Challenging Diet Culture Comments
I’m constantly hearing comments from from friends, roommates, family, acquaintances, on social media about diet culture, judgements around food, projected judgements, people placing morality on food (“don’t judge me!”), and all kinds of bad nutrition advice that includes restricting certain types of food. Sometimes as you’re working through recovery, whether it be recovery from an eating disorder or recovery from chronic dieting or just diet culture mindset, you can recognize that a comment is messed up and it might frustrate you and make you mad, but you don’t know how to challenge it.
Here’s a list of some of those comments that I hear constantly and how I would challenge them:
Comment: I’m going to eat another brownie… don’t judge!
Challenge: Brownies are neither morally good or morally bad. A brownie is just food, something to be enjoyed, and something that can provide your body with fuel and satisfaction. It’s okay to eat another brownie. It’s okay to eat several brownies.
Comment: If you keep drinking soda you’ll get diabetes!
Challenge: Soda doesn’t give you diabetes. Sugar doesn’t give you diabetes. Diabetes is when your body is resistant to insulin, meaning it can’t regulate blood sugars properly. This is more likely due to a diet very high in calories, fat, and cholesterol. This doesn’t mean that you have to eat low fat foods, it just means that eating a variety of foods, including fruits, veggies, grains, proteins, and some treats will probably help. Balance and variety are really important.
Comment: Overweight people aren’t in shape
Challenge: Anyone can be ‘in shape’. Larger people and smaller people can do all sorts of exercise. Just because you’re smaller doesn’t mean you’re more ‘in shape’ than someone who is larger. It’s more about training your body. If you want to be in good hiking shape, go hiking, maybe do some strength training to strengthen your legs. The more you train, the more ‘in shape’ you’ll be. No matter your body size.
Comment: I’m so bad, I ate that whole bag of candy.
Challenge: You’re not bad for eating. Period. Food has not moral value. You’re not good for eating certain foods or bad for eating certain foods. You’re not bad for eating a large amount of food or good for eating a small amount of food. Food is there to nourish and give fuel to your body.
Comment: I just ran 8 miles, I deserve a big cookie!
Challenge: Running 8 miles or doing any kind of exercise doesn’t mean you ‘earned’ any type of food. You can eat a big cookie whenever you want. Exercising doesn’t make you earn it. When you run 8 miles you’ll definitely need to replenish the fuel you used, so you will want to eat more before and after you run. But that’s not because you’re earning it, it’s because your body needs more fuel to do that 8 mile run.
Comment: I ate so much junk today, I need to do a longer workout to burn it off.
Challenge: Our bodies don’t just magically gain weight because we ate extra food one day. And exercise should never be a punishment for eating. You deserve to eat because you’re a human being and your body needs fuel and you deserve the satisfaction of enjoying foods. If you think you ate too much food and feel sick or uncomfortable, be curious about what went on. Were you eating mindlessly? Were you sad, depressed, or anxious? Were you eating on the go? Were you trying to fill a need with food or feel numb? Did you plan your meals and snacks ahead? Do you need to be more intentional about getting lots of nutritional foods in and focusing on variety? That’s a better solution than making yourself exercise to ‘burn off’ what you just ate. Exercise should never be a punishment. It should be a celebration of what your body can do and something that you want to fuel your body appropriately for.
Comment: Sugar makes you fat.
Challenge: Literally anything can make you fat if you eat excessive amounts of it. It’s not sugar that can make you gain weight, it’s excessive calories. If you’re in a calorie surplus consistently, that’s when you will gain weight. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a thing.
Comment: I’ve been so good, I haven’t had any sugar today.
Challenge: Why is that good? Sugar is fuel, it’s what carbohydrates break down into. Sugar gives our bodies energy. Sugar also brings a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment in our eating experience.