Diet Culture Led To My Disordered Eating

This article discusses disordered eating and eating disorders. If you need immediate assistance, contact the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline at 1 (866) 662-1235, or text “NEDA” to 741741.

I have engaged in disordered eating habits before. I’m not proud to admit, but it’s the truth. The only way I can come to terms with my relationship with food is by acknowledging that. I’m also going to recognize that, in the same vein, diet culture very much motivated me to do so.

In the days of information overload and everyone sharing their opinions left and right, diet culture has been particularly insidious. I’ve seen countless articles tell me what I “should” or “shouldn’t” be eating. Others label certain foods as bad or good, praise or insult certain diets—the list is endless and exhausting. Ads about weight loss programs and tips, and procedures for what you “should” be doing bombard our daily lives. I’ve gotten better at combating it, but I still struggle.

Since I was a child, I’ve hyperfixated on my weight and eating well.

The media regularly tells me how “bad” diets lead to illnesses that you could have otherwise prevented. No one told me to eat healthier or lose weight, but the implicit message was there. Such thoughts about dieting and “bad” food floated around my mind, consuming my thoughts to an unhealthy degree. I worried that, if I ate poorly and got sick as a result, it would be all my fault.

The last part is what’s been the biggest kicker: feeling responsible for my health, to the point where if something happened, I thought it would be entirely my fault. And this is where diet culture thrives. 

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had that thought, but it doesn’t make it any less dangerous. Orthorexia, a condition with an unhealthy fixation on eating healthy to the point of obsession, has gained traction in recent years. I know that my fixation on healthy eating is not healthy, but it’s something I still struggle with as someone who’s tried to do what’s best for myself and take on what feels like an immense amount of responsibility when it comes to my health. 

We’ve known for years that disordered eating and eating disorders are deadly, yet the rates remain consistent.

About 9% of US adults experience an eating disorder in their lifetime[—that’s over a million people every year]. Eating disorders have the second-highest mortality rate of psychiatric illnesses after opiate addiction. And, contrary to popular belief, heavier people are 2.5 times more likely to develop an eating disorder than those who weigh less. 

What makes this worse is that the persuasiveness of diet culture encourages and overlooks disordered eating behaviors and warning signs that someone may develop an eating disorder. If you go on a diet, that’s considered good. Or, if you lose weight, people will praise you and encourage you to keep going. And, if you fast, people will applaud you, even though those who fast have higher rates of disordered eating. 

This isn’t to say that diet culture is the only thing at play here when it comes to disordered eating or eating disorders. Like other mental illnesses, eating disorders involve a complex combination of genetics, environment, and other risk factors that increase your risk of developing them. But we can’t ignore that diet culture does affect our eating habits—the research shows us just how much it does affect us. When the world bombards you with messages on how eating “poorly” will kill you and that you alone are responsible for your entire physical well-being, it’s easy to understand why I—and several others—have developed such disordered eating habits.

Thankfully, we’ve debunked dangerous myths perpetuated by diet culture. But we still have work to do. Disordered eating isn’t simply an individual problem but a larger societal one. For many people, it plays an important role in the development of eating disorders. 

We need to reexamine the way we, as a society, have such a contentious relationship with food.

We need to think about how we support people who are struggling with disordered eating and eating disorders. Too often, we overlook their struggles because we don’t think it’s a big deal. 

And we all need to think about just who benefits from diet culture. Considering it’s a multimillion-dollar industry, I think the answer is obvious. 

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