1 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:08,959 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties, 2 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:11,680 Speaker 1: the podcast where we talk through some of the big 3 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:15,200 Speaker 1: life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they 4 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 1: mean for our psychology. Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. 5 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode. It is so great to 6 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:30,159 Speaker 1: have you here, So great to have you here for 7 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: another discussion. New listeners, old listeners. It is a really 8 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: interesting topic this week. I'm so excited about it. I'm 9 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: also a little bit nervous. This topic took me so 10 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 1: long to write and a lot of thinking time, I 11 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 1: think because it's one that I think personally influences and 12 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 1: impacts every single person in their twenties, every single person 13 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: in their teenage years, in their thirties, almost at every 14 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: stage of life, and it is so complex. So this 15 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:06,840 Speaker 1: week we are going to discuss the psychology of diet 16 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:11,880 Speaker 1: culture and how we can embrace our bodies in whatever 17 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 1: form they come, despite excessive society or pressure to kind 18 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: of conform to a particular beauty standard and a particular 19 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: body type. There is so much content to cover. I'm 20 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: really excited to explore some of the findings and intricacies 21 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: around this topic. I think as our society has become 22 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: more self aware of the dangerous impacts of social media 23 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:41,399 Speaker 1: and general popular media on how we see our bodies. 24 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: Discussions on the harms of diet culture have become so 25 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:49,559 Speaker 1: much more prevalent, and that is such a brilliant, brilliant thing, 26 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: because I think I really don't think I can name 27 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 1: even a single person in my life who has not 28 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 1: been influenced in some way by the standards set by 29 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: our society, and a society that is inherently impacted and 30 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 1: inherently caters to diet culture in some way or another. 31 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: I know personally this topic and diet culture has impacted 32 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:20,920 Speaker 1: me throughout my adolescents, throughout my twenties so far in 33 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:23,960 Speaker 1: a way that has been really insidious and has been 34 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: sometimes hard to shake. So I think that is why 35 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: I'm super excited to talk about it and also to 36 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,639 Speaker 1: kind of shed a light on some of the consequences 37 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: that we don't always know that can be incredibly severe 38 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:40,519 Speaker 1: over our mental well being and our physical health. In particular, 39 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:44,640 Speaker 1: we are going to talk about, basically the psychology behind 40 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: diet culture is so influential, how it takes form, how 41 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: it impacts us to treat our bodies in a certain way, 42 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: especially in this decade of our twenties. We're going to 43 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:57,799 Speaker 1: talk about the impact that it has on us from 44 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,000 Speaker 1: an early age. We're going to talk about social approval, 45 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,840 Speaker 1: the impact on self esteem, body dysmorphia, and mental health, 46 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: amongst other things. But before we begin this episode and 47 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: get into some of the content, I would just like 48 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:18,480 Speaker 1: to give a brief disclaimer. This episode will include discussions 49 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: and descriptions of disordered eating and diet culture. So if 50 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: this is something that is particularly triggering for you, I 51 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: would just ask that you do a quick mental health check, 52 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: a quick check of your emotional state at the moment, 53 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:36,480 Speaker 1: and ask yourself whether this is something you need to 54 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 1: listen to today. I promise the episode will still be 55 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: here in a week, two weeks, a month's time, so 56 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: you can always come back to it when you feel 57 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: more prepared. But if this is something that is going 58 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 1: to trigger you, maybe just sit this one out for 59 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: a little while. If anything in this episode is distressing, 60 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 1: there are contact numbers in the description for someone you 61 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: can speak to if you need help and if you 62 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 1: need clinical assistance. I also just want to stay we 63 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 1: cannot talk about everything today. We are going to do 64 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: a whole other episode primarily on eating disorders and the 65 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: impact on us in our twenties. And like I said, 66 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: this is a topic I feel really, really deeply about. 67 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 1: It's definitely something that has personally impacted me amongst many 68 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: and many of my friends, many many of you guys 69 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:27,919 Speaker 1: as well, I'm sure. So I'm excited to kind of 70 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: dispel some of the ambiguity and the confusion around why 71 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,920 Speaker 1: we often buy into diet culture even when we don't 72 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:38,719 Speaker 1: really want to. And we're going to discuss some of 73 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: the harms, but importantly the psychology behind how we can 74 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: push back against diet culture and embrace our bodies despite 75 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: this pressure to kind of cater towards societal expectations about 76 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: how we should look. So let us get into it, 77 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:00,680 Speaker 1: let us begin the discussion. I'm so excited, Thank you 78 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:11,679 Speaker 1: again for joining us. Let's go. So essentially, diet culture, 79 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:16,920 Speaker 1: it refers to a rigid set of cultural and social 80 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: expectations alongside ingrained systems and ingrained beliefs and behaviors that 81 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: convince us to value a certain physique or type of body, 82 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:31,360 Speaker 1: one that we deem physical attractive, physically attractive, often that's 83 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: one that is thin over our physical health and emotional 84 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: well being. Diet culture it's essentially rooted in fat phobia, 85 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:45,040 Speaker 1: but it's often disguised as health and wellness, as something 86 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: that's trying to make us better people and treat our 87 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,359 Speaker 1: bodies roll. I think it's an overgeneralization to say that 88 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 1: the word diet is probably ultimately problematic, but it's a 89 00:05:55,800 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: fact that the vast diet industry it essentially befits from 90 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:04,599 Speaker 1: our insecurity and our fear of being perceived as overweight 91 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: or as fat. I think it's important to stay here 92 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: that just because you are a naturally petite person or 93 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:13,920 Speaker 1: your thin doesn't mean you have to feel any shame 94 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: at all that your body happens to conform with beauty standards. 