Part 1: Diet cult-ure wants you to be an ideologue
In modern Western culture, we are mired in an abundance of different “diets” to follow in order to meet society's beauty standards of being thin while also being thick, of being lean but also being jacked, of having the “perfect body”. If you noticed a hint of contradiction in there, you’re on to something. It’s because that’s exactly what beauty and fitness standards are in the Western world: a contradiction. A standard of perfection that is utterly unattainable and is ever changing, so if you were to somehow achieve that “perfect body”, in a short while your “perfect body” won’t be on trend anymore and suddenly you’ll be forced to alter your physique to achieve it… again and again and again. It’s a vicious hamster wheel that is fueled by self doubt, insecurity, and unachievable expectations. Nobody capitalizes on this hamster wheel better than the diet industry. Through this three part series, I will discuss the tactics of the diet industry, how to break free from endless dieting, and give you practices and tools that can be used to break free.
Everywhere you look, there is a new diet emerging. Suddenly, there are literal “diet wars” where opposing groups eviscerate one another with their “scientific studies” on podcasts and social media. This week, there is an entirely new group of foods that are “terrible” for you and must be avoided at all costs. Also, you’ve been missing out on this “superfood” that was hidden deep in the Amazon jungle until now that will solve the mystery of life! Somehow, we have discovered a new “natural human diet” that is nothing at all reminiscent of the diets anthropologists have studied and proven our ancestors would have eaten. Strange, isn’t it, that so many of the same foods that were “unhealthy” for us 10 or 20 years ago are now “superfoods”? I’m sure you’ve had at least one friend or family member come to you in the past and say, “I’ve discovered the (insert trendy diet) and it’s changed my life!”.
The environment of what I call the diet cult-ure has become exactly that: a plethora of cults. A cult, without the religious context, is defined as, “a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing”. In the diet world, both people and their proclaimed “diets” are excessively worshiped, and it’s a bit scary to me, especially as it pertains to some of the more extreme diet approaches. It all starts to feel a bit reminiscent of tribal warfare, and that’s because it is. This “all or nothing” tribal mentality has made its way into mainstream diet marketing, and now the subconscious and conscious approach from diet marketing is to turn you into an ideologue of that specific diet protocol. An ideologue is, “an adherent of an ideology, especially one who is uncompromising and dogmatic.”. Diet cults rope people in the same way religious cults do. They rob you of your intuition, self-efficacy, and your trust in yourself by convincing you that your behaviors are “wrong”. Then, they provide you with a set of morals (eat this and don’t eat that, this food is bad and that food is good) to adhere to in order to give you back exactly what they have taken from you. These new standards restore your sense of intuition, confidence, self-efficacy, and trust in yourself, however the caveat here is that they require money, and usually hefty amounts of it, in order for you to be restored. In conjunction with that, many people do see results from these “diets”, and all of a sudden the diet that worked for them becomes the diet for everybody. They become uncompromising and dogmatic, and just like that, an ideologue is born.
The ultimate goal is to instill confusion and fear in you, because when you are scared and confused you are more likely to be compliant with a perceived authority figure. What would happen to the multi-billion dollar diet industry if people were intuitive, confident, and empowered to take complete control of their own health and dietary choices? What would become of the industrial food complex if people understood themselves and the food environment and ate what they needed, not what they have been convinced they should want? In the spirit of profit margins, the forces behind diet culture make sure neither of those scenarios come true. It may feel like fighting a losing battle, but the good news is that it isn’t actually as black and white as it has been made to seem, and the solution is absolutely not another diet protocol.
In part 2 I will discuss ways that we can break free from this endless circus of diets.
