Has the anti-diet movement gone too far?
Hello Reader,
Recently my social media has had a noticeable increase in people criticising the anti-diet movement. People feel the anti-diet movement:
- disregards health
- tells people to eat unlimited 'junk food' and,
- is an "extreme(!)" response to the dieting and weight loss culture we live in.
I would say my work as a dietitian is in line with the anti-diet movement. So, I felt this criticism personally and was initially both shocked and outraged.
“How could people be against a movement that is trying to help everyone have a less complicated relationship with food?!”
“How could the criticism of fad diets and the thin ideal be a bad thing?!”
As my outrage settled and I felt less personally attacked, I realised the problem. These conversations are happening over social media where there is a distinct lack of nuance.
When anti-diet dietitians share messages like ‘diets don’t work’ or ‘all food is morally equal’, these are simplified versions of a much larger conversation.
People don’t come to social media to read thousands of words on a topic. They use it to be entertained, inspired, or encouraged to learn more. These eye-catching phrases serve to get your attention and make you question the status-quo of diets and weight loss. They are not a one-stop guide for ditching diets.
Even the term ‘diet’ is nuanced. When used in the anti-diet context it refers to calorie restricted eating that teaches you to ignore or suppress hunger with the goal of weight loss. It is not referring to your individual eating pattern, or therapeutic diets used to manage health conditions.
I also want to acknowledge that the anti-diet movement also serves up criticism towards weight loss diets and the association between weight and health. I believe these are important and valid conversations but, just like I had a strong response to anti-diet criticism, I am sure many ‘traditional’ dietitians feel hurt when their work is being critiqued.
My takeaway from this experience is that social media is a really difficult place to have nuanced conversations. I am also realising that the anti-diet movement is not well understood and there are many complicated feelings about it.
For me, the anti-diet message is not about eating whatever you want and disregarding health. It is a response to the shame and restriction we are told to feel for our body and our food choices.
It seeks to promote health for each individual by untangling the pressure we feel from diet culture to look and eat a certain way. It takes the blame off the individual and looks at the broader (more realistic) picture of health.
If you want to learn more about what being anti-diet means, I encourage you to check out some of these posts from my blog:
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. Please feel free to get in touch by replying to this email or via Instagram. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Interested in seeing a dietitian? Find out about dietitian appointments here
