Whether you’re strolling in the isles of the grocery store or catch the occasional commercial, you’ve probably been a victim of diet culture marketing in the form of health buzzwords.
Yes, I know – diet culture buzzwords are EVERYWHERE.
Health buzzword claims are usually somewhat regulated, but diet culture is super sneaky. See, their buzzwords are in no way related to health, only to weight loss. In fact, they assume that everyone is trying to get on a diet and use their own made-up rules to make products look better than others. So not only are they misleading, but they also trigger major guilt and shame.
Here are some of my favorite diet culture buzzwords and claims:
Serving size
Not to be confused with portion size. Serving sizes refer to the amount of food analyzed for the nutrition fact values.
The food industry manipulates those sizes to present us with the most “appealing” and diet-friendly numbers: calories, sugar, fat, etc…
In no way are serving sizes representative of the quantity of food you should be eating.
In fact, all bodies are different and have different needs. Calorie and nutrient needs are not only affected by weight, height, and age but also by hormones, energy, stress levels, recovery rate, health conditions, inflammation, etc. So it is near impossible to calculate exactly how much food we need, let alone let diet culture dictate that.
Intuitive eating & mindfulness are the only tools to truly determine how to nourish your body properly.
So let go of suggested serving sizes, and pay attention to how diet culture uses them to their advantage.
Sugar-free
Let’s explore our options here because this could mean a few things:
The food has natural-occurring sugar, in which case the claim would refer to the ingredient list. Technically there is no sugar added, but sugars are still present. Now I’m not saying sugar is bad for you, just that they mess with our brains!
The sugar is replaced with sweeteners (stevia, aspartame, sucralose, maltitol, xylitol, monk fruit,…). So we’re basically encouraging you to put those in your body instead of sugar. Diet culture would quite literally prefer you having fake sugar instead of fruit.
The food is sweetened with honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, or fruit puree instead of white or brown sugar. Plot twist: Yup, those still contain sugar but don’t fall under the definition of sugar.
Your brain alone needs over 120g of carbs to function optimally. Your body usually needs 3 to 4 times more carbs than protein and fat. Contrary to popular belief, sugar does not lead to weight gain and does not harm your body.
Low-calorie
Let’s get one thing straight. Calories are not bad. Diet culture decided to associate calories with weight & bad health. But can we just state that our bodies need calories?!
Calories are a unit of measure for body energy, just like dollars for money. Our bodies need fuel to function just like your bank account needs funds to function.
So when you choose a food that is low-calorie, you are choosing a food that will fuel your body less.
What we tend to ignore is that the food will be less filling, so we might end up eating more of it as a result.
Eating more is not the problem here. The fact that you’re tricked into it is.
Why is eating a pack of rice cakes okay, but not eating a bowl of satisfying chips?
So put that 100 calorie pack down and nourish your body with real food.
Fat-burning
If fat-burning foods existed, the list of foods wouldn’t change with the seasons.
There are absolutely no foods, spices, or herbs that will burn fat or trigger fat burning in your body.
Fat-burning is usually synonymous with weight loss. So diet culture plays dirty and makes you lose weight the wrong way.
In fact, most fat-burning foods will contain caffeine. This will make you eliminate fluids, and laxatives will cause you to…well, eliminate.
The supplements, the natural health foods, the teas…. don’t do it.
Guilt-free
This is a downright dirty marketing tactic.
Labeling something as “guilt-free” implies that other foods should bring you guilt. Not only does this prey on the vulnerable, but guilt is not an ingredient, so it can’t be in or out of food!
This usually goes hand in hand with one of the above-stated buzzwords, meaning diet culture deems that food to be more suitable for humans because it’s loaded with air, probably sweeteners or fillers, and lower in calories than their OG opponents.
But choosing guilt-free foods may mean that you won’t get the texture and taste that you’re expecting or craving.
The only thing that should be “guilt-free” is YOU! So pick a food you love and enjoy it.
In short:
If miracle foods existed, all dietitians would suggest them, and we would all have the key to long health & wellness.
But, more importantly, did you know that by choosing one of those not-so-great alternatives instead of the “normal” food, you increase the risk of binge eating?
Long answer:
Problem 1: At first glance, those low-cal, sugar-free, fat-burning foods look good for us. The health buzzwords do a great job of drawing us in. The pleasure aspect is quickly replaced by a feeling of permission – as if you were telling yourself, “THIS food, I can have.” So instead of eating out of pleasure, you might eat/overeat because you feel like you’re allowed. This is how buzzwords trap you!
Problem 2: When a particular food is perceived as “healthy,” we tend to be more mindless about it because it’s like it’s “harmless” and quantities don’t matter, so we are more likely to overeat, regardless of our satisfaction level.
Problem 3: Since that alternative is usually lighter (less calories, sugars, fat, etc..), you will likely need a bigger portion to feel satisfied.
So basically, you restrict yourself from the food you actually want and choose an alternative just because someone said it was better for you. Buzzwords do a great job of making you feel like you’re doing a great thing for yourself when really… you aren’t.
I know some foods are more wholesome than others or more nourishing than others, but the truth of the matter is we can’t live life without wanting and eating pleasure foods – the more processed, denser, sweeter, saltier foods. But there are ways to feel more in control of emotional eating and cravings without letting diet culture take the wheel.
So the next time you’re at the store, give the power back to the person in charge: you. Don’t let those buzzwords fool you or trick you into a guilt trip. You have permission to eat and enjoy your food.
2022 is all about ditching diet culture and turning towards a food freedom future!
Xx