95 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:20,799 Speaker 1: Nor do I think it really helps anyone by enhancing 96 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 1: the attractiveness of people who are bigger by dragging another 97 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: body shape down. We all come in different forms where 98 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:30,919 Speaker 1: we are all beautiful at our core. What we're mainly 99 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: talking about is how diet culture convinces everyone along that 100 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:37,440 Speaker 1: spectrum that no matter what they look like, they could 101 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:39,920 Speaker 1: always be thinner, they could always be doing something more 102 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:45,800 Speaker 1: to look better. Diet culture It often emphasizes good foods 103 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:50,120 Speaker 1: and fad diets like fasting or cutting out certain food groups. 104 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:53,640 Speaker 1: It wants us to excessively focus on what we eat 105 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 1: and how much we wave through calorie restriction and excessive exercise, 106 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:04,719 Speaker 1: and it essentially normalizes a self deprecating attitude and belief 107 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:07,880 Speaker 1: towards our bodies that we are not good enough, that 108 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: we are not valuable enough unless we look a certain way, 109 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: and normally that is extremely thin. This kind of culture 110 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:21,000 Speaker 1: is incredibly toxic. I feel like that goes without saying right, 111 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 1: like it's incredibly toxic because of its obsessive focus on 112 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: our physical appearance, particularly our weight or what size we wear, 113 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: and it can be a massive risk factor for body dysmorphia, 114 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:40,120 Speaker 1: for disordered eating, and other mental health issues. I don't 115 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: want any of us to feel any shame if we 116 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: fall into kind of the trap of believing the lies 117 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:51,000 Speaker 1: that diet culture has told us. You know that if 118 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,120 Speaker 1: we're thinner, if we take a certain pill or a 119 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:57,560 Speaker 1: certain supplement, will be happier. This is a seventy one 120 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:01,880 Speaker 1: billion dollar industry, probably even bigger when you consider all 121 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 1: the other industries that feed into it. So it's come 122 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: up with a lot of creative ways to control us, 123 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 1: and kind of in the most hidden and nefarious of ways, 124 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,560 Speaker 1: starting as early as childhood, in the shows we watch, 125 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 1: the media, we absorb the beliefs and comments made by 126 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:23,560 Speaker 1: those around us, by our parents, I think essentially, diet 127 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 1: culture is based on control. The diet industry is based 128 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:32,760 Speaker 1: on control. It's based on profit. And I think the 129 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 1: most terrifying aspect of this is the underlying message. It 130 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: promotes that our worth is tied to our physical appearance, 131 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:46,280 Speaker 1: not how we treat others, not what we contribute to 132 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:51,040 Speaker 1: the world, not the people we love, or our intelligence 133 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:56,000 Speaker 1: or our creativity, you know, the things that truly matter. 134 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,559 Speaker 1: It wants us to view our worth by the shape 135 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:03,119 Speaker 1: and the size of our bodies, not what is inside. 136 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: I know that sounds pretty self explanatory, right, you know, 137 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 1: that's a pretty easy way to see things. You know. 138 00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:12,720 Speaker 1: Diet culture convinces us that our body is our most 139 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: valuable and most attractive and desirable asset, whereas the other things, 140 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:20,719 Speaker 1: the quantity and the quality of our souls and the 141 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:24,280 Speaker 1: quality of our hearts, doesn't really matter. But one way 142 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: I really like to frame it to myself when sometimes 143 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: I find myself slipping into this belief that my body 144 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:33,280 Speaker 1: is and how I look is a lot more valuable 145 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:36,400 Speaker 1: than other parts of myself. Is to think about myself 146 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:40,400 Speaker 1: on my deathbed. I know this is really morbid, but 147 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: I always think on my deathbed, people really going to 148 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:49,000 Speaker 1: remember how much I weighed, where if I was two 149 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:53,280 Speaker 1: or three or four killers skinnier, They're really going to 150 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 1: remember what size of clothes I wear. I don't think so, 151 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,679 Speaker 1: and I think that it seems in the most important moments, 152 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,640 Speaker 1: like at birth, at death, when we're surrounded by people 153 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: we love, when we're getting married, when we're overcome with joy, 154 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: our body is the least important thing about us, as 155 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:16,120 Speaker 1: long as it's able to do the things we want 156 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:19,080 Speaker 1: it to do and be a safe vessel and a 157 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: safe home for the attributes, the love, the thoughts, feelings 158 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:27,280 Speaker 1: and values that our bodies contain and that our minds 159 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:31,920 Speaker 1: and our hearts contain. But diet culture undermines that belief right. 160 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,480 Speaker 1: It undermines that belief. It says these things don't matter, 161 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: doesn't matter how great a person you are. If you're 162 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: not thin, well, then you should be doing better. And 163 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: it really contributes to a lot of debilitating disorders like 164 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:49,560 Speaker 1: anorexia and bulimia, orthorexia, binge, eating disorders. These are really 165 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:54,760 Speaker 1: serious conditions, right. They're related to persistent eating behaviors and 166 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 1: sometimes restricted behaviors that negatively impact our health, our emotions, 167 00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:05,959 Speaker 1: our ability to function. And most eating disorders involve a 168 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,480 Speaker 1: focus that is very similar to that of diet culture. 