Calorie counting, calorie cutting, clean eating, weighing cereal, stepping onto a scale day after day, chasing after a weight goal like it is the only thing that matters – we constantly find ourselves thinking about our weight, about the way we eat, about how to control or to change our bodies. Does it make us happier? Healthier? 

Take a moment to think about all the people running off yesterday’s caloric surplus, working out to earn their dinner, or saying no to birthday cake. Diet culture has a huge impact on our relationship with both food and exercise. And in some cases it can take a serious toll on not only our mental but also our physical health.

While obesity is a serious health issue, some ways to cope with it, namely extreme diets, food restriction and excessive exercise, are issues no less serious. 

The NHS reports obesity rates of 26% for men and 29% for women. Over 60% of adults in the UK are overweight. To counteract the continual rise of these rates, even the UK government urges people to ‘get active and eat better.’ In the Western world, fighting obesity has become the number one health concern. As a result, the global diet and weight loss market has grown to be worth USD 2092.5 million in 2021 and is projected to value USD 2992.9 million by 2026. Millions of people are making an effort to lose weight and exercise in order to get healthier. People being increasingly concerned with health, diet and exercise is generally speaking a good thing and also necessary to fight obesity and overweight related health issues. There is, however, a downside to it. Its name is diet culture.

Diets seem to be everywhere – whether that be keto diet, low fat diet, paleo diet, raw food diet, baby food diet, or intermittent fasting. The problem with diets is that in a lot of cases they fail. And in a lot of cases in which they succeed, they result in eating disorders. Currently, an estimated 1.25 million people in the UK are suffering from an eating disorder as a direct result of diet culture’s influence.

Diet culture has become an integral part of our society, and is often promoted by influencers and celebrities. People seem to be obsessed with celebrity diets and exercise routines. We look up to celebrities and we try to be more like them; to look like them, eat like them, exercise like them. Kim Kardashian’s dedication to the keto diet, for instance, has led thousands of people to follow her example. 

Celebrities giving fitness or nutrition advice can be problematic, since they may not be aware of the health impact certain eating and exercise behaviours can have. Most of them are not fitness or health professionals, after all. Even when in a lot of cases celebrities do not actively advise others to eat or exercise like them, by opening up about their diet, sharing their gym routine, or making ‘what I eat in a day’ videos, they do influence other people.

Adele, who has undergone a massive weight loss in the last couple of years, recently opened up about her health and fitness journey in an interview with British Vogue. She admitted to working out ‘two or three times a day’ and being ‘quite addicted to it.’ Before she started working out regularly, she was experiencing anxiety and emotional distress as a result of her divorce and her father’s death. She started working out to cope with her anxiety: ‘I realized that when I was working out, I didn’t have any anxiety. It was never about losing weight.’

It seems to me that even though Adele merely shared her experience and did not encourage anyone to follow her example, her interview is problematic in a lot of ways. Celebrities have a social responsibility; they should lead by example and be mindful about the lifestyle and behaviour they promote. A lot of the people who look up to them and follow their fitness and health advice are young impressionable girls and women, the most vulnerable demographic for eating disorders or body image issues. Exercise addiction, in the case of Adele, or restrictive eating behaviours, in the case of every celebrity who swears by a diet (and there are a lot of those), should never be a guide for a healthy lifestyle. 

Over exercising and food restriction can have a serious health impact, in regard to both physical and mental wellbeing. Too much exercise can negatively affect the body’s muscles, joints and immune system and leads to overall distress of the body. Undereating at any weight likewise has an effect on physical health and may result in an eating disorder. Long story short, excessive exercising and restrictive eating can become dangerous really quickly.

Eating and exercising in a healthy way does not mean restricting food and spending hours on end in the gym. A healthy lifestyle should be about eating mindfully, while still enjoying food, and about moving our bodies in a way we enjoy. However, ‘health’ has been commercialised; it has become a beauty trend. One must have the ‘kind of muscle definition that’s visible through leggings,’ to quote how Adele was described in British Vogue. Many people work out in order to look a certain way. Having the ‘perfect’ body has become an equivalent for having a ‘perfect’ life. Too much value is tied to the way we look. Losing weight and building muscle becomes the solution for everything. Both men and women are made to believe that they are not good enough if they do not fit into a certain size or look a certain way. 

This focus on physical appearance affects people’s self-confidence and potentially results in mental health and body image issues. It can also negatively affect physical health. Defined muscles, visible abs or thigh gaps are often not a sign of health. Many bodies are just not built to conform with our society’s toxic beauty standards.

Our fitness and diet culture is toxic and negatively affects our everyday lives, our health, and our way of thinking. Celebrities promoting these dangerous ideals and behaviours certainly does not help. Health goals should never be about weight or about physical appearance. Health is not a trend; it is a commitment. An eating disorder is not a fashion statement; it is a disease. Over exercising is in no way healthy. While mindful eating is important and regular exercise has positive effects on mental and physical health, there is a point where enough is enough and healthy behaviours can turn into unhealthy ones.

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