Unpairing Sustainability from Diet Culture

This article was requested by a follower and I couldn’t wait to write it. This piece leans much more towards opinion and social commentary rather than an article with academic sourced material. We hope you’ll still enjoy reading and give us feedback about what you think.

Image created by Grounded Grub.

Food is more than just nutrients. It is comforting, it represents culture, and it brings people together. Sharing a meal together and eating at someone’s table can break down barriers, form new understandings, and feed the body and soul. Unfortunately “diet culture” is everywhere, and leads to millions of people not fully enjoying their food, and living lives of shame and self-hate. Diet-culture is “a system of beliefs that worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue.” We all partake in this diet culture and we may not even notice it. We comment on people’s appearances after not seeing them for weeks, we are more likely to discriminate against heavier people in job interviews, and we are surrounded by magazines of impossibly thin people full of advertisements for weight loss pills and gym subscriptions. Unfortunately, at first glance, sustainable eating and healthy eating can have overlap. During a time where sustainable eating is becoming more popular, it can feel like the messaging is getting mixed into diet culture messaging as it becomes more mainstream. In this article I seek to debunk the myth that focusing on sustainable eating and making choices that support a healthy food system has anything at all to do with unhealthy ideals and dialogues in society that lead to disempowerment and discrimination. 

First, both dieting and sustainable eating can involve meal planning. In a diet culture, meal planning can help individuals restrict their eating and allows them to avoid being “tempted” by foods outside of their diet plan. This can lead to monotonous food consumption, feelings of guilt when eating something outside of the plan, and isolation when family and peers are enjoying other foods together. Meal planning is often encouraged in sustainable eating as a means for reducing waste, and not buying more than you need. Meal planning can mean that less produce goes to waste and families can make sure to eat all of their perishable food before it goes bad. Meal planning can also help you extend your grocery budget further and can make eating more affordable. This language around not buying “more than you need” is not in any way trying to restrict the amount of food you eat. If you’re hungrier than what you packed for lunch, make sure you eat more until you’re full! Keep non-perishable snacks on hand like nuts, dried fruits and other yummy things (chocolate anyone?!) to make sure you have enough food on hand to feed your stomach and brain throughout the day. 

Second, both diet culture and sustainable eating can make a person overly label obsessed. Diet culture encourages hyper-focused attention on calorie counts and other nutritional facts. On the other hand, because it can be hard to figure out where our food is coming from, often those of us interested in sustainability can spend hours reading labels in grocery stores each week. We covered some sustainable food labels to help you answer any label questions you may have, but it can still take extra time and energy during busy weeks. This label obsession can make anyone crazy on both sides, but we hope you’ll remember that fads like eating “clean” or counting calories or cutting out specific things can make a person even crazier. We hope you can use labels to feel better about what you’re purchasing and enjoy your food even more, rather than leading to frustration. 

Because both dieting and sustainability can be trendy and popular, many labels and companies often cater to consumers interests by twisting their marketing to make products more appealing. As someone who works in nutrition education, I am very wary of labels that promote foods as “healthy” this, or “guilt free” that. Food marketers are always after the next “superfood” or quick fix diet that will “change your life!” If you can, follow your gut, seek a balanced mix of foods and move however you are able, naturally and joyfully everyday. You can live a very healthy life while eating nearly any food. As eco-conscious consumers, we call the way that companies, food, clothing, furniture, etc. frame their products as “greenwashing.” When greenwashing, companies attempt to make a product seem better for the environment than it is. Again, we hope you’ll check out our labels article to learn about what different official labels mean, and stick to eating local and in-season when possible as core tenets of sustainable eating. We hope that understanding these concepts can lead to more enjoyment when shopping for food rather than label obsession.

You have taken the time to read articles on Grounded Grub because you want to see systemic change in our food system. By seeking environmentally friendly food options, you are working to support farmers and producers more fairly, support agriculture that is better for our planet, and increase the agency and empowerment of consumers over what they put in their bodies. These changes can support food justice, environmental justice, and make our world more inclusive. On the other hand, diet culture plays into traditional standards of beauty, is exclusionary of people with disabilities, and is completely focused on image. Our obsession with how we look has built multi-million dollar industries based on making us feel lesser and capitalizing on our feelings of self-loathing. Rather than promoting love and acceptance, diet-pills, workout plans and other products of diet culture make money on people feeling bad about themselves. Instead, promote self-love and acceptance in yourself and your communities. Rising above this capitalistic society that wants to gain money based off of people’s self loathing is a radical act. Supporting non-traditional forms of beauty, pushing back against thin ideals and moving our dialogue around food to a more inclusive space is part of changing our system. Take time to enjoy your food and appreciate the way it feeds your body and soul. Listen to your body and follow your intuition rather than a dieting schedule. 

Diet culture is so ingrained in our society that it permeates how we make food choices as a culture. We are constantly berated with ads and messaging about how to make food “guilt free.” While sustainable eating can also feel like yet another set of rules, we hope that we can promote a space where people can share what they are passionate about but not feel guilty or ashamed if they aren’t perfect everyday. Accidentally accepting a plastic fork every once in a while is not going to kill the planet people! The fossil fuel industry is making things much worse than you ever will. And while making personal changes is important, it will take massive policy change on a worldwide level to stop something as massive as climate change. Instead, we hope to encourage a new mindset around food and personal habits to help people feel empowered to make change, not foster a rules mindset that leads to guilt formation.  

At our core, we hope Grounded Grub will celebrate food and a healthy environment, rather than demonizing food. Diet culture has permeated so much of our society and is part of the historical shift that led to us not understanding our food or where it comes from. As we all move to try and create a better system by advocating for policy change, making personal choices and working with our communities to spread a positive movement, we hope you’ll work with us to unpair diet culture language from sustainable eating narratives. Making sustainable food choices is not about policing what is put in your body but rather about celebrating it. It is about investing in our system to support farmers, reduce waste and protect resources. Grounded Grub is about enjoying every bite, and coming back for more. 

We are so grateful for our privilege to taking the time to talk about these issues. Many people do not have the choice over what they eat or how much they are able to afford. We hope you’ll join us in using your privilege to create a better food system that serves all equitably and lifts people up rather than breaking them down. We see a future where everyone has access and agency over their food, and positivity toward and acceptance of all bodies.

This article was requested by a follower and I couldn’t wait to write it. This piece leans much more towards opinion and social commentary rather than an article with academic sourced material. We hope you still found it thought provoking and give us feedback about what you think.