169 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,439 Speaker 1: It's focused on your weight, it's focused on your body shape, 170 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,680 Speaker 1: on your food intake, and it can lead to really 171 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:22,400 Speaker 1: dangerous eating behaviors, and often diet culture and that societal 172 00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:28,959 Speaker 1: obsession with body image and thinness is a huge contributing factor. Okay, 173 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,000 Speaker 1: I don't want to spend too much time talking on 174 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: these because I think it needs a whole, whole separate episode, 175 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:38,920 Speaker 1: and it will get its own separate episode where we 176 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:42,080 Speaker 1: can talk more about eating disorders and the way they 177 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:45,080 Speaker 1: present and the impacts they have. But today we're just 178 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 1: going to talk about some examples of what diet culture 179 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:50,960 Speaker 1: might look like and where we can notice it in 180 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:55,320 Speaker 1: our behaviors and the things around us, before we kind 181 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:59,479 Speaker 1: of discuss the origins and the psychology behind its existence 182 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,959 Speaker 1: and its volence in almost every facetted area of our lives. 183 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:07,040 Speaker 1: I think diet culture is particularly insidious because it's lumped 184 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:11,079 Speaker 1: in with this suggestion that optimal. It's kind of lumped 185 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 1: in with this suggestion about taking care of ourselves, right, 186 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,199 Speaker 1: like if you count calories and if you eat well, 187 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:20,480 Speaker 1: you must be perceived as healthy. But that's not always 188 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,600 Speaker 1: the case. And it appears so often in the media 189 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 1: and so often around us that soon we start to 190 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,400 Speaker 1: believe that eating a certain way, that caring about our way, 191 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:35,079 Speaker 1: caring about what we look like, is completely normal. It's ubiquitous. 192 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:38,840 Speaker 1: We see it in advertisements, TV movies, at work, at 193 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,520 Speaker 1: the doctor's office, maybe when you're having conversations with friends 194 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:46,960 Speaker 1: and family, and of course, the big kind of devil 195 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: in this situation in social media. Just think about how 196 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: much social media we absorb every day. They really think 197 00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: about how many hours do you spend on your phone? 198 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:03,559 Speaker 1: But you know, perhaps you can't remember particular posts or videos, 199 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: but all of that content that you're seeing on a 200 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:12,200 Speaker 1: day to day basis is being absorbed and processed subconsciously 201 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:15,440 Speaker 1: somewhere in your brain. And when the content we are 202 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:21,000 Speaker 1: exposed to frequently reiterates, diet culture frequently reiterates how we 203 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 1: are meant to look a certain way, eat a certain way, 204 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:28,800 Speaker 1: be a certain way. Suddenly it becomes part of our 205 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:32,600 Speaker 1: belief systems, even without us noticing. So I was having 206 00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:36,160 Speaker 1: this conversation with my friend the other day about how 207 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:38,599 Speaker 1: much of the content we absorbed from social media is 208 00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:42,440 Speaker 1: actually just loosely concealed diet culture. There's no way around it. 209 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,080 Speaker 1: It's essentially I think it's kind of packaged up to 210 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 1: appear something else, to appear like it's talking about health, 211 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:52,079 Speaker 1: but it's diet culture. And it's the kind that if 212 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,840 Speaker 1: we saw a celebrity actively promoting or a magazine promoting, 213 00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:57,719 Speaker 1: we would call it out and we would say, this 214 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 1: is actually really unhealthy, this is promoting eating disorders. But 215 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:04,240 Speaker 1: when they're packaged up nicely, when they're seen in our 216 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:07,640 Speaker 1: Instagram and our TikTok feeds as these like trendy videos, 217 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:10,440 Speaker 1: we often don't notice it as much as we should. 218 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:14,200 Speaker 1: You know, I always think about TikTok videos about like 219 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:17,160 Speaker 1: what I eat in a day, and they display calories, 220 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:21,880 Speaker 1: trending sounds about being skinnier. The idolization of models like 221 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,560 Speaker 1: Bella had did in an obsession with what they eat, 222 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 1: an overrepresentation and idolization of people who are thin across 223 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 1: Instagram and other platforms. So many other examples, you know, 224 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:39,400 Speaker 1: celebrity diets, before and after, fitness trends, weight loss pills, 225 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:43,520 Speaker 1: diet pills, weight loss shakes, all of those things. The 226 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: other one that's really huge and is a really big 227 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 1: indicator of how diet culture kind of seeps its way 228 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: into our mind is edited photos and edited images. I'm 229 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:56,240 Speaker 1: sure we've all done this once or twice. I have 230 00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:01,040 Speaker 1: done this. I've edited images of myself to better to 231 00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: look thinner, and I don't think I'm alone in this. 232 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:09,600 Speaker 1: There's actually been a study on this exact kind of behavior, 233 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: and it noted that seventy percent and over fifty percent 234 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,760 Speaker 1: of men, so seventy percent of women, fifty percent of 235 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:20,840 Speaker 1: men aged eighteen to thirty five reported editing the images 236 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:24,560 Speaker 1: they post on social media pretty regularly. And I think 237 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:28,800 Speaker 1: this demonstrates not only how diet culture convinces us that 238 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:32,000 Speaker 1: we need to put forward a particular image of ourselves 239 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:36,280 Speaker 1: as attractive and as thin, but also the large amount 240 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:42,200 Speaker 1: of overall dissatisfaction we have with what we naturally look like, 241 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 1: with what we truly look like, to the point where 242 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: we alter images of ourselves to seem ideal. I think 243 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:56,360 Speaker 1: this list of diet culture embedded across social media could 244 00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,120 Speaker 1: go on and on and on. We see it all 245 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:04,119 Speaker 1: the time everywhere, and as people and children are accessing 246 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:07,920 Speaker 1: social media earlier and earlier in age, it's no wonder 247 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:10,760 Speaker 1: that by the time we kind of reach out at 248 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,800 Speaker 1: a lessens in our teenage years, almost I think it's 249 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: like six and ten people report some form of disordered eating. 