isolation, anxiety, loss of ability to eat in a natural, intuitive manner, reduced interest in the full range of other healthy human activities, and, in rare cases, severe malnutrition or even death.

Promotion of anorexia is the promotion of behaviors related to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. It is often referred to simply as pro-ana or ana. The lesser-used term pro-mia refers likewise to bulimia nervosa and is sometimes used interchangeably with pro-ana. Pro-ana groups differ widely in their stances. Most claim that they exist mainly as a non-judgmental environment for anorexics; a place to turn to, to discuss their illness, and to support those who choose to enter recovery. Others deny anorexia nervosa is a mental illness and claim instead that it is a lifestyle choice that should be respected by doctors and family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weight loss</span> Reduction of the total body mass

Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat, or lean mass. Weight loss can either occur unintentionally because of malnourishment or an underlying disease, or from a conscious effort to improve an actual or perceived overweight or obese state. "Unexplained" weight loss that is not caused by reduction in calorific intake or increase in exercise is called cachexia and may be a symptom of a serious medical condition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fad diet</span> Popular diet with claims not supported by science

A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; as such it is often considered a type of pseudoscientific diet. Fad diets are usually not supported by clinical research and their health recommendations are not peer-reviewed, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low-carbohydrate diet</span> Diets restricting carbohydrate consumption

Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diet (nutrition)</span> Sum of food consumed by an organism

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons. Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empty calories</span> Calories with no nutritional value

In human nutrition, empty calories are those calories found in foods and beverages composed primarily or solely of calorie-rich macronutrients such as sugars and fats, but little or no micronutrients, fibre, or protein. Foods composed mostly of empty calories have low nutrient density, meaning few other nutrients relative to their energy content. Empty calories are more difficult to fit into a diet that is both balanced and within TDEE, and so readily create an unhealthy diet.

The Cambridge Diet was a very-low-calorie meal replacement fad diet developed in the 1960s. The diet launched with different versions in the US and the UK. The US version filed for bankruptcy and shut down shortly after the deaths of several dieters. The UK diet has also been known as the Cambridge Weight Plan, but is now known as The 1:1 Diet.

Fat feminism, often associated with "body-positivity", is a social movement that incorporates feminist themes of equality, social justice, and cultural analysis based on the weight of a woman. This branch of feminism intersects misogyny and sexism with anti-fat bias. Fat feminists advocate body-positive acceptance for all bodies, regardless of their weight, as well as eliminating biases experienced directly or indirectly by fat people. Fat feminists originated during third-wave feminism and is aligned with the fat acceptance movement. A significant portion of body positivity in the third-wave focused on embracing and reclaiming femininity, such as wearing makeup and high heels, even though the second-wave fought against these things. Contemporary western fat feminism works to dismantle oppressive power structures which disproportionately affect working class poor people or poor people generally. It covers a wide range of topics such as diet culture, fat-phobia, representation in media, ableism, and employment discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of food</span> Study of food as it relates to society

The sociology of food is the study of food as it relates to the history, progression, and future development of society, encompassing its production, preparation, consumption, and distribution, its medical, ritual, spiritual, ethical and cultural applications, and related environmental and labor issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anorexia nervosa</span> Type of eating disorder

Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weight management</span> Techniques for maintaining body weight

Weight management refers to behaviors, techniques, and physiological processes that contribute to a person's ability to attain and maintain a healthy weight. Most weight management techniques encompass long-term lifestyle strategies that promote healthy eating and daily physical activity. Moreover, weight management involves developing meaningful ways to track weight over time and to identify the ideal body weights for different individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meal replacement</span> Food substitute with controlled quantities of calories and nutrients

A meal replacement is a drink, bar, soup, etc. intended as a substitute for a solid food, usually with controlled quantities of calories and nutrients. Some drinks come in powdered form or pre-mixed health shakes that can be cheaper than solid foods with identical health qualities. Medically prescribed meal replacement drinks include the body's necessary vitamins and minerals. Bodybuilders sometimes use meal replacements, not formulated for weight loss, to save food preparation time when eating 5-6 meals a day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childhood obesity in Australia</span> Overview of childhood obesity in Australia

Obesity is defined as the excessive accumulation of fat and is predominantly caused when there is an energy imbalance between calorie consumption and calorie expenditure. Childhood obesity is becoming an increasing concern worldwide, and Australia alone recognizes that 1 in 4 children are either overweight or obese.

