• Diet culture can trigger disordered eating, weight-loss dieting and body dissatisfaction, which are all risk factors for the development of an eating disorder.^[1]
• Young people who diet moderately are six times more likely to develop an eating disorder; those who are severe dieters have an 18-fold risk.^[2]
• People who follow disordered eating patterns or dieting behaviours may deliberately remove themselves from social activities that involve eating. This can drive loneliness and low self-esteem.
• For those in recovery, diet culture can exacerbate an eating disorder and may make full recovery difficult.

Diet culture can also generate disturbed relationships with food, the mind and body.

People may:

• develop concerns about their body image, shape or size.
• experience feelings of low self-esteem.
• acquire a fear of weight gain and an obsession with weight loss.
• use exercise as a punishment for consuming ‘extra’ calories or ‘bad’ food.
• engage in weight-control behaviours and slip into disordered eating patterns e.g through restrictive dieting, fasting, calorie counting, avoiding specific foods, eliminating food groups, skipping meals, controlling portion sizes, following strict food rules, using detoxes/cleanses, weight loss products, diet pills, diuretics or laxatives.
• experience hunger, lack of energy, poor physical health and low moods from dieting.
• develop depression and/or anxiety (commonly associated with dieting/disordered eating).
• recognise food as a reward and something to be earned.
• associate food with fear and guilt, removing the joy of eating.
• develop a preoccupation with clean eating, leading to orthorexia or orthorexic behaviours.
• encounter shame and feelings of failure if strict rules around food, eating or exercise are broken, but engage in self-praise if these rules are met.

People may:

• believe they are adopting a ‘healthy lifestyle’, despite engaging in unhealthy food and exercise practices.
• perceive restrictive dieting to improve their health, despite it offering no health benefits.
• disguise an eating disorder under a ‘healthy eating’ routine.
• incorrectly use ‘outward appearance’ or ‘weight’ as an indicator of biological health. This impedes understanding that people in larger bodies can be fit and healthy, and those in smaller bodies can be unhealthy. Health is determined by a multitude of factors that transcend body size.

It’s also important to be aware that influencers and celebrities can often amplify diet culture by promoting inaccurate health and dieting advice, or encouraging their audiences to engage in diets or practices that may be not be applicable to every body.

People may:

• internalise beliefs they are morally ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on their food choices and body size.
• acquire false understandings that embodying the ‘thin-ideal’ makes someone more ‘attractive’, ‘likeable’ and ‘successful’ for exerting ‘willpower’ over their diet.
• use the number on the scale as an indicator of self-worth.
• engage in repeated cycles of dieting due to false promises that weight loss brings ‘happiness’ and ‘success’.

People living in larger bodies may:

• experience stigma, shame, and oppression.
• encounter false stereotypes that frame them as ‘wrong’, ‘lazy’ and ‘lacking self-discipline’ over their food choices.
• have their weight defined as a ‘problem’ that must be ‘solved’ through strict dieting, which generates medical and psychosocial risks. Weight stigma experienced by people in larger bodies increases their likelihood of developing an eating disorder.^[3]

More about diet culture and body image

• Health not weight
• Body image explained
• Health At Every Size Australia
• Understanding weight bias and fatphobia and how to overcome it
• Disordered eating and the diet cycle
• People living in larger bodies with eating disorders
• Have a question about eating disorders or body image? Chat to KIT 

Eating Disorder Alliance of Australia

• Butterfly Foundation
• Eating Disorders Victoria
• Eating Disorders Queensland
• Eating Disorders Families Australia

References

[1] Eating Disorders Victoria. (n.d.). Key research and statistics. Retrieved from Eating Disorders Victoria website: https://www.eatingdisorders.org.au/eating-disorders-a-z/eating-disorder-statistics-and-key-research/

[2] Butterfly Foundation. (2021). Risks and warning signs. Retrieved from the Butterfly Foundation website: https://butterfly.org.au/eating-disorders/risks-and-warning-signs/

[3] NEDC. (2017). People Living in Larger Bodies & Eating Disorders. Retrieved from the NEDC website: https://nedc.com.au/eating-disorders/eating-disorders-explained/people-living-in-larger-bodies-and-eating-disorders/