250 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: This is why it works, and this is why it's 251 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: so impactful. When we see this content enough, we begin 252 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,600 Speaker 1: to normalize it. So this is known as the concept 253 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:34,360 Speaker 1: of normalization. This refers to essentially a social process through 254 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 1: which ideals and actions come to be seen as normal 255 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 1: through things like ideology and propaganda and repetition such as that. 256 00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: You know, when we see something enough, maybe across social media, 257 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 1: it becomes normal to us. It becomes taken for granted 258 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,960 Speaker 1: part of our everyday perception and understanding of what the 259 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 1: world is like. So let's think about this in terms 260 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:06,679 Speaker 1: of diet culture. So essentially, this idea of thinness and 261 00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:10,480 Speaker 1: needing to treat our bodies a certain way to align 262 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:15,320 Speaker 1: with beauty standards and ideals of attractiveness. This becomes an 263 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:21,720 Speaker 1: idealized norm through repetition of images and trends and video 264 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:26,159 Speaker 1: content that all promotes the same idea to be thinner 265 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,520 Speaker 1: as to be better, and this becomes an idealized norm. 266 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:33,640 Speaker 1: It's been repeated across our brains enough that we are 267 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:36,520 Speaker 1: made to almost obey it or see it as normal 268 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,480 Speaker 1: in our society. And then there's this way of either 269 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:45,400 Speaker 1: rewarding or punishing individuals, often subliminally, for deviating against the ideal. 270 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,320 Speaker 1: So this is a way that diet culture is able 271 00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:53,480 Speaker 1: to exert almost maximum control over our behaviors, beginning in 272 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:57,400 Speaker 1: childhood and in our teenage years. So we have this norm. 273 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,200 Speaker 1: It's been repeated to us through social media. It's become idealized, 274 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:05,399 Speaker 1: and those who match the idealization of thinness and looking 275 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 1: a certain way, they are praised, they can fit into 276 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:12,960 Speaker 1: traditional clothing sizes they've represented in the media, whilst those 277 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: who are who don't meet that ideal, who pushed back 278 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:19,640 Speaker 1: against that norm, are told that they're lazy. They're made 279 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:23,600 Speaker 1: to feel uncomfortable, they aren't able to find clothes that 280 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: fit in traditional stores, they aren't represented, they face bullying, 281 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:31,520 Speaker 1: particularly online. So in that way, they're kind of punished 282 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:35,399 Speaker 1: and almost forced to fall back in line to cater 283 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:41,600 Speaker 1: towards being thinner. This, obviously, I think, goes without saying, 284 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:45,960 Speaker 1: can cause some pretty long term issues with our self 285 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: perception and self worth and the way that we treat 286 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:54,920 Speaker 1: our bodies because it promotes this lie. Like I said, 287 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 1: your value to society is determined by how much you 288 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:04,840 Speaker 1: a particular mold, a particular norm, or a standard of 289 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:09,400 Speaker 1: thinness of beauty, and this has inverse, kind of inverse 290 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:12,120 Speaker 1: effects as well for people who don't look that way. 291 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:17,360 Speaker 1: Whereby diet culture has so intensely ingrained in our brains 292 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:21,960 Speaker 1: that skinny equals good, skinny equals attractive, skinny equals valuable, 293 00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:26,879 Speaker 1: that people who don't meet that socially constructed and manipulated 294 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:32,640 Speaker 1: standard experience discrimination in many areas of life, and they're 295 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:35,840 Speaker 1: told or shamed that they don't have self control and 296 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:41,560 Speaker 1: that they aren't desirable. A thin or fit appearance symbolizes 297 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,240 Speaker 1: I think, a lot of important values in our culture. 298 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:49,359 Speaker 1: We often confuse it with values like hard work and discipline. 299 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,680 Speaker 1: So if a person is thin, they're seen as having willpower, 300 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: the seen as having self control. These are ideals and 301 00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:01,480 Speaker 1: values and attributes that we value. Whereas if a person 302 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,720 Speaker 1: is not thin, the assumption is that they must lack 303 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:08,560 Speaker 1: self discipline, they must not have much will power, and 304 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:13,560 Speaker 1: as a result, they experience harmful stigmatization. They're put down, 305 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:18,520 Speaker 1: they're harassed. Wait, stigma tends to be socially acceptable in 306 00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:23,919 Speaker 1: diet culture because of that alignment with certain values and 307 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,719 Speaker 1: certain traits that we want that we want to achieve, 308 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,240 Speaker 1: that we want to be like, this has a lot 309 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:32,360 Speaker 1: to do with social approval. It's no longer about what 310 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:36,000 Speaker 1: you look like. It's no longer about how much you weigh. 311 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:39,399 Speaker 1: It's about what your appearance means for your value to 312 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,919 Speaker 1: society and what your appearance means for how other people 313 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:45,680 Speaker 1: see you. And like I said, this has a lot 314 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:49,359 Speaker 1: to do with social approval and wanting to be seen 315 00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:53,679 Speaker 1: as socially valuable and wanting to align with those traits 316 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:58,359 Speaker 1: and those moral qualities that are implicitly associated with thinness. 317 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:05,119 Speaker 1: The need for social approval. It sustains things like diet culture. 318 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 1: Social approval is how we go about being accepted in 319 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:14,840 Speaker 1: society and what social standards and expectations we feel like 320 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: we have to obey and fitting in with what is 321 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:22,000 Speaker 1: a coveted beauty standard, one that is promoted by diet 322 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:26,840 Speaker 1: culture of being thin is a way of gaining social 323 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:30,160 Speaker 1: approval in so many ways, this internalized belief that if 324 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:34,000 Speaker 1: we are thinner, we are happier. People will like us more, 325 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 1: people will want to date us, people will admire us, 326 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:40,520 Speaker 1: and it all links back to wanting to be accepted 327 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:45,680 Speaker 1: and included, as is a natural function of being social beings. 