Diet culture causes anxiety, shame during holidays
By imposing strict rules on diet to achieve a body shape that society accepts, diet culture causes low self esteem and stress. During the holidays, a time where food is often essential to celebration, it causes negative experiences.
The deeply embedded influence that diet culture has on our society is especially prevalent during the holidays, causing distress and shame to many.
Diet culture values physical appearance, specifically thinness, over mental and physical wellbeing. In a society that also values thinness, people fall victim to diet culture and its rigid rules for weight loss so that they can feel accepted by society.
During the holidays, the influence of diet culture can feel suffocating on those who are struggling with disordered eating because many of diet culture’s rules are broken during the holidays.
Rules like these include only eating “clean” foods, no emotional eating, suppressing your hunger with a glass of water and not eating sugar or carbs.
Breaking these rules generally makes people feel ashamed and as if they have failed themselves.
The holidays are a time where people come together over food by making traditional or cultural foods, baking holiday treats, eating food with family, etc.
When following diet culture’s rules during the holidays, people can feel isolated from their family as they refuse to eat traditional holiday foods and baked goods because they’re afraid of gaining weight.
When they do eat holiday foods, they may feel shame because diet culture labels these foods as “bad.”
Even when you’re surrounded by funny Christmas sweaters, colorful lights lining houses, snow falling on pine trees and candles smelling of cranberry or candy canes, all you can think about is the food that you really want to eat but shouldn’t because diet culture tells you not to.
The influence of diet culture takes away from the joy of the holidays.
It can forbid people to be present and enjoy time with friends and family.
Diet culture ultimately just causes exhaustion from constantly criticizing yourself and analyzing everything that you eat.
It’s unrealistic to think that with a few simple tips the pressure of diet culture will be lifted from your shoulders overnight.
However, with time and consistency, practicing to accept yourself as you are with these few ideals may help you.
One is to practice body neutrality.
Body neutrality means to appreciate your body for what it allows you to do, such as doing physical activities, traveling to new destinations, learning new skills, enjoying time with friends, etc., rather than placing all of its value on physical appearance. Practicing body neutrality accepts that sometimes you will like how you look and sometimes you won’t, but that either way you can still be happy because you appreciate your body for what it does for you.
Another tip is to view food from a different perspective than what diet culture defines it as.
Diet culture tells us to be afraid of food because it can cause us to gain weight.
Instead, we can appreciate what food does for us: it makes us happy when we eat food that tastes good. It allows us to bond with family or friends over making and eating food.
We can learn more about our culture by making cultural food, and food gives us energy to get through the day and do different activities.
