How Diet Culture is Killing Us

Tre'Cherie Crumbs, MD

Jun 9, 2024

3 min read

From eating bowls of Cabbage Soup, to Beyonce’s Lemonade Diet, to your favorite local juice cleanse women are constantly being fed the myth that extreme levels of restriction are the answer to weight loss. As we head into summer and want to feel and look our best, it is important to note that quick fixes can lead to devastating long term consequences.

Yo-yo dieting, or weight cycling, is the act of alternating between periods of extreme dietary restriction and normal or excess calorie intake. Yo-yo dieting has been found to cause increased blood pressure and blood glucose levels which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease. In addition, when we are not consuming enough calories we break down muscle which ultimately decreases our metabolism. Yo-yo dieting is also associated with depression, nutrient deficiencies, and development of obesity amongst several other resulting illnesses.

What Are the Impacts of Toxic Diet Culture?

The impacts of toxic culture stretch across gender, race, and generation. The examples of “perfect bodies” upheld throughout television and media often get linked to diets and diet culture. If people are shown edited images that appear real, they are more likely to believe that that is how they should look.

Unsustainable Eating Habits

Diet culture often disguises disordered eating methods as quick and effective ways to lose weight. Alternatively, diet culture can promote crash diets — a highly restrictive or low-calorie way of eating intended to help you drop weight quickly. These kinds of diets can have harmful consequences, especially if combined with excessive levels of exercise.

Eating Disorders

As previously mentioned, eating disorders are one of the most harmful results of toxic diet culture. Currently, around 9% of the U.S. population (more than 20 million people) experience eating disorders, with disproportionately high rates among BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Eating disorders have devastating effects, not only on people’s bodies, but also on mental health and well-being.

Negative Self-Talk

Fat-shaming is just one way that negative self-talk takes form in toxic diet culture. Negative self-talk, broadly, is speaking to oneself harshly, critically, or motivated by shame and disgust. Within toxic diet culture, negative self-talk can also be used to shame others (saying, “I look like ___ and that’s gross”) but is particularly harmful as it directly deals with your opinions of your own body and self-image.

Negative Body Image

Negative body image is a way of viewing yourself that is either unrealistic or out-of-touch with how your body actually looks. Negative body image generally operates on the assumption that one’s body, as it is, is imperfect and needs to be changed or fixed in order to be “better.” As with all of the harmful impacts of toxic body culture, negative body image can be used as a guilt-oriented motivation for crash diets and disordered eating.

Low Self-Esteem

Resulting from negative self-talk and self-image is a sense of worthlessness. This “I am not enough” feeling is low self-esteem and is typically associated with a driving motivation to seek validation and support externally. While low self-esteem is not to be shamed, it can have harmful consequences resulting in toxic dieting persisting.

Unrealistic Expectations

It’s not just edited photos that can set unrealistic expectations; toxic diet culture may have you thinking that someone else’s body — with a completely different chemical and genetic makeup — should be what your body looks like. Unrealistic expectations can promote toxic dieting habits to pursue an unrealistic (or fake) body.

Weak Immune System

If you are restricting your food intake, then your physical health will inevitably take a toll. Without adequate nutrition, your body's immune system may become weak, and you might be less able to fight off infection or maintain a healthy microbiome.

The best pattern of eating for health, weight management, and longevity is a pattern that you can stick to. One of the dietary patterns with the strongest health evidence is the Mediterranean Diet which emphasizes olive and avocado oils, fruits, nuts, vegetables, whole grains, fish, and lean meats but also acknowledges the consumption of sugar and refined grains in small amounts. An easier way to think of this is the 80/20 rule where you make an effort each day to consume 80% nutrient dense foods that you enjoy and 20% foods that you also enjoy but may not be as nutritious.