What is Diet Culture?

This post is all about diet culture, diet culture definition, and examples of diet culture.

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I suspect you’ve heard the term “diet culture” tossed around and plastered all over social media. And maybe you’re not really sure what it is…

Well, my dear friend, get comfy because you’re gonna ‘hear it’ like it is…

You are going to learn all about the 3 most popular topics:

1. What is Diet Culture
2. Diet Culture History
3. Examples of Diet Culture

AND most importantly! You’ll find a healthy dose of what God says about diet culture sprinkled throughout the post…

By the end of this blog post, you will have all the details on what is diet culture, why is it harmful, and how to deflect it!

Diet culture, body shame, low self-confidence…

Where did it all begin? 🤷‍♀️

First, when did you start attributing your value to your weight or your size?

Diet culture in America started in the mid-1800s.

But…

Let’s go back to the ’80s…

If you’re anything like me — a little girl brought up in Latina culture. Mami (mom), las tías (aunties), and the women that surrounded you struggled with their weight.

AND they were mostly openly bummed out by it — going from one diet to the next…

Or, on the flip side, you were surrounded by thin women — women that praised their bodies…

And frivolously looked down upon others and criticized those that looked different.

But, in either case — the mind of a woman is inconspicuously subjected to toxic diet culture for as long as we can recall…

The “ideal woman” was in your face – she was everywhere! From TV (which was your favorite Charlie’s Angel?). Magazine Covers (Cindy Crawford). Actresses, and Barbie…

OMG, don’t get me started with Barbie!

Barbies were unnaturally thin. I did a whole study on Barbies and presented it at a women’s Christian convention.

Yes, I’m serious! That’s a topic for a whole other blog post, lol!

So, what is a young girl supposed to think?

It’s heartbreaking, but many young women and not-so-young women say to themselves: “I have to be skinny to fit in — to measure up to society’s standard…”

The pressure to be skinny, thin, modelesque, club-ready… didn’t have a name back then, but my friend, it was 100% diet culture!

You and I are in an age where anti-diet culture is all the rage, and I-AM-HERE-FOR-IT.

The Holy Spirit has me hyped up about this topic — can you tell?! lol

1. What is Diet Culture?

Back in the ‘80s, we didn’t have Google.

You couldn’t say: “Hey Siri, what is diet culture?”

Thank God for technology…

And the brave women who started shedding light on toxic diet culture!

Now, we can learn what it is.

Christy Harrison’s Anti-Diet book is the most straightforward book I’ve found, and it packs a bunch of gems on this topic!

Harrison’s diet culture definition is:

• “A system of beliefs that worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue.
• Promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher moral and health status.
• In addition, it demonizes certain foods and food groups, and ways of eating while elevating others.
• And oppresses people who don’t match up with its supposed picture of health and well-being.”

Let’s pause here for a quick second…

Harrison uses words like worship and demonizes. As a Christian woman, you are very familiar with these terms.

Now… let’s break down toxic diet culture a little further…

Just as a review — what do these words mean?

Worship: God created you to worship Him. No if or buts about that, right?

So…

If you worship thinness, appearance, and shape above your physical health…

And, dare I say, your spiritual well-being…

Would you agree there is some work that you have to allow the Holy Spirit to do on your heart and mind?

Demonizes foods: this is a strong word to use about food!

In the simplest term — this means that society calls bad what God has said is good!

Shocking? No, not really…

When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they chose to listen to Satan’s voice over God’s voice.

They allowed that deceitful-crafty snake to tempt them into eating the forbidden fruit.

Diet culture’s voice is so overwhelmingly loud! It’s everywhere…

Listen, when you’re governed by diet culture’s rules, your life suffers.

But by God’s grace, you get to present yourself before the throne of grace. To ask Him to guard your heart with His Word.

AND incessantly check in — to make sure our lamps are continually burning oil…

2. Diet Culture History

Let’s start by stating a fact:

Diet culture was and is built on a foundation of lies.

And you and I both know that lies have been around since the serpent in the garden…

Now…

Let’s take a look at what Harrison says in her book:

She traces diet culture history way back! As far back as ancient Greece, and shows us society’s moralistic opinions against fatness.

Here’s what Christy says…

“This was because of the belief system that ancient Greeks had about balance and moderation and all things being seen as a virtue. So fatness was seen as an imbalance to be “corrected.”

Though that perspective “went away” for centuries. But, it began to resurface in the mid-19th century.

“Ideas about the value of different bodies and of different people were really in the foreground. And that started to lead to a demonization of fatness,” she says. Furthermore, “early evolutionary biologists who are working around — the turn of the 19th century — started to point to fatness as a mark of “evolutionary inferiority” because people who had more fat on their bodies were supposedly women and people of color and groups that were being demonized at the time.”

My beautiful sister in Christ, diet culture works hard to keep you from recognizing your true identity...

The amount of fat you have on your body DOES NOT make you less than…

Your identity is in Him • You are His daughter • Stand in your daughtership 👑

3. Examples of Diet Culture

So, now that you have some diet culture facts…

Let’s take a look at some examples of diet culture.

• when people discuss their newest way to lose weight…

• saying, “I haven’t eaten all day” or “I worked out hard today” as an excuse to eat…

• the intention of: “I’ll start my diet on Monday…”

• measuring their self-worth based on the number on the scale, jean size, or how little they can eat…

• the weight loss ads popping up everywhere — insinuating that if we are not thin and have tight bodies we are not good enough…

• praising others on how great they look because they’ve lost weight…

• secretly comparing bodies: “I’m better than her because I’m smaller” or “she’s better than me because I have a larger body”…

• shaming rules about food or labeling groups of food as “good or bad”…

How many of these examples ☝🏼 have you told yourself?

Please, if there’s one thing you take away from this blog post is this:

It’s not your fault! No shame, no guilt, and no condemnation!

You may think it’s your fault because society has conditioned you to think like this for so long — many times — these accusing lies don’t register as lies in your mind.

Oh, by the way…

Dieting Culture…

The diet industry is a massive $3.8 billion industry — so of course — they market a false “perfect body image”! They want you to fully depend on their product.

So, the easiest way for you to determine if there is ‘toxic diet culture talk” happening — is to remember this:

Any “thing” that implies that a smaller body size will make you happy or adds moral value is absolutely considered diet culture.

If you struggle with diet culture, emotional eating, or self-acceptance — allow me to remind you that you have a Helper, The Holy Spirit, He is with you at-every-moment.

I pray that you allow the Holy Spirit to guide your life and your thoughts.

So you can quickly detect and deflect the

• harmful
• shameful
• guilt-filled
• and condemning topics

around size, weight, and shape in our culture.

That you are free from worshipping diet culture. And that God may heal your mind and your heart from the effects suffered from diet culture.

Know that your identity is found in Him😊

There you have it my dear friend….

Just to recap, diet culture is a message that promotes body size and eating choices as a measure of moral value or a way to get happiness.

Now you know all the details on what is diet culture, its history, and examples. But most importantly, you know how to deflect it — with grace!

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My prayer for you is that my decades of experience of — an all-consuming battle with the scale — self-esteem struggles — and how God has radically worked on my heart will bless and inspire you!

This post was all about diet culture, diet culture definition, and examples of diet culture…

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