How would it feel to be totally free from rules and completely connected to your body? Someone who hasn’t been on a diet before, but who has to seem a lot of my close friends going on and off diets, but once they stopped dieting they realised how freeing and relieved they felt at the idea of being able to eat breakfast – it may sound so simple and minor, but if you’re dieting for a long time and having to constantly live by the certain rules, it can feel incredibly joyful.
According to NEDA {Eating Disorder Association} say, ‘those who engage in moderate dieting are five times more likely to develop an eating disorder, while those who engage in extreme dieting are 18 times more likely to develop an eating disorder. Bearing in mind that anorexia nervous has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, this shows how diet culture can be at fault.’
Of course, several factors can contribute to an eating disorder – most people who try a diet won’t go on to develop an eating disorder. Scientists may not be able to say for sure what exactly causes an eating disorder or predict who might develop one, most do agree that they are complicated illnesses that arise from not just one but from a complex combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors. I am by no means saying that they’re all caused by dieting, however, if someone already has predisposed to developing one, then dieting is only going to give it the means to thrive.
Remember that food is not good or bad. Food is food… treating yourself to a doughnut doesn’t mean you have to go for carrots and hummus over a bag of crisps as a snack. Okay, yeah sure some food is more nutrient-dense than others and some foods should be eaten less than others for different reasons. Tip: Avoiding a specific food or food group will only lead you to, ultimately, crave it even more.
If you look at these simple facts alone, it may seem unthinkable that diet culture remains so pervasive, doesn’t it??
