A Dietitian’s Tips for Breaking Up with Diet Culture

3 ways to to separate yourself from diet culture 

Parting ways with diet culture can be intimidating. It can feel like it is all around us. So what can help? Taking some intentional action, creating supportive environments, and having some fun even along the way.  

Over the years, working as a Registered Dietitian with clients who are sick of yo-yo dieting and clients who are working hard to change disordered eating patterns, we have come up with some fun ways to make the break up with diet culture “official”. 

Here are my top 3 ways to break up with diet culture:  

1. Digital Detox  

The only type of detox I think you ever need to do.  

Social media has its perks, so I am not saying that you have to get rid of it all together, but it can create a very harmful pattern of negative comparisons. You might catch yourself comparing to someone else’s body, their fitness, their food, or the highlight reel that they share on social media.  

This can be a slippery slope that leads to lowering your own self confidence and body image because you are caught comparing what you feel is a negative in you, to a positive in others.  

It is also important to know that a recent study found that only about 2% of the nutrition content analyzed on the social media platform TikTok was accurate! The other 98% was incorrect, partially correct or lacking scientific evidence.  

HOW TO DETOX – get ruthless in who you choose to follow and the media that you are exposed to. 

Step 1 – Unfollow, block, mute, whatever you need to do to reduce the volume of the images that you see.  

Step 2 – FOLLOW the positive people or accounts that do not lead you into negative comparisons (the perk – this can help shift the algorithm too) 

2. Burn the diet books and restrictive cookbooks! 

Now I wouldn’t normally encourage book burning, however, in this case, I think it is worth it because I strongly believe that diet books and restrictive cookbooks (except for ones that help with recipes for allergies) should not be passed on secondhand, gifted, or kept.   

How I have done this with clients in the past is: 

•  I have them bring into our session any books that might still be kicking around that house that were from an old diet or that felt really triggering for them.  
• We use a fire safe container 
• We tear out some of the pages to fill the container. At the same time, we discuss why those books did not help, why their messaging was wrong, why they were harmful , and what the client is making space for in their life without these messages.  
• And then we burn the pages and the books symbolically getting rid of that part of the client’s past.  

Note – you must have a safe space to do this. If fire is not an option, drawing with black marker all over the pages, ripping out the pages and throwing into a garbage can can also still be very soothing! 

3. Smash that scale!  

I may be biased, but this is my favourite tip of the 3.  

When we break up with diet culture, we often get to break up with the scale too. For many individuals, the scale has held too much power. It may have been how they decided if they were “good or bad” or if they could live their life freely or restricted. While it is very possible that even after getting rid of the scale, a person may still know their weight and that can be okay. The goal is to get rid of the device that has made weight such a sticking point for them in their lifetime.  

My preferred way to smash the scale is with a full blown sledge hammer! In a safe space, wearing safety goggles, we take the sledgehammer to that scale until all that is left is bits and pieces.  

Similarly to when we get rid of the diet books, we like to discuss why it is so helpful to get rid of the scale! To break it to pieces and take the control back!  

If you want help breaking up with diet culture, we are here to support you!