In today’s culture, “diet” is often synonymous with restriction and deprivation. Ironically, the word comes from the Latin “dieta,” which simply means everything you eat and drink in a day. But social media influencers have taken the word to a whole new level.
Scroll through social media and you’ll find a #whatieatinaday video where someone is telling you what foods you should and shouldn’t eat in order to get the body they want. These videos encourage unrealistic goals and potentially unhealthy food choices, and promote specific diets that restrict or eliminate certain nutrients. And these constant reminders highlight a bigger problem in our society: our obsession with being thin. This mindset has become more important than a healthy relationship with food.
The pressure to be thin and look a certain way has also led to an increase in eating disorders and a growing focus on finding the right diet to lose weight, at any cost. The desire to be thin is nothing new, but the growth of social media, and especially video, means more content is readily available than ever before.
In response to this trend, some registered dietitians are recommending a different approach called the “anti-diet.” The goal is to create a healthy connection and enjoyment with food, rather than focusing on every bite you eat and categorizing foods as “good” or “bad.”
Below, we discuss the anti-diet trend and the pros and cons of following this method, and several registered dietitians also share their thoughts on using this approach and how you can determine if it’s right for you.
What is the anti-diet trend?
Generally, anti-diet or non-diet tendencies Not supported Don’t go on a diet just to lose weight or to get in shape for non-medical reasons, says registered dietitian Lauren Harris Pincus, MS, RDN. “The anti-diet movement is a reaction against the harms of diet culture.”
This form of nutrition counseling counters the ideas of calorie counting, restrictive dieting, and tracking and measuring the food you eat. Instead, it promotes overall health, rejects the idea of assigning moral values to food (“good” or “bad”), and opposes food obsession, says Christy Wilson, R.D.
“The anti-diet movement may be a ‘fad,'” she says, “but for its practitioners, it is a lifestyle approach that rejects the constraints of diet culture. Contrary to what some may think, the anti-diet movement is not an anti-health approach; it is an acknowledgement that health and wellness can be achieved through flexibility in diet and physical activity.”
The anti-diet trend also respects people’s preferences, lifestyles, cultural diets, and even enjoyable exercise. While you will certainly see registered dietitians say from time to time, “I felt like having a bowl of M&Ms for dinner, so I did,” this is usually not the norm. These statements push the anti-diet approach in the opposite direction, but that is not the essence of the concept.
An essential element of the anti-diet movement is intuitive eating, an approach that involves eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full. It also recommends enjoying every bite of food as you chew it, and sitting at a table or near a window to eat when you are relaxing, rather than sitting in front of a computer. This approach improves mental health and reduces the risk of eating disorders.
Why is this trend so popular?
Simply put, dieting is dead. People are tired of restrictive diets, meal plans, and diet culture’s obsession with body shape and size, Wilson says. Plus, they find it liberating to be able to eat what they want while improving their health.
The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving long-term health, and “healthy” isn’t tied to a particular size or appearance. With this in mind, an anti-diet approach embraces body neutrality and respects the fact that everyone’s bodies are different.
“Freedom from tracking and restricting food can be a relief for people who have been told by health professionals, family, friends or partners that there is only one way to lose weight and get healthy,” Wilson said.
An anti-diet approach focuses on lifestyle changes rather than fad diets that have short-term (and sometimes dangerous) results. It’s also a weight-neutral approach to health that encourages building a healthy relationship with food, rather than focusing on the number on the scale.
However, this approach takes time to implement, which is why it is important to have care provided by registered dietitians and health care professionals who are trained and educated in this practice.
The pros and cons of the anti-diet approach
Strong Points:
- Focuses on lifestyle changes that have a positive impact on long-term health
- Consider the whole person, not just food, weight, or size
- It takes into account your individual preferences around diet, exercise, sleep and stress management to promote positive lifestyle changes that are easy to sustain.
- Eliminate the moral value that many people place on food (whether it’s “good” or “bad”).
- Allowing all foods throughout your diet to avoid restrictive dietary restrictions and minimize feelings of guilt or shame
- Reduces the potential for restrictive/overeating cycles that come with restricting or eliminating certain foods
Cons:
- This could be misconstrued as permission to eat whatever you want, as much as you want.
- It doesn’t work for everyone; tracking and planning works better for some people.
What do the experts say?
Harris-Pincus says the anti-diet argument is nuanced and much more complicated than simply listening to your body and eating what you want. For example, people with metabolic obesity have dysregulated energy metabolism and altered signaling between the brain and fat cells. When this signaling problem increases hunger hormones, the advice to “listen to your body” doesn’t always work, she says.
Some nutritionists have expressed concern that this trend could lead to weight gain, which could be troubling for some. But Wilson says weight is not the only predictor of health. “Health is a state of well-being, not a body size, it’s a collective thing. When you move away from very restrictive or haphazard eating habits and start taking an anti-diet approach, your weight may initially trend upwards and then plateau.”
Plus, when you change your diet to hit a certain number on the scale, the changes often aren’t sustainable, Wilson adds: fad diets that lead to quick weight loss may ultimately lead to weight gain and loss, which research has shown to be detrimental to your health.
Wilson says anti-diet counselling aims to encourage people to change their attitudes towards food, keep meal times consistent, increase food variety and eat for nutrition. and It’s a long process and your weight may fluctuate over time.
Is it right for you?
Anti-diet approaches aim to build or rebuild a healthy relationship with food, but they aren’t for everyone, Harris-Pincus explains. “Every human body is different, and each individual has different needs based on medical history, food preferences, cultural influences, access to food, cooking skills, time constraints, and more.”
She recommends consulting with a registered dietitian who is trained to support people who want to lose weight in a healthy, patient-centered way. You can also use other resources such as MyPlate, a simple and effective model established by the USDA in 2011. The website offers information, helpful tools, and recipes to help people of all ages get started on healthy eating. The model can also be adapted to incorporate cultural and regional foods.
The Mediterranean diet is another option that has long been recommended by health experts for the health benefits of a balanced, plant-based diet. For heart and cardiovascular health, the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is an evidence-based, sodium-restricted diet that includes a variety of foods like the Mediterranean diet.
If brain health and cognitive performance are particularly important to you, the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Interventions to Slow Neurodegeneration) combines the two dietary approaches mentioned above, using a lot of plant-based ingredients and making it adaptable to vegetarian, flexitarian, and vegan lifestyles.
The above approaches promote long-term health, encompass all food groups, and are flexible and adaptable to accommodate cultural foods to maintain health and wellness. They also fit seamlessly into anti-diet approaches because they are long-term eating plans that focus on what to include in your diet for health, rather than restricting your food intake to lose weight.
Conclusion
The anti-diet approach encourages eating for enjoyment and health, and focuses on what to include in your diet for optimal nutrition, rather than what to eliminate or restrict in order to lose weight. It also helps you develop a healthy relationship with food.
But if you’re resistant to building (or rebuilding) your relationship with food and all that comes with an anti-diet approach, other science-based approaches can also be effective. As a nutritionist, my motto is “you are you.” Do what’s right for you, not because you saw it on TikTok.
