Why is anti-diet so important?

My battle with an eating disorder and disordered eating started at 7 years old and went on for 15 years of my life.

Whilst I believe eating disorders are complex and can result from many factors, something that really pulled the trigger was my experience with bullying on the playground. A hurtful comment that essentially triggered that path of excessive dieting, calorie counting and exercise to a full diagnosis of an Eating Disorder. I was essentially a happy child and nothing more than the usual “puppy fat” for that age but here was my first experience of society telling me that I wasn’t ok the way I was.

I grew up in a time when the theme of dieting was quite prominent. Experiencing my childhood in the 90s when diet culture was rapidly taking hold, my own development and view of the world were perceived by the messages that were associated with weight loss, diet products and having a perfect physical appearance. What I grew up believing is that the way I looked externally should be more important than how I feel internally.

While it could be said that diet culture is to blame for many ingraining beliefs, I believe strongly we did not know back then what we know about health and wellbeing today. The anti-diet movement wasn’t as popular back then, and society has definitely started to take a different stand and I personally am united with that.

That’s why I want to share with you why the anti-diet message is so important and how learning about it and seeing the signs can help you navigate forward from your eating disorder.

Before we get started, it’s important to understand what diet culture is.

What is diet culture?

Diet culture is all around us, it has become so normalised you may not even realise that some of these things are in fact diet culture.

Examples of diet culture.

All diet plans – from keto to intermittent fasting, juice cleanses, calorie counting, macro counting to clean eating.
The obsession with celebrities and their bodies that is perpetuated in the media.
Before & after photos.
Body shaming and all body comments.
Complimenting weight loss.
The guilt and shame that we have around certain foods.
All diet products- low-carb, sugar-free, low-fat, low-calorie etc.
Using exercise as punishment.
Social media influencers and celebrities endorsing diet and weight loss products and plans.

Family & friends commenting on what you are eating around the dinner table.
Labelling foods ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Social media trends like “What I eat in a day” and “Legging legs”.

Diet culture teaches us that our worth is all about our weight and that losing weight is the most impressive thing we can do. It values thinness at all costs. It’s also an extremely profitable industry, in 2021 its global market value was USD 224 billion, and is predicted to rise to USD 405 billion by 2030.

Not forgetting the role that diet culture plays in eating disorders.

What exactly is anti-diet?

Imagine a world where you can eat all foods without feeling any guilt or shame, a world where all bodies are valued, respected, and celebrated, where your self-worth has nothing to do with your body or number on the scale, where there are no body comments or shaming, a world where you take care of yourself with kindness and compassion rather than guilt and punishment.

This is what anti-diet promotes.

It also recognises that health is way more multifaceted than just food and exercise and it’s not as much in our control as we have been led to believe, genetics and the social determinants of health play a much bigger role.

Anti-diet focuses on pursuing health behaviours such as sleep, connection, eating foods that make you feel good, moving your body joyfully and doing things that nourish your soul.

Why is it important?

The research supports that an anti-diet approach is way more beneficial to our health, especially in fostering a positive body image, improving our health markers, particularly with cholesterol and blood pressure, increasing our energy, self-esteem and giving us a healthier relationship with food, exercise, and self.

Whereas the dieting approach leads to a slower metabolism, low mood, poor body image, increased hunger, binge eating, preoccupation with food, disordered eating and in some cases, eating disorders

How can I get started with an anti-diet approach?

1). Read the books. Learning about the history of diet culture and why we grew up hating our bodies will help you break free from it’s clutches. Here are my recommendations to get started.

Christy Harrison- Anti-Diet

References

Bacon, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight, Rev. and Upd.

Bombak, Monaghan, and Rich, “Dietary Approaches to Weight-Loss, Health At Every Size® and beyond: Rethinking the War on Obesity.”

Perello et al., “Ghrelin Increases the Rewarding Value of High-Fat Diet in an Orexin-Dependent Manner.”

Beck, “Neuropeptide Y in Normal Eating and in Genetic and Dietary-Induced Obesity.”

Bacon and Aphramor, Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight.

Bombak, Monaghan, and Rich, “Dietary Approaches to Weight-Loss, Health At Every Size® and beyond: Rethinking the War on Obesity.”

O’Hara and Taylor, “What’s Wrong With the ‘War on Obesity?’ A Narrative Review of the Weight-Centered Health Paradigm and Development of the 3C Framework to Build Critical Competency for a Paradigm Shift.”

Crawford, Jeffery, and French, “Can Anyone Successfully Control Their Weight? Findings of a Three Year Community-Based Study of Men and Women.”

Factors, F. &. (2023, February 9). [Latest] Global Weight Loss and Weight Management Market Size/Share Worth USD 405.4 Billion by 2030 at a 6.84% CAGR: Growing obesity rate to propel market growth – Facts & Factors (Industry Trends, Revenue, Statistics, Segmentation, Report). GlobeNewswire News Room. https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2023/02/09/2604662/0/en/Latest-Global-Weight-Loss-and-Weight-Management-Market-Size-Share-Worth-USD-405-4-Billion-by-2030-at-a-6-84-CAGR-Growing-obesity-rate-to-propel-market-growth-Facts-Factors-Industry.html

Body Respect- Lindo Bacon and Lucy Aphramor

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf.

2). Clean up your social media feed. Unfollow any accounts that promote dieting, weight loss and the “thin ideal”- any that make you feel worse about yourself. These accounts lead to an increase in dieting behaviours, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Always remember this is NOT REAL LIFE.

3). Follow non-diet/body-positive accounts, diverse and real bodies, balanced & genuinely healthy living (shock horror you’ll find many love their chocolate and ice cream) or accounts with people you admire who are doing inspiring things beyond the. This will help you develop a more positive relationship with food, exercise and your body. A few of my favourite on Instagram include:

– @chloemdew – Chloe is a previous Perth now Sydney based creator who blogs about a balanced daily life. She loves running, food, Yo Chi and wearing her dressing gown. Her down to earth and real personality absolutely shines as she blogs so opening and is always a joy seeing her on your feed

– @shreen_beyoubefree – Shreen is a Body Positive personal trainer, writer & author of Be You Be Free. Shreen has experienced first-hand the battles many of us can have with food, exercise and body image. Shreen has come out the other side and is absolutely shining. Her mission is to help others find their true purpose and identity outside of dieting.

– @healthybodhealthymind – Sophie is a Brisbane-based dietician helping others find food freedom. Her Instagram is very inspiring when it comes to balanced eating, and recipes and helping empower others to leave some of the damaging diet culture messages behind by enjoying chocolate and a wide variety of all food.

4). Focus on pursuing health from a self-care and compassionate approach such as joyful movement, eating foods that you enjoy and that nourish you, more sleep, spending more time with loved ones, less stress, a better work-life balance and more fun and soul-nourishing activities that are good for your nervous system.

If you are battling an EATING DISORDER right now and can’t quite see a way out then please know I’m here to support you all the way.