References

  1. ↑ Multiple sources:
    • Nieto, Azahara (2024-03-14). "Diet culture, or why food is much more than just nutrition". El País . Archived from the original on 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
    • Kelly, Jane (2024-03-11). "What is 'Diet Culture' and How Can You Avoid Its Pitfalls and Accept Your Body?". UVAToday. University of Virginia. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
    • Sissons, Beth (2023-11-30). "Diet culture: What it is, its effects, and how to overcome it". Medical News Today . Archived from the original on 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
    • Jovanovski, Natalie; Jaeger, Tess (January–February 2022). "Demystifying 'diet culture': Exploring the meaning of diet culture in online 'anti-diet' feminist, fat activist, and health professional communities". Women's Studies International Forum . 90 (102558). doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102558. Archived from the original on 2024-05-03. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
    • Harrison, Christy (2019). Anti-Diet - Reclaim your time, money, well-being and happiness through intuitive eating. Little, Brown Spark. p. 12. ISBN   978-1-5293-8120-7.
  2. 1 2 Mosley, Tonya (April 25, 2023). "Diet culture can hurt kids. This author advises parents to reclaim the word 'fat'". NPR . Archived from the original on 2024-09-24. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  3. 1 2 Griffin, J; Berry, E M (2003-01-01). "A modern day holy anorexia? Religious language in advertising and anorexia nervosa in the West". European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 57 (1): 43–51. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601511. ISSN   0954-3007. PMID   12548296.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Katz, Cameron; Elledge, Annie (2024-01-25). "Diet Culture Has Been Around Since Ancient Greece". Teen Vogue . Condé Nast. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  5. ↑ Kelly, Jane (2024-03-11). "What is 'Diet Culture' and How Can You Avoid Its Pitfalls and Accept Your Body?". UVAToday. University of Virginia. Archived from the original on 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  6. ↑ Chang, Alisa (April 10, 2024). "How Big Food co-opted the anti-diet movement for profit". NPR . Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  7. 1 2 Chavkin, Sasha; Gilbert, Caitlin; O'Connor, Anahad (April 3, 2024). "As obesity rises, Big Food and dietitians push 'anti-diet' advice". Washington Post.
  8. ↑ Byrne, Leanna (6 April 2019). "Intuitive eating leads backlash against diet culture". BBC . Archived from the original on 2024-09-25. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  9. ↑ King, Chrissy. "How Anti-Racism Helps to Dismantle Diet Culture". Shape . Dotdash Meredith. Archived from the original on 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  10. ↑ Jovanovski, Natalie; Jaeger, Tess (January–February 2022). "Demystifying 'diet culture': Exploring the meaning of diet culture in online 'anti-diet' feminist, fat activist, and health professional communities". Women's Studies International Forum . 90 (102558). doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102558. Archived from the original on 2024-05-03. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  11. ↑ Miller, Lisa (2024-04-21). "Let Them Eat … Everything". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2024-05-01. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  12. ↑ Strings, Sabrina; Bacon, Lindo (2020-07-01). "The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity". Scientific American . Springer Nature. Archived from the original on 2024-08-23. Retrieved 2024-08-23.
  13. ↑ Zaragoza, Alex (2024-01-05). "Diet culture tricks us into thinking our cultural foods aren't healthy". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on 2024-05-01. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Spinks, Rosie; Griffin, Annaliese; Sen, Indrani (2018-12-29). "A handy guide to the toxic language of diet culture". Quartz. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  15. ↑ Halpern, Mark. "The Question of Change in Language." Vocabula Review 8, no. 2 (February 2006): 1–25.
  16. ↑ Benedictus, Leo (2016-08-29). "The truth about superfoods". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  17. ↑ "Coconut oil isn't magic or poison. It's just food". Quartz. 2018-08-24. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  18. 1 2 Tandoh, Ruby (2016-05-13). "The Unhealthy Truth Behind 'Wellness' and 'Clean Eating'". VICE. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  19. ↑ Freedman, David H. (2013-06-20). "How Junk Food Can End Obesity". The Atlantic. ISSN   2151-9463 . Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  20. ↑ Ihnat, Gwen (2018-07-20). "Cheat Day Land Museum Here To Perpetrate Unhealthy Relationships With Food". The Takeout. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  21. ↑ Wilson, Bee (2017-08-11). "Why we fell for clean eating". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  22. ↑ Magazine, Smithsonian; Schultz, Colin. "Myth Busted: Americans Don't Gain 10 Pounds Over the Holidays". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  23. ↑ Tagle, Andee; Schneider, Clare Marie (January 4, 2022). "Diet culture is everywhere. Here's how to fight it". NPR . Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
  24. ↑ Sissons, Beth (2023-11-30). "Diet culture: What it is, its effects, and how to overcome it". Medical News Today . Archived from the original on 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
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