Understanding and Recognizing Diet Culture

What is diet culture?

Diet culture is everywhere. It's featured in social media feeds promoting the latest detox, as well as in healthcare settings, where weight loss is often positioned as the primary marker of health. For healthcare professionals, recognizing these pervasive messages and understanding their impact on patients' physical and mental health has become essential to providing compassionate, effective care.

The diet industry thrives on self-insecurities and constant dissatisfaction rather than sustainable health outcomes. In the United States alone, Americans are reported to spend $30 million on diet products every year (National Alliance for Eating Disorders, 2023).

Here, we talk about what diet culture really looks like, why it's harmful, and how healthcare professionals can create more supportive environments that promote genuine well-being.

Diet culture and eating disorders

Diet culture represents a deeply ingrained system of beliefs that places thinness and appearance above health and well-being. It's more than just dieting. It's a pervasive societal framework that assigns moral virtue to certain body types while stigmatizing others.

The problem lies in how diet culture promotes several problematic ideas: that weight loss should be the primary goal of health interventions, that certain foods are inherently "good" or "bad," and that people in larger bodies necessarily need to lose weight to be healthy. These messages appear everywhere, from fitness influencers on social media platforms to well-meaning health campaigns that focus solely on body mass index as a health indicator.

Research shows that patients cite doctors as one of the most common sources of weight stigma or weight bias (Puhl et al., 2006). This creates significant barriers to accessing quality healthcare, particularly for patients with larger bodies who may delay or avoid necessary medical care due to fear of judgment.

Why is diet culture harmful, and what are its effects?

Diet culture creates a vicious cycle where patients blame themselves for "failed" diets rather than recognizing that restrictive diets are designed to fail. This then leads to repeated attempts and an increased risk of developing eating disorders.

The relationship between diet culture and eating disorders is both direct and concerning. It's estimated that 25-30% of dieters will develop a full-blown eating disorder at some point (Finklea, 2025). This shows how supposedly "healthy" behaviors promoted by diet culture can escalate into serious mental health conditions.

Diet culture messaging also creates a foundation for disordered eating behaviors by normalizing food restriction, excessive exercise, body dissatisfaction, and negative body image. When patients internalize these messages, they may begin engaging in behaviors that seem health-focused but actually represent early signs of eating disorder symptoms.

The spectrum of disordered eating includes many behaviors that diet culture presents as normal or even admirable. This can include skipping meals, eliminating entire food groups, using food labels to make moral judgments about eating choices, and measuring self-worth based on body weight or physical appearance. These behaviors can progress to more severe eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.

Diet culture creates a vicious cycle where patients blame themselves for "failed" diets rather than recognizing that restrictive diets are designed to fail. This then leads to repeated attempts and an increased risk of developing eating disorders.

Spotting diet culture in clinical settings

Diet culture in healthcare can be subtle. It can often hide behind the guise of promoting health while actually perpetuating weight bias, thinner bodies, and harmful stereotypes. Recognizing these manifestations is the first step toward creating more inclusive, effective healthcare experiences for patients of all body sizes.

Weight-based assumptions and language

Healthcare settings often perpetuate diet culture through seemingly neutral medical practices. One of the most common manifestations is the automatic assumption that weight loss is necessary for health improvement, regardless of a patient's actual health status or presenting concerns. This includes recommending weight loss for conditions that may not be causally related to body weight, such as joint pain that could stem from injury or genetic factors.

Language choices also reveal diet culture bias. Terms like "obesity epidemic," "fighting obesity," or describing patients as "non-compliant" when they don't achieve weight loss goals reflect moralistic thinking about body size.

Medical equipment and facility design

Physical barriers in healthcare settings reinforce weight stigma. Studies found that 91% of healthcare facilities didn't have scales for patients over 350 pounds, almost 80% lacked appropriately sized gowns for larger patients, and around 40% didn't have exam tables that could accommodate patients with obesity (Within Health, 2023). These infrastructure limitations send clear messages about which bodies are welcome and expected.

Blood pressure readings may be inaccurate when standard cuffs are used on larger arms, but this equipment issue is often overlooked. This concern can lead to misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment decisions.

Treatment protocols focused solely on weight

Healthcare providers may focus exclusively on weight as a health indicator, while overlooking other important factors, such as mental well-being, social determinants of health, or specific symptoms the patient presents with. This approach can result in missed diagnoses when providers attribute all health concerns to body weight without conducting thorough assessments.

How to support your patients unlear diet culture

Supporting patients in developing a healthier relationship with food and their bodies requires a shift away from weight-focused interventions toward approaches that prioritize overall well-being. This involves both changing clinical practices and providing patients with alternative frameworks for thinking about health. More specifically, this requires practitioners to:

Reflect on one's own bias

Healthcare professionals can start by examining their own attitudes and potential weight bias. Continuing education interventions focusing on empathy, self-awareness of bias, attribution of blame, and creating bias-free cultures can significantly reduce weight bias among healthcare professionals. This type of training helps providers deliver more compassionate and effective care.

Focus on healthy eating patterns

When discussing nutrition with patients, focus on healthy eating patterns rather than restrictive diets. Encourage patients to notice their hunger and fullness cues, eat regular meals, and include variety in their food choices. Avoid labeling foods as "good" or "bad," and instead help patients understand how different foods serve different purposes in supporting their health and enjoyment.

Introduce intuitive eating

Introducing concepts of intuitive eating and mindful eating can be particularly helpful. Intuitive eating approaches are associated with lower rates of depression, improved self-esteem, reduced body dissatisfaction, and decreased disordered eating behaviors (Hazzard et al., 2021). These approaches encourage patients to trust their body's signals rather than following external rules about eating.

Encourage body neutrality

Support body neutrality rather than pushing body positivity, which can feel unrealistic for patients struggling with body image concerns. Body neutrality focuses on what bodies can do rather than how they look, and emphasizes respect for the body regardless of appearance.

Conclusion

Recognizing and addressing diet culture in healthcare settings is a crucial step toward providing more effective and compassionate patient care. As healthcare professionals, understanding how diet culture messaging affects our patients' health allows us to create environments that support genuine well-being rather than perpetuating harmful stereotypes and practices.

This transformation requires ongoing education, self-reflection, and commitment to examining our own biases about weight and health. However, the potential impact makes this work essential for advancing healthcare quality and accessibility for all patients, regardless of body size.

Moving forward, healthcare can lead the way in debunking harmful diet culture messages by supporting patients' relationships with food and movement and creating truly weight-inclusive care environments where all patients feel respected and supported in their health journey.

References

Finklea, K. (2025, February 28). The wrong influence: The link between diet culture and eating disorder. HopeHealth. https://www.hope-health.org/2025/02/28/the-wrong-influence-the-link-between-diet-culture-and-eating-disorder/#:~:text=Disordered%20eating%20does%20significant%20damage,eating%20disorder%20at%20some%20point.

Hazzard, V. M., Telke, S. E., Simone, M., Anderson, L. M., Larson, N. I., & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2021). Intuitive eating longitudinally predicts better psychological health and lower use of disordered eating behaviors: findings from EAT 2010-2018. Eating and Weight Disorders, 26(1), 287–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-00852-4

National Alliance for Eating Disorders. (2023, June 27). The surprising history of diet culture. https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/the-surprising-history-of-diet-culture/

Puhl, R. M., & Brownell, K. D. (2006). Confronting and coping with weight stigma: an investigation of overweight and obese adults. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 14(10), 1802–1815. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2006.208

Within Health. (2023, March 15). Weight stigma in healthcare settings. https://withinhealth.com/learn/articles/weight-stigma-in-healthcare-settings