328 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 1: I think it's important to understand that diet culture extends 329 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,600 Speaker 1: beyond just eating nourishing foods and taking care of your 330 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:57,880 Speaker 1: physical health. And it's often an excuse to engage in 331 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,719 Speaker 1: the kind of fat phobia that is promoted by diet culture. 332 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:06,119 Speaker 1: But instead, I think what it actually does is become 333 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,560 Speaker 1: quite consuming. Although the facade of diet culture is often 334 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:14,119 Speaker 1: marketed as wellness and marketed as fitness and lifestyle friendly, 335 00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:19,120 Speaker 1: instead it can become all consuming and it compromises our 336 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:23,160 Speaker 1: physical health, our emotional wellbeing. And it's not so much 337 00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:29,480 Speaker 1: promoting sustainable health. Really, it's promoting conformity. It's promoting a company, 338 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:34,160 Speaker 1: it's promoting an industry that wants to make money off 339 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,920 Speaker 1: of our insecurity. So let's just talk about some examples 340 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,480 Speaker 1: of diet culture that we might be able to recognize. 341 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: One that I noticed in myself, I've noticed in others 342 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:48,679 Speaker 1: I've noticed across social media is this tendency to label 343 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:54,240 Speaker 1: some foods as good and others as bad. So typically 344 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:59,679 Speaker 1: that's food like chocolate and ice cream and burghers and 345 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,919 Speaker 1: those are bad foods. Those are bad, whilst things like 346 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,480 Speaker 1: salad and fruit and juice, those are good foods. Here's 347 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,960 Speaker 1: the thing that really annoys me about that kind of labeling. 348 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,639 Speaker 1: Foods don't come with moral labels like good or bad. 349 00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:22,280 Speaker 1: Foods are not morally aligned. We don't need to demonize 350 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:25,920 Speaker 1: any form of food. It's literally just a cluster of 351 00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:31,240 Speaker 1: ingredients and nutrients. It's in no way associated with being 352 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,679 Speaker 1: bad or being evil or needing to be shunned or 353 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:39,960 Speaker 1: not consumed. Here's the thing. All foods are good foods, 354 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,119 Speaker 1: like they don't have a moral label. They all have 355 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: their benefits. Yes, you know, maybe eating like chocolate bar 356 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: every day with every meal. It's not going to make 357 00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:52,720 Speaker 1: you feel really great. It's not going to make you 358 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,919 Speaker 1: feel amazing. That's all right, but it's also great for 359 00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,800 Speaker 1: your happiness to kind of have a yummy treat and 360 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: feel comfortable eating what you like, and that kind of 361 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:08,440 Speaker 1: rhetoric that's pushed by diet culture of some foods being 362 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,560 Speaker 1: good and some foods being bad is a way for 363 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,000 Speaker 1: it to kind of control our behaviors and control our 364 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: habits and our beliefs to cater towards thinness. I think 365 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,159 Speaker 1: linking on from that is the sense of shame that 366 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,879 Speaker 1: diet culture likes to create in us from eating certain 367 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:30,560 Speaker 1: foods that we are told are bad because of their 368 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:35,479 Speaker 1: calories or because of some other dietary element. That's another 369 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: systematic kind of symptom of diet culture is this societal 370 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:44,120 Speaker 1: obsession with calorie intake. I think that's something we can 371 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:49,679 Speaker 1: all admit we have done. I certainly have where you 372 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:53,680 Speaker 1: have weighed up two options based on how many calories 373 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:58,560 Speaker 1: they have with the specific intention of being aware of 374 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:02,879 Speaker 1: your weight. This is especially insidious, I think when we 375 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:07,119 Speaker 1: can so easily access this information on the labels of 376 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:11,880 Speaker 1: food or at restaurants or using online apps. This kind 377 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:17,800 Speaker 1: of general and prolific display of calorie information, it implicitly 378 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:22,200 Speaker 1: tells us that calories are something we should care about, 379 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:26,959 Speaker 1: something we should measure, rather than just another property of 380 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:31,200 Speaker 1: the foods we eat going out to eat fueling our body. 381 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:36,600 Speaker 1: That shouldn't be a mathematical equation, and it also can 382 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:41,119 Speaker 1: grossly contribute to excessive calorie counting. There's actually been a 383 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: lot of research on that shows that displaying calories on 384 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: labels and in restaurants, particularly as kind of like an 385 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 1: advertising ploy or selling point to make things appear healthier, 386 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,159 Speaker 1: it actually contributes to that major symptom of diet culture, 387 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,760 Speaker 1: which is an obsession about how our body looks, and 388 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,399 Speaker 1: along with that an obsession with food as something to 389 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:08,440 Speaker 1: restrict and label rather than enjoy, and from this food 390 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:13,119 Speaker 1: kind of becomes synonymous without physical appearance, and it becomes 391 00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: a tool to manipulate to achieve our dream body or 392 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:20,800 Speaker 1: to look thin, rather than its organic and normal purpose 393 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:25,560 Speaker 1: as energy and as fuel for our body. Adding calories 394 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:30,359 Speaker 1: to menus and labels on grossery items, all those other things, 395 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:32,359 Speaker 1: I think it's actually a really common practice and a 396 00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:35,880 Speaker 1: lot of cultures and countries these days. I know in 397 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,399 Speaker 1: Australia where I'm from, they do that at the moment. 