Why is diet culture harmful?

Diet culture is prominent in today’s society. It values thinness and focuses on calorie restriction and avoiding certain foods to maintain a socially desirable body shape and size. It can negatively impact people’s mental health, self-perception, physical health and cause a range of issues.

Promotes unhealthy and unrealistic body standards

Diet culture often perpetuates unrealistic and narrow beauty standards that most people will never (or should never) achieve because they’re so far-fetched. Often, diet cultures equate thinness with worth, success and happiness, causing individuals to feel dissatisfied and unconfident in their bodies.

It encourages restrictive eating

Many diets associated with diet culture involve food restriction (including calories, certain nutrients, or both). It may involve eliminating an entire food group, leading to an increased risk of nutrient deficiencies, inadequate calorie intake and an unhealthy relationship with food.

Encourages shame around food

Food is there to be enjoyed, not demonized. However, diet culture can make people feel guilty and shameful for inducing or fuelling their bodies with adequate nutrition. It splits foods into good and bad, labeling many higher-calorie, higher-fat foods as ‘forbidden’. This can lead to a harmful cycle of restriction, guilt, secret eating, and overeating, all of which can contribute to poor mental health and a negative relationship with food.

Contributes to eating disorders

Trying to achieve society’s ‘ideal body’ and having a constant focus on good and bad foods can contribute to the development of disordered eating, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge-eating disorder. Diet culture can encourage negative behaviors that fuel the cycle of eating disorders and significantly impact the physical and mental health of those affected.