Blocking out diet culture - how to protect yourself from its harmful influence

This article is written by Emma Charlotte Rose.

Diet culture thrives on exploiting our insecurities in order to fuel a billion-dollar industry. It convinces us to spend money on solutions that more often than not don’t work. In fact, as of 2024, studies show that 95% of diets fail to result in permanent weight loss meaning that the industry is built on selling false promises, profiting from society’s obsession with unattainable perfection all whilst scamming people and in turn doing more harm than good.

So, how do we protect ourselves from the constant noise of diet culture in our daily lives?

1. Curating Your Feed

In today’s world, avoiding social media entirely is nearly impossible - but we can take control of what we see. Start by curating your feed to include content that uplifts and supports you by unfollowing influencers or accounts that promote unrealistic beauty standards and make you feel bad about yourself. Instead, seek out creators who inspire self-love and body positivity. Pay attention to how different content affects you: Does it make you feel better or worse? If it’s the latter, remember you have the ability to shape your online space, and unfollowing is always an option.

2. Finding The Humour

Every day, we’re inundated with ads trying to sell us something, and the diet industry is no exception. Diet culture thrives by promoting unattainable ideals, guilt-tripping us into chasing yet another diet with the false promise that it will finally make us feel good enough. Think about the ‘New Year, New Me’ campaigns that flood your screen after the holidays, guilting you into hitting the gym or starting a new diet because you allowed yourself to eat what you want over Christmas. But what if you embraced food freedom during the holidays and carried that same mindset into the new year? You don’t need to change if you are  already happy with who you are. Learn to laugh at ads designed to guilt you. When you see one, remind yourself that their success depends on your insecurity - and laugh it off instead.

3. Saying No

You don’t have to participate in diet culture. Once you recognize the harm it causes, you can choose to simply say no. When you encounter diet talk - whether online, in ads, or in conversations - set boundaries. If someone starts discussing diets, think about how you can redirect the conversation or politely affirm your stance. For example, you can say, ‘I’d rather not talk about diets’ or simply change the topic. Protecting your peace starts with deciding that diet culture has no place in your life.

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