An opinions piece by Devan Pietrzak, Writing Editor
"Keto what?" I questioned as my friend explained his new summer diet that he hoped would “shred the pounds”. His ketogenic diet plan sounded miserable: low carb, no sugar, all meats and fats, no fruits, etc. I didn’t give much thought towards this diet until he came back to school in the fall having lost a noticeable amount of weight. Everyone celebrated his weight loss and complemented his new appearance. Initially, I was happy for him as well. None of us were able to see what he went through to get to this point, and everyone just assumed that he was simply healthier.
It wasn’t until recently that I began to realize that our assumptions and congratulations, while seemingly congenial, were actually harmful. When talking to this friend I learned that he wanted to continue with what was supposed to be a temporary diet. It became clear that he was now dealing with an eating disorder. Through this, I discovered that being thin does not equate to being healthy. Despite the myths spread by diet culture, healthy looks different for everyone. Diet culture is dangerous and most of us are perpetuating it without even knowing.
Dieting and being thin has become so deeply intertwined within the health world, making it easy to forget that health can come in many different shapes and sizes. In journalist Laura Munoz’s words, “Many people in larger bodies are active, healthy, and happy— and many in smaller bodies are not. Some people may be able to improve their health by losing weight, but many others only believe they should lose weight because of the fatphobic message society is sending them”.
This “fatphobic message” seems to be everywhere we turn nowadays: Social media influencers and celebrities posting about their weight loss tricks, the before-and-after TV ads promising that their diet program will help to instantly get rid of unwanted fat. This kind of diet propaganda spreads the “thin equals healthy” myth while subtly sending the message that if you aren’t considered thin to society's standards you are somehow less worthy or not trying hard enough to be healthy. Diet culture demonizes certain foods making it easy to feel ashamed for eating what you want. This ultimately kickstarts an unhealthy relationship with food that can result in more serious eating disorders down the road. It’s important to note that diet culture has negative effects on everyone regardless if you're dieting or not. In fact, restricting what we eat has become so normalized that very few people are aware that they have an unhealthy relationship with food. Many people claim that they aren’t dieting and simply eating healthy. However, anytime you are restricting or watching what you eat with the goal to lose weight, you are buying into diet culture. In contrast, “eating healthy” is choosing foods that nourish your body with the goal of health rather than physical appearance.
No one was born with body image issues or fatphobia. Diet culture in our media teaches kids that they need to be thin to be accepted. Ignoring these kinds of ads and social media posts is near impossible, and it may seem unlikely that diet culture will ever be completely squashed. However, we can begin to solve the problem by being aware of the fatphobia instilled in us by our culture and society. Whenever we encounter a fatphobic message we need to be conscious of it and point out the harmful and false message to ourselves first. Doing this allows us to effectively discourage and counter diet culture when we experience fatphobic behavior in society, even if it comes from our friends and family. When we are able to have these necessary conversations regarding diet culture, we can help to create a more inclusive society in which people of all body types feel valued.
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