diet culture

If it Quacks like a Diet…guess what? It’s Diet Culture

by Christina
07/06/202107/02/2025

What is that annoying voice telling you not to have any cookies before dinner? Judging your current pants size… comparing your size to your very active cousin. No, it’s not your mother, despite her comments can be a part of the problem too, but it’s diet culture. The dieting and weight loss industry in the USA alone is worth around $72 billion and yet over 80% of diets fail!

Dieting and weight shaming is everywhere and was especially hard-hitting from the advent of lockdowns in 2020. Queue the social media posts and challenges suggesting that we needed to “use this time to become better” by learning new languages, skills, starting a business and losing weight. How rude! Living a healthy lifestyle is important, but not defined by the number of a scale. And, with everything that has happened last year and this one, you’d think we would have learnt to address people and health much differently.

Body image is often impacted by dieting and weight cycling. Women in a larger body sits on a bed with a mirror in background. — Photo by Anete Lusina on Pexels.com

I’m personally a fan of snuggling up at home, watching my favourite shows and enjoying a giant bowl of popcorn and too many Oreos to count. Lockdowns and the anxiety that came with it made many of us seek more comfort in these small things. While 2020 was an unexpectedly strange and tough year for all of us, just like years before, our problems don’t just go away because someone tells us they should.

No, Not Every Culture Sees Thin As Beautiful. Mine Didn’t.

by Christina
05/03/202120/11/2021

I found this post really hard to write because my perfectionist’s brain doesn’t want to oversimplify, overcomplicate, or offend anyone. It’s literally been sitting in drafts since November. I asked you guys if you wanted to hear an account of my relationship with food and weight on my IG and you said yes…so here goes! Feedback is welcomed, just be kind with it.

Culture

In my culture women are viewed as more beautiful when they have a bit more “meat” on their bones. So, when the phrase “thin privilege” was mentioned to me some time ago, I was baffled as to what it referred to. I looked it up and it got me thinking… about my own experiences with weight, culture and societal norms from my perspective, as a thin person. I’ve come to understand that you can be healthy at any weight or size. And I hope to discuss this point of view as respectfully as possible.

From a very young age, I have been called skinny, bone bird, boney, and other things related to my size. I remember wondering if I’d ever get any bigger, especially as I grew taller. Instead, I was constantly reminded of my size, but at least I was healthy. Yet as I reached my teens, there was this ideal which I hoped I would fit into eventually.

New year, new me? Dieting in January

by Christina
18/01/2021

Today’s article is written by the lovely Lucy Jade who is a recently registered associate nutritionist. Lucy stands out to me as a nutrition champion because of her values and impactful nutrition science communication which busts dieting myths and addresses nutrition stereotypes.

Lucy graduated in September 2019 with a first class degree in Applied Food and Nutrition from University College Birmingham, and has interest in weight management, busting diet culture myths and helping to promote sustainable, evidence based strategies to improve health and wellbeing. She works for Healthy Lifestyles in Coventry as a weight management advisor helping those that have health issues such as a high cholesterol or pre-diabetes to improve their diet and lose weight to help them. AND she’s the founder of the Nutrition Graduate group (which you know I rave on about) that helps to support those that have graduated nutrition with careers, CPD, networking and other support.

You can find Lucy Jade on Instagram at @lucyjade_nutrition and Twitter as lucyj_nutrition. While the Nutrition Graduates group can be found on Facebook, Instagram and their new website!

January is the time of year where it seems like the whole world wants to go on a diet. December is such an indulgent month of Christmas chocolates, meals out and parties, meaning that we are more likely to be consuming more, therefore leading to some weight gain. But the media has made us believe that in January we all have to go on diets, detoxes and nutritional resets to ‘fix’ this. But we really don’t.

detox diets may lead to a host of bathroom troubles

5 Things You Should Know Before Trying A Detox Diet

by Christina
11/01/202121/11/2021

Some time ago, the topic of detox diets came up for my #NutriChats. This is just one of those things I’ve never quite understood why people would want to do, but I also understand it’s also a part of some cultures. When I was a kid, my parents and grandmum would mention Epsom salts for when your poops were smelling a bit unsavoury, or they felt like you needed to be “cleaned out”. Granted, stool never smells like lemons, but I’m sure you know the particular stink of certain poos…that eggy, sulphur-smelling goodness. Look at how mature we’re being talking about stool on the internet🙃.

Nowadays detox diets/supplements/teas are a whole sophisticated and lucrative industry where diet culture perpetuates. Promising improved health, weight loss, reduced stomach bloating, improved circulation and liver function, beautiful skin… the works! All stemming from the removal of toxins from the body. But is it worth our time, money and effort?