398 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,320 Speaker 1: Friends in the UK have said the same thing, but 399 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:46,359 Speaker 1: a professor by the name of Sendeep runne I believe 400 00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:49,280 Speaker 1: she did all of this research into this when the 401 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,600 Speaker 1: UK was proposing this change to put calories on menus, 402 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: and she found that placing calories on menus can actually 403 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:02,200 Speaker 1: be incredibly triggering for people with anorexia and bulimia, who 404 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,879 Speaker 1: may search for lower calorie foods, but on the flip 405 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,520 Speaker 1: side could lead to people with binge eating disorder finding 406 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:12,119 Speaker 1: higher calorie items to trigger guilt and shame. And she 407 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:16,240 Speaker 1: also found that talking to her patients and clients after 408 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:21,600 Speaker 1: this mandate was put in, that calorie counting is actually 409 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,800 Speaker 1: worsened by this act. Right, people are more likely to 410 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,359 Speaker 1: engage in it because now the information is available to 411 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,680 Speaker 1: them and it implicitly tells them that this is something 412 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 1: you should care about, This is something that you need 413 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,320 Speaker 1: to be cognizant of, you need to be counting your calories, 414 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:42,920 Speaker 1: and it can contribute to so many disorders like anorexia, 415 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:47,400 Speaker 1: like orthorexia, like bulimia. This is yet another way that 416 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:51,440 Speaker 1: diet culture is masked as something that is good for us, 417 00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:56,720 Speaker 1: but it's really influencing our behaviors and our decisions to 418 00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:02,360 Speaker 1: negatively impact our self worth, our self perception, and contribute 419 00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:07,560 Speaker 1: to some of those disorders we discussed earlier. I think 420 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:12,520 Speaker 1: diet culture also convinces us, through many different avenues that 421 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 1: we need to take part in other activities that either 422 00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:20,240 Speaker 1: restrict our food and take or increase our physical activity 423 00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:24,920 Speaker 1: that might be excessive exercise to kind of burn off 424 00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,440 Speaker 1: a specific amount of calories, or to earn a treat, 425 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,680 Speaker 1: to earn the meal that you're going to eat later. 426 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:34,480 Speaker 1: I used to do this when I was in high school. 427 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 1: I would be like, well, I'm going out for dinner tonight, 428 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,920 Speaker 1: so I actually can't go out. I can't eat the 429 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 1: foods I want to eat unless I run ten case 430 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,920 Speaker 1: because I have to earn it. I have to earn food. 431 00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,160 Speaker 1: You don't have to earn anything. Food is just fuel 432 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:54,400 Speaker 1: for your body. It's nothing more. There's also this sense 433 00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:59,200 Speaker 1: of feeling guilt or shame for eating, attempting to suppress 434 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:03,280 Speaker 1: your appetite with caffeine or skinny tease, nicotine or water. 435 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:08,400 Speaker 1: On the severe end, you avoiding certain social situations to 436 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:12,840 Speaker 1: avoid eating, weighing yourself and then changing your behaviors based 437 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,960 Speaker 1: on the number on the scale rather than how you feel, 438 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,720 Speaker 1: and worship worshiping kind of thinness or worshiping weight loss 439 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:23,720 Speaker 1: in a way that social media really kind of helps 440 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,640 Speaker 1: us do. It provides us with so much content to 441 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,560 Speaker 1: be able to engage in this behavior. And then, of 442 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,840 Speaker 1: course there are some of the feelings it creates, some 443 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,360 Speaker 1: of the impacts that it has on our mental health 444 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 1: and our emotional well being. You know, feeling unworthy or 445 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:47,440 Speaker 1: unattractive due to the number on a scale, due to 446 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,520 Speaker 1: the size of clothes that you wear, Feeling unworthy because 447 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:57,080 Speaker 1: you don't look like someone else, Assuming that our bodies 448 00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:01,240 Speaker 1: are responsible for good or bad things happening. You know, 449 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 1: this idea that no one's going to love me unless 450 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:08,320 Speaker 1: I look like some model, you know, if I look 451 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,360 Speaker 1: like Bellata did, and assuming that people who do look 452 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:13,760 Speaker 1: like that way have it a lot easier. You know, 453 00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:16,080 Speaker 1: that might be the case, But I also think that 454 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,880 Speaker 1: it's a very insidious lie that has been concocted by 455 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,200 Speaker 1: diet culture to convince us that if we're within, we'll 456 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,240 Speaker 1: have everything that we want. You might also find that 457 00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:32,280 Speaker 1: you feel anxious around foods, and your mood changes based 458 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:35,480 Speaker 1: on how you feel about your body that day. And 459 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,760 Speaker 1: perhaps one of the biggest symptoms of diet culture and 460 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,600 Speaker 1: the impact it has on our behaviors and our beliefs. 461 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:48,000 Speaker 1: Is body dysmorphia. This is a mental disorder characterized by 462 00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: the obsessive idea that some aspect of our appearance is 463 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:58,520 Speaker 1: severely flawed and therefore warrants exceptional measures to fix it 464 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,280 Speaker 1: or to hide it. There is like it's so obvious. 465 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 1: How linked to diet culture, This is right. Diet culture 466 00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:08,800 Speaker 1: continuously tells us look a certain way or you're not 467 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,000 Speaker 1: good enough, and that can become an obsessive thought, to 468 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:15,480 Speaker 1: the point where we are so obsessed with some particular 469 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: characteristic or feature of our body that we're not able 470 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,360 Speaker 1: to function. I used to have this when I was 471 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,200 Speaker 1: like seventeen and eighteen, and I used to have this 472 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:27,160 Speaker 1: obsessive fixation with the fact that my arms, like this 473 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,040 Speaker 1: random feature of my body, didn't look the way that 474 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,200 Speaker 1: people in magazines or on TV shows looked, and I 475 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,720 Speaker 1: would obsess over it. I would obsess over it. I 476 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,600 Speaker 1: would take all of these efforts to not wear singlets, 477 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:44,520 Speaker 1: or to make them seem smaller, or to not wear 478 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,280 Speaker 1: particular things. And now I look back at those photos 479 00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:52,680 Speaker 1: and I'm stunned because they are literally just like normal arms. 480 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: For a teenager to half, but that body dysmorphia kind 481 00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:06,000 Speaker 1: of tricks you into thinking otherwise. I just want to 482 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,280 Speaker 1: say and to note that if you have felt these things, 483 00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:14,480 Speaker 1: you shouldn't in any way feel bad about yourself. These 484 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: