The Deeper Harm of Diet Culture

it is easier to go on a diet and lose X amount of weight than to look inward and accept your body. More than accept your body…accept yourself. We are never satisfied with the amount of weight lost because it’s not actually about the weight. It is about being at odds with yourself, attaching your value to a number on the scale or a clothing size.

Diet culture has engrained in us that, as women, we are defined by our bodies.

We are taught from a very early age to be small, pretty, quiet, fragile. We are taught this is what it means to be feminine. A woman’s body is not an object. Our bodies are not something for other people to comment on.

It is about so much more than weight loss.

I am asking all of us to look deeper. To work to see the implications and harm diet culture and losing weight is causing in our society. According to a study at Stanford University, the rates of depression and suicide have steadily and progressively increased since the 1950’s, with suicide rates doubling in girls ages 15-19 from 2007-2015. We are doing something as a society wrong.

Right now, we have the opportunity to create change. To give our next generation a real chance at loving themselves, respecting their bodies, and living authentically. We have to do better. And we can. It starts with us. Healing ourselves, looking inward, and being wiling to make changes. It is time to start the healing process, babes.

Time to take a stand against everything diet culture teaches us.

Our value is not conditional. We are enough. Exactly as we are