09/04/2025
How Diet Culture Fuels Disordered Eating
What is diet culture?
There isn’t a single, widely accepted description of diet culture, as it can present and provide impact in many different ways. In reality, diet culture is everywhere — it’s embedded in our books, social media, packaging materials, stores, and daily language. It may be something you heard a stranger or your neighbor say. It may be something your doctor said. It may be communicated through a commercial. It is everywhere you look, and you may not even notice the impact it plays on your daily life, and how it can fuel disordered eating. Unfortunately, I believe we all may be a bit numb or desensitized to it’s presence in life. The message behind diet culture influences an expectation for how someone must “look”, how someone must eat, and the goals to which people should be striving for. Diet culture typically praises weight loss, while stigmatizing weight gain. Diet culture emphasises the importance of “thinness” and is based on the idea of having such a ”discipline” around food. It does NOT emphasis true health, much less health at every size (HAES). Like eating disorders, diet culture feeds us harmful lies, and is rooted in narrow ideals about how our bodies should look, while ignoring our individuality, health, and innate self-worth.
Diet culture messages around us:
Some diet culture messages you may have encountered yourself, perhaps without even realizing it, include:
Labeling food as “good” or “bad”
“What I eat in a day” videos (wieiad)
Influencers promoting excessive dieting or exercising routines
Influencers judging food by packaging and suggesting “this” over “that” options
Restaurants’ “on the healthier side” option
Television embracing and encouraging smaller bodies
Comments from someone saying “You’ve lost weight! You look good!”
Ads for weight loss drugs
Size discrimination and representation in stores
These comments and presentations in society are highly damaging, directly correlating and contributing to individual’s perceived view of self. How good are you going to feel if you state you “ate bad today”? Food has no inherent value, yet society has given it one. What I Eat In A Day videos are often highly choreographed, not fact checked, and often are restrictive in nature. It’s not uncommon for influencers to have edited their photos or engaged with plastic surgery, but then report their exercise regimen has allowed them to “achieve” their body. “This” or “that” options on social media show impressionable viewers a perspective of what others, that often do NOT hold nutrition degrees, recommend. These recommendations and videos are often created to get views and followers, and are not research-based or scientifically-based recommendations.
For full blog post, please visit our website at https://www.breakfreetherapyservices.com/eating-disorder-blog/how-diet-culture-fuels-disordered-eating
At BreakFree Therapy Services, we believe in providing a safe space for you to reach your goals. We will work collaboratively with you, hold space for you, and walk alongside you during this path of healing. Our goal is to create an environment that nurtures growth, fosters happiness, and provides peace.
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Diet culture can easily fuel an eating disorder, as they share many similarities. For instance, they both idealize thinness and fear weight gain, and emphasize and encourage fat-phobic thoughts or perceptions. Diet culture promotes disordered eating behaviors such as, restricting, fasting, excessi