are all symptoms of diet culture, and the impacts start 485 00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,280 Speaker 1: really early, so it's often ingrained in our ways of 486 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,720 Speaker 1: thinking before we're even aware of it, before we're even 487 00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:29,480 Speaker 1: aware of it consciously, that we are praising our bodies 488 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:34,040 Speaker 1: in a way that covets thinness and certain beauty standards, 489 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 1: particularly above our emotional and mental wellbeing. Often the reason 490 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: we find these beliefs so hard to shake an adulthood 491 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,800 Speaker 1: is because they begin in early learning in childhood and 492 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:51,840 Speaker 1: become indoctrinated into our everyday thinking. I'm sure for many 493 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:55,680 Speaker 1: of us, we maybe grew up hearing from our parents, 494 00:32:55,760 --> 00:33:00,840 Speaker 1: particularly our mothers, some fairly negative statements about body image 495 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:05,480 Speaker 1: and the value of appearances. Maybe there were comments from 496 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:09,760 Speaker 1: our parents or close family members on our own bodies 497 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:12,120 Speaker 1: or on their own bodies about how they looked, how 498 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,200 Speaker 1: they looked ugly or fat that day. Maybe it was 499 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,440 Speaker 1: the prevalence of low fat and sugar free foods in 500 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: your household, comments on people in the media, from our 501 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: parents and family and people we trusted, or the restrictions 502 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:29,480 Speaker 1: of food deemed as bad. I think we all kind 503 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,120 Speaker 1: of know the archetype of like the armored mom, right, 504 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,840 Speaker 1: It's such like a tiptok trend at the moment these 505 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 1: mums or parents who had an obsession with healthy eating, 506 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,520 Speaker 1: and in turn they put that on to us as 507 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:47,680 Speaker 1: their children, giving unhealthy and unsolicited comments on our body 508 00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,560 Speaker 1: and promoting a healthy diet that is really just restrictive 509 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:55,680 Speaker 1: eating as children, if we hear these things, if we 510 00:33:55,840 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: hear our parents making comments about their own bodies, about 511 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:04,400 Speaker 1: their own appearances, we internalize it, We mimic it, and 512 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:08,200 Speaker 1: we incorporate it into our own beliefs and thought patterns 513 00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:11,959 Speaker 1: and behaviors at such a formative and young age, until 514 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:15,160 Speaker 1: it becomes so difficult to step away from and so 515 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:20,680 Speaker 1: difficult to shake. The one problematic behavior, Oh my gosh, 516 00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:26,239 Speaker 1: this behavior, this practice, this really grinds my gears. Is 517 00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:29,640 Speaker 1: the restrictions of certain foods when we're children for the 518 00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:34,640 Speaker 1: purpose of weight loss or meeting beauty standards. When parents 519 00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:39,120 Speaker 1: restrict the foods their children eat on a regular basis 520 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,680 Speaker 1: or label certain foods as off limits or as bad. 521 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:49,280 Speaker 1: Often what occurs is a disordered way of seeing these foods. Children, 522 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,959 Speaker 1: you know, almost worship them. They see them as something 523 00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,319 Speaker 1: that's off limits and as such something that must be 524 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,480 Speaker 1: really valuable if they can't have it all the time, 525 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:00,839 Speaker 1: and when they're given the free them to do so, 526 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,200 Speaker 1: often they over eat when these foods become available, and 527 00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:08,440 Speaker 1: they become obsessed with foods that are forbidden or secret, 528 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,400 Speaker 1: engage in secret eating. The food begins to control us 529 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,319 Speaker 1: because we've never been able to have a healthy relationship 530 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,239 Speaker 1: with it, because we've always been told it's bad, or 531 00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:22,239 Speaker 1: it's been restricted, or it's something that's off limits. And 532 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,600 Speaker 1: as soon as we get that independence and that freedom, 533 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,200 Speaker 1: we don't know how to establish boundaries or eat the 534 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,319 Speaker 1: foods that we think are good for us, or eat 535 00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:34,000 Speaker 1: the way that we want to eat, because this kind 536 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 1: of object, this food, has this psychological control over us. 537 00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:41,759 Speaker 1: It's seen as something valuable. The other insiduous way that 538 00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: diet culture hits close to home in childhood is through uneducated, inconsistent, 539 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:54,200 Speaker 1: and dangerous teachings on healthy lifestyles and diets. When we're younger, 540 00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:58,880 Speaker 1: diet culture can expose us to so many negative habits 541 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,759 Speaker 1: about food from a young age, and it's usually with 542 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:07,520 Speaker 1: the intention of teaching children about healthy habits and about nutrition, 543 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:14,160 Speaker 1: whilst learning about diets and food restriction is typically with 544 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:17,520 Speaker 1: the intention to educate people around healthy habits. I'm sure 545 00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:21,400 Speaker 1: we all had some kind of exposure to this as children, 546 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,440 Speaker 1: where we were told to eat five serves of veggies 547 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,040 Speaker 1: and two serves of fruit and like not eat sweets, 548 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:31,120 Speaker 1: and be low on carbs and exercise like you know, 549 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:35,799 Speaker 1: five times a week. Yes, those are like important lifestyle tips, right. 550 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:39,440 Speaker 1: We want children to be healthy, But when they're not 551 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:43,600 Speaker 1: taught in a consistent and appropriate manner, these lessons can 552 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:47,680 Speaker 1: actually become really damaging and ingrained in our brains as 553 00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:50,920 Speaker 1: we get older. And it can also get to the 554 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,120 Speaker 1: point where we're not actually thinking about how our body feels. 555 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,080 Speaker 1: We're not thinking about how we can treat our body 556 00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: well so that it can do the things that we 557 00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:02,359 Speaker 1: want it to do. Instead, we're actually focused on what 558 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,560 Speaker 1: our body looks like. We're focused on how much we weigh. 