DownloadIt looks green, it opens red. What you eat is red, but what you spit out is black.
What causes and maintains diet culture?
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Building a positive relationship with food and your body
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Young People – Body Image and Normal Eating
Session 7
Breaking free of food rules and diet culture
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Session 7
Breaking free of food rules and diet culture
Food riddles
Answers
1
2
What has no beginning, end, or middle?
3
A container without hinges, lock or a key, yet a golden treasure lies inside me. What am I?
4
You peel me, cut me up and fry me. And still you’re the one crying. What am I?
5
I am a bird, I am a fruit and I am a person. What am I?
What does "normal"
eating look
like?
Includes
social foods
Includes having
varied food
groups
Variable in the
amount and type
Usually comprises of
3 main meals
and 2-3 snacks, however,
this can vary based
on many factors
e.g. how active
you are, your appetite,
the environment
etc.
Flexible
Listening to hunger
and fullness cues.
Eating regularly is
the best way to
manage appetite
Enjoying your food
Sometimes
eating
fast food or
takeaways
Using some
restraint in your
food selection
to get the right
balance
of foods
What affects our ability
to eat 'normally'
Take a moment to list some ideas:
What we read on social
media, magazines,
internet
The eating habits
observed or learnt
from childhood
Pressures from
peers and society
to look a certain
way
Our knowledge of food and
what is normal eating
behaviours
The Diet Culture
we live in
Diet Culture
A system that values weight, shape and size over health and well-being!
What does diet culture mean to you?
Labelling
foods
Ignoring body
cues
Associating
worth with
how you look
Equating thinness
with health
Associating
worth with what
you eat
Food rules
Food anxiety
Avoiding foods
too high in fats,
carbs or calories
Food label gives
you permission
to eat
Eliminating food
groups
Food Guilt
Examples of
diet culture!
Avoiding
situations
because of food
Feeling or need
to justify eating
Exercise for
punishment
Diet talk
Complimenting
weight loss
Scale dictates
happiness or
worth
Believing you must
take supplements
for health
It's my cheat day!
This is so bad for you
I start my new diet tomorrow
What influences diet culture?
Advertising!
The UK diet industry is worth $2 billion a year
Competition & comparison
Social
Media
Things to bear in mind
Anyone can call themselves a "nutritionist"
It is not a legally protected title – an Instagram “nutritionist guru" may have no qualification
Research reveals social media influencers give bad diet and fitness advise
Healthy eating and self worth
The harm of diet culture
Harmful to health
Normalises disordered eating
Dominates your thoughts
Promotes eating disorders
Steals joy from life
Waste of time
Waste of money
Increases guilt and shame
Makes digestion worse
Increases risk of physically ill health
Hurts relationships
Exercise becomes punishment
What are your take home messages about diet culture?
Some Ideas...
Build Awareness
Begin to notice the messages around you that are from diet culture.
This includes conversations about weight, body shape and dieting
Know the facts
Recognise the unhelpfulness of diet culture. Know that skinny doesn’t always equal healthy. Remember why fats and sugars are ok, and even needed, in our diets
Walk away from diet culture
When you see it say “no not today” to diet culture
It’s ok to leave these conversations – or even call them out! Talk about something else
Do something else – engage in hobbies, voluntary work or learning something new
Surround yourself with anti-diet culture messages.
Listen to podcasts and follow social media around intuitive eating and body kindness
Find friends that have similar beliefs as you
Empower others to break free of diet culture
Create a diet culture free zone
Clean up your social media feeds
Avoid diet products – food & drinks, supplements, books, magazines
Breaking food rules
His
Stop comparing your food choices to someone else’s
Hers
It’s okay if you eat more than someone else, man or woman!
Do you have any rules around how you eat or the foods you eat?
Do you have any deliberately avoided foods?
Make some notes below ?
Most days
Eats a mix of both
Also no food rules
having grapes for dessert because it’s what you want
Some days
Eats mostly processed foods
Other days
eats mostly 'whole' foods
Most days
Eats a mix of both
Mental
Not physically hungry but have a craving for some chocolate
Hunger
Totally okay, eat mindfully to identify satisfaction and enjoy without guilt
Using your list of rules and avoided foods. Cut these up into individual papers and fold to place in a jar.
Choose one or more out the jar to challenge each week.
You can challenge that rule as frequent as food daily or as little as once in the week.
Challenging food rules
and avoided foods
Consider where this rule came from:
Is it based on evidence and a credible source?
Is it relevant to your age group?
Is it relevant to your gender?
Is it designed for a healthy population of for medical purposes?
Consider the impact of the rules or avoided foods
to other parts of your life:
Does this rule or avoided food stop you being able to do social activities?
Does it stop you attending social events?
Does it impact your mood negatively?
Does it negatively impact your physical health? – fatigue, illness,
dizziness, weight, energy levels etc.
Note: It will likely take more than one attempt, so consider placing them back in the jar for another attempt
Healthy relationship to food not based on a restrictive diet
You are awesome as you are
Don't go on a diet
Superfoods don’t exist All food is neutral
Challenging Diet Culture
How can we challenge diet culture?
Can you think of a good magazine or news headline to challenge diet culture?
Try to choose what you genuinely want.
Think about how hungry you are, remember some of mindful eating and intuitive eating ideas discussed in the previous presentation
Try not to order based on any food rules
you have or diet culture influences
Task
Ordering off a menu
What would you like to order today?
The pad thai because
they like the cuisine and
peanut taste
Task
What did you order and why?
Examples from other young people:
The quesadilla
because they love
cheese
The Souvlaki because it
reminded them of a
holiday in Greece
Reflections
Well Done!
- Completed
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