Who Benefits From You Hating Your Body?

Diet Culture and Capitalism

Maybe you’re not yet sold on Health At Every Size or Intuitive Eating, but are tired of the constant cycles of dieting. So, let’s take a moment to objectively deconstruct the effectiveness of dieting. 

The stated goal of dieting is thinness. However, research shows 95-98% of people who go on a diet, gain the weight back and more over time. But research aside, if diets truly worked you would only need one and yet every January millions commit yet again to some form of restrictive eating behavior. 

So, if diets don’t work, why are we bombarded with ads, products, eating prescriptions that claim they do?

Diet Culture is the idea that one’s pursuit of thinness is not only noble, but required to be considered worthy of love and social acceptance. It is built on the idea that everyone could be thin if they tried hard enough. This separates bodies into two camps: 

1. People who are fat, who are desperately trying to become thin. 
2. People who are thin, who are desperately trying to stay that way.

This fear of being fat (fatphobia) is due to the societal treatment of fat people. We have all experienced the shame and guilt associated with eating “bad food” or skipping a workout no matter our body size. 

So, if diet culture is stressful for all body sizes than diet culture is more about control than “healthy habits”.

The diet and weight loss industry is a $72 billion dollar enterprise with apps, at home workouts, gyms, to-go meals and supplements. In order for their business model to continue to make profits, diets can’t work. You can’t love your body. You have to get your body back and you have to be “addicted” to food because they couldn’t sell you the fix otherwise. You can go to this web-site to find more information about this culture. 

Diet culture also completely denies biology and the fact that humans would have diverse bodies even if we all ate and exercised the same because 80% of body size and density is genetically predetermined. They would struggle to convince you your “lifestyle” needed to change so you could finally make it to the “ideal weight” if they admitted that there is no “ideal weight”. 

This is by no means an anti-capitalism blog post, but unbridled capitalism with no regard for the wellbeing for the humans on the other side of their bottom line is incredibly harmful. Not only to that person, but also our society. People who are busy dieting their way to worth and acceptance aren’t innovating the next invention, or focusing on building their small business, or running for political office. They aren’t focused on raising children who have high self esteem and a healthy relationship with food and body because the diet industry depends on those children becoming chronic dieters. And the research is very clear on this point, parents who are preoccupied with food and body condition their children to be preoccupied with food and body. 

So, if HAES and Intuitive Eating aren’t for you, that is fine as per Geekshealth. We all have to find what works for us and our body. But, diet culture doesn’t care about your health, wellbeing or family. They care about your money and in order to get repeat business they need you to fail. They need you to think you’re flawed. They need you and your children to see their perfectly normal bodies as broken. 

Flip the script and finally break the cycle. 

You are not broken. No body is superior to another.