How to Spot Diet Culture—And What to Do About It

It’s in your coffee shop. Your gym. Even your Instagram feed.

Jess had just finished charting for the day when she opened Instagram, hoping for something mindless after a string of emotionally charged client sessions. Instead, she was met with a post shouting, “Earn your brunch!” in neon workout font. Cue the eye-roll—and a twinge of discomfort. She knew better. But still, the message seeped in.

For Sophie, it happened in class. A professor praised weight loss as a “universal marker of success” in chronic disease prevention. No one blinked. Sophie scribbled furiously in her notes: Is this true? Why does this feel off? The more she learns, the more she sees it: diet culture is everywhere—and it’s sneaky.

Whether you’re a new dietitian, a student, or someone just trying to have a peaceful relationship with food, it helps to know what you’re actually up against.

What Is Diet Culture, Really?

Diet culture isn’t just about diets—it’s a system of beliefs that values certain bodies over others. It moralizes food, equates thinness with worth, and perpetuates the lie that health is something you can “achieve” through willpower and weight control.

It often shows up dressed as “wellness,” “clean eating,” or a “healthy lifestyle.” But when you peel back the layers, you’ll usually find three things:

• A fixation on thinness or “fit” aesthetics

• A fear of fatness (and often, fat people)

• A narrow definition of health that ignores access, identity, and autonomy

Here’s the kicker: you don’t have to be on a diet to be in diet culture. You just have to live in a world that praises shrinking and punishes bodies that take up space.

Everyday Signs of Diet Culture

This isn’t a theory—it’s lived experience. Here’s what diet culture really looks like, straight from the stories shared by our online community.

• A fitness tracker telling you how many calories you “earned” after a walk

• “Cheat day” menus at restaurants

• Wellness influencers promoting “detox teas” with no actual science

• Friends bonding over “being so bad” for eating bread

• Healthcare providers assuming weight loss should be the default recommendation

And for professionals like Jess and Sophie:

• Nutrition curriculum that equates portion control with healing

• Preceptors praising restrictive food logs

• Colleagues rolling their eyes at the term “intuitive eating”

Diet culture thrives in these micro-moments. But naming them is the first step to dismantling them.

Why Diet Culture Is Harmful

The damage of diet culture goes far beyond food rules. It:

• Disconnects us from our body’s cues and needs

• Perpetuates shame and distrust in our own bodies

• Upholds systemic oppression by pathologizing fatness

• Ignores the lived experiences of people with limited access to healthcare, fresh foods, or safe movement spaces

And despite what we’ve been told, fatness is not a reliable predictor of poor health. The research has never been as black-and-white as diet culture claims—and using weight as a shortcut for care leads to misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, and a lot of harm.

What “Anti-Diet” Actually Means

Let’s clear something up: Anti-diet ≠ anti-health.

The anti-diet movement is about reclaiming the full definition of health, including mental, emotional, and social wellbeing. It’s about:

• Supporting people in all body sizes

• Centering autonomy and consent in care

• Recognizing that nourishment isn’t just about nutrients—it’s about connection, accessibility, and safety

Jess reframes it for clients this way: “This isn’t about neglecting health—it’s about releasing rigid control patterns that have been misidentified as health-promoting.”

How to Start Opting Out

You don’t have to overhaul your dietetics practice overnight. But here are some gentle ways to begin:

1. Question the “norms” you were taught.
Just because it was in a textbook doesn’t mean it was trauma-informed, inclusive, or accurate. Stay curious. Ask who benefits—and who’s harmed—by the nutrition guidance you were given.

2. Center the client’s lived experience over the meal plan.
Honor hunger cues, emotional needs, and access to resources. Let your clients lead—your job is to support, not control.

3. De-emphasize weight as a marker of progress.
Use non-weight-based outcomes to measure health and healing, such as energy levels, sleep, mood, and connection with food and body.

4. Advocate for systemic change in professional spaces.
Speak up in rounds, classrooms, and supervision when weight stigma shows up. Change doesn’t happen by staying silent.

5. Seek community that reinforces your values.
Healing from diet culture isn’t a solo job. Surround yourself with mentors, peers, and resources that affirm anti-diet, weight-inclusive care.

Now that you know how to spot diet culture, you get to decide what to do about it—and we’re here to help you do it with clarity, courage, and community.

Whether you’re a student questioning the status quo or a seasoned dietitian ready to practice differently, you don’t have to do it alone. Tune into The MENTORD Podcast for real conversations that go beyond the textbook, and wear your values proudly with our Anti-Diet Designs collection—created for dietitians and RD2Bes who are done shrinking and ready to take up space. Healing from diet culture starts here.