In the United States alone, it is estimated that people spend over $30 billion on diet products each year. By 2024, worldwide, the diet industry was reported as a $72 billion industry. Meaning that the diet industry is one of the most profitable and reliable businesses of the century. But, why? What is the reasoning behind? The diet industry thrives off self hatred, insecurities and pessimism, along with constant insatisfaction. The diet industry thrives on self-hatred, insecurities, pessimism, and a constant sense of dissatisfaction. From an early age, we are taught to believe there is always something wrong with our bodies; that we should be thinner, prettier, and more attractive.
Diet culture refers to a set of societal beliefs and practices that place weight loss at the center of health and well-being. This culture is deeply embedded in modern life, influencing everything from the way bodies are portrayed in the media to the expectations placed on individuals by friends, family, and healthcare professionals. It promotes the idea that strict eating regimens and quick-fix solutions are the keys to achieving the ideal body, often equating thinness with health, attractiveness, and success. This set of beliefs is built on misleading assumptions, such as the notion that some foods are inherently better than others, that thin individuals are healthier and more appealing, or that larger bodies are the result of poor lifestyle choices.
Diet culture is not only shaped by individual beliefs but is also deeply intertwined with broader social, economic, and historical factors. Its prevalence can be linked to societal pressures and systemic structures that promote unrealistic beauty standards and perpetuate stigmas around body size. These influences contribute to a culture that oversimplifies complex issues related to health, beauty, and personal well-being, placing unnecessary pressure on individuals to conform to a singular idea of what is desirable. Ultimately, diet culture obscures the reality that health and appearance are influenced by a myriad of factors beyond weight, including genetics, environment, and access to resources.
Diet culture, intertwined with consumerism and capitalism, has built a highly profitable industry around selling products with little to no long-term effectiveness. These industries thrive by exploiting societal pressures, from the obsession with beauty, youth, and thinness, to our own internalized shame and self-blame. This cycle plays out repeatedly because dieting simply doesn’t work in the long term. The diet industry has manufactured a problem rooted in fatphobia; one that focuses less on health and more on maximising profits. The industry then swoops in with expensive memberships, apps, pills, and restrictive diet plans that are not sustainable. This system is intentionally designed to fail, ensuring that individuals are continually chasing unattainable goals, leading to guilt and shame when they inevitably fail. When these expectations are not met, individuals are made to feel like they did something wrong, which pushes them back into the cycle of dieting. This loop repeats itself endlessly, ensuring that the industry continues to profit, while individuals remain stuck in a cycle of self-doubt and financial loss.
Thus, if it is recognized to be so hurtful, why is it so deep rooted? Where are all these ideas coming from? As mentioned before, diet culture is strongly tied with capitalism and consumerism which ensures its prevalence. Nonetheless, it is also tied to systems of oppression that ensure these ideas and beliefs stay relevant. Diet culture is afrophobic, and supports the submission of people, mainly women, under the patriarchy. Historically, colonial ideologies have exploited physical appearance — especially body size — to reinforce racial hierarchies and justify the oppression of people of African descent. These views, deeply rooted in white supremacy, have been used to position different bodies as inferior while simultaneously positioning white bodies as the standard of health and beauty. This harmful ideology shaped societal views about who was considered valuable and worthy of respect based on appearance.
Diet culture is tightly linked to patriarchal standards that dictate the way women are expected to look and behave. For centuries, women’s bodies have been subject to constant scrutiny, objectification, and regulation, with the patriarchal system seeking to control their autonomy and independence. The cultural pressures placed on women to conform to narrow beauty standards, often requiring them to be thin, perpetuate the notion that their worth is tied to their physical appearance. This connects with broader systems of oppression where both sexism and racism function together, as one group is often elevated by pushing another down, creating an interconnection between marginalization and inequality.
Likewise, diet culture is everywhere; grocery stores, workplace, gyms, restaurants, social media, TV shows, radio, movies, magazines, clothing stores and more. It is a way of indoctrination that cannot be avoided. Some examples in daily life are plus size clothing being more expensive, thousands of accounts on Instagram about fitness lifestyle, children’s cartoons and movies portraying fat people as funny, lazy or stupid, and weight loss challenges at work. Therefore, white supremacy, sexism and thinnes are fixated in our subconscious, making it even more difficult to act against and stop the cycle of exploitation. On a wider scale, last year alone, Ozempic, the miracle drug to lose weight that was truly designed as diabetes treatment, profited 50 billion dollars in sales. Thus affirming why joining the diet industry is so profitable.
In addition, diet culture has a range of harmful consequences that are constantly pushed out of the picture to avoid profitability. The most alarming include the development of eating disorders and a significant decline in self-esteem. The constant cycle of restriction and overeating, often fueled by the pressure to conform to unrealistic body ideals, can lead to long-term negative effects on both physical and mental health. Many individuals who engage in disordered eating have underlying issues with their self-worth; all the same, chronic low self-esteem may even be a precursor to developing an eating disorder. Diet culture, in turn, exacerbates these feelings of inadequacy by constantly reinforcing the idea that our bodies are not good enough and that their value is tied to achieving a certain weight or appearance. The relentless messaging of diet culture places thinness at the pinnacle of importance, often urging individuals to prioritize weight loss above all else, regardless of the emotional or physical cost; all because of how much money this amount of self deprecation can generate.
In conclusion, diet culture is perpetuated by powerful systemic forces like capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. It thrives on body shame and self-criticism, ultimately benefiting the industry financially. This cycle has severe consequences, including eating disorders, low self-esteem, and distorted body image. However, awareness is the first step toward breaking this harmful pattern. To create lasting change, it is crucial to challenge internalized biases, question societal beauty standards, and promote diverse and inclusive representations of health and beauty. Only through systemic change can we dismantle the diet industry, empowering individuals to reclaim control over their bodies and well-being.