559 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,439 Speaker 1: I always think this, I think this all the time. 560 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,800 Speaker 1: I've had this discussion with my friends. The only people 561 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,480 Speaker 1: who should be allowed to give us diet advice or 562 00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:20,759 Speaker 1: any advice on how like physical appearance or how much 563 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:26,960 Speaker 1: we weigh. Are people who have studied the interactions between food, exercise, hormones, genetics, 564 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,520 Speaker 1: our diet, all of those things. You need to have 565 00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:33,480 Speaker 1: a fucking university degree. You need to have a qualification 566 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:39,560 Speaker 1: because unsolicited, unsolicited and uneducated advice like that's not going 567 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,360 Speaker 1: to help anyone, and it's only going to cause harm, 568 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:47,600 Speaker 1: especially when it's essentially thinly guised fatphobia and diet culture. 569 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:53,120 Speaker 1: If we've developed an unhealthy relationship with food, getting caught 570 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:57,200 Speaker 1: up in diet culture can become almost normal and become 571 00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:00,400 Speaker 1: a go to where we're counting calories or watching our 572 00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:03,680 Speaker 1: weight as we enter into our teenage and adult years. 573 00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:07,160 Speaker 1: But how does it operate outside of this sphere and 574 00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:12,400 Speaker 1: into adulthood? How does diet culture maintain itself so strongly? 575 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:17,759 Speaker 1: This is the strange thing about diet culture that I 576 00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:22,879 Speaker 1: think many psychologists and researchers can't seem to figure out. 577 00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:26,520 Speaker 1: And that is, why does this trend or this social 578 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:32,680 Speaker 1: expectation that literally benefits no one except for big industry. 579 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:38,400 Speaker 1: How did it become so powerful and influential, this obsession 580 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:43,160 Speaker 1: with being thin. It literally doesn't benefit anyone. It doesn't 581 00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,480 Speaker 1: benefit those who are naturally that way because the messaging 582 00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:49,719 Speaker 1: is always thinner, you could always look better, you could 583 00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:53,799 Speaker 1: always be smaller, and it doesn't really benefit those who 584 00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:57,440 Speaker 1: don't look that way either. So who was it benefiting? 585 00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:02,400 Speaker 1: Who was upholding this kind of unhealthy and dangerous and 586 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:07,439 Speaker 1: unsustainable practice in this way of living? I really would 587 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: ask you to think about that, like, who is benefiting 588 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:14,239 Speaker 1: from your insecurity? Who is benefiting from your behaviors and 589 00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:19,000 Speaker 1: your beliefs. The diet industry is massive. It's like a 590 00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:23,920 Speaker 1: seventy one billion dollar industry because, like I said, it 591 00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:28,799 Speaker 1: depends on generational cycles of fat phobia and body insecurity 592 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,200 Speaker 1: to promote it. It's betting on the fact that you 593 00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:35,920 Speaker 1: don't feel good about yourself. So it wants you to 594 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,319 Speaker 1: continue not feeling good about yourself because it can make 595 00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: money off of you not feeling good about yourself. It 596 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,600 Speaker 1: wants us to believe the stigma that health is directly 597 00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,760 Speaker 1: tied to a certain weight and a certain body type, 598 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,120 Speaker 1: and it wants us to keep buying products and paying 599 00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:56,600 Speaker 1: for programs and consuming media that would keep us entrenched 600 00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:59,920 Speaker 1: in those body insecurities forever for the sake of profit, 601 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:04,200 Speaker 1: which is so messed up. So we know how this 602 00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:10,080 Speaker 1: works now, right. We know that through social approval, through normalization, 603 00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:15,360 Speaker 1: early learning, repeated exposure in the media, that we begin 604 00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:19,720 Speaker 1: to see thin being good, fat being bad, and therefore 605 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:23,760 Speaker 1: we buy into the beliefs the behaviors that diet culture 606 00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:27,200 Speaker 1: is teaching us. But what do we do about that? 607 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,279 Speaker 1: If we're in that stage right now, as I'm sure 608 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:33,000 Speaker 1: all of us are, it's a continuous pattern of learning. 609 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:37,160 Speaker 1: How do we push back against the negative beliefs that 610 00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,400 Speaker 1: diet culture tries to teach us? So I'm going to 611 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:43,400 Speaker 1: outline some of the things that I have been doing recently, 612 00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:47,280 Speaker 1: some of the things that clinical research and psychology tells 613 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,239 Speaker 1: us to do. If you're at a stage where you're like, 614 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:52,680 Speaker 1: this isn't working anymore. I don't want to feel this 615 00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:55,040 Speaker 1: way about my body. I don't want to buy into 616 00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:59,040 Speaker 1: this narrative. The first thing I did, I think I 617 00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:03,120 Speaker 1: had a really like toxic and negative experience, a negative 618 00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,360 Speaker 1: attitude towards my body for such a long time because 619 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:09,759 Speaker 1: I believe that lie that what I looked like was 620 00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:13,240 Speaker 1: my worth, not the other things about me. That were valuable. 621 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:17,040 Speaker 1: So I want you to list five things that make 622 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:20,319 Speaker 1: you a good person that have nothing to do what 623 00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:22,799 Speaker 1: you look like. For example, you know I am a 624 00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,759 Speaker 1: creative person, I treat others with kindness, I'm generous. You 625 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,600 Speaker 1: kind of get the gist. Five of those. I want 626 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:31,040 Speaker 1: you to list five, and I don't want them to 627 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,239 Speaker 1: have anything to do with what you look like. Use 628 00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:38,520 Speaker 1: these as your own personal affirmations that allow you allow 629 00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:41,840 Speaker 1: you to kind of ground yourself in what is important, 630 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:46,200 Speaker 1: especially when you're finding yourself caving into this expectation about 631 00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:50,799 Speaker 1: needing to be thin. Our body and specifically what we 632 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:54,560 Speaker 1: look like is the least important and least interesting thing 633 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 1: about us. The content of your mind, of your heart, 634 00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:04,400 Speaker 1: of your sinality. That is what leaves a true impression. 635 00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:09,680 Speaker 1: How you make other people feel, how you feel about yourself, 636 00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:12,960 Speaker 1: that is so important, and that's what should be valued, 637 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,919 Speaker 1: not what size clothes you wear, what your thighs look like, 638 00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:20,880 Speaker 1: whether you're thin enough to do X, Y and Z. 639 00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,000 Speaker 1: The second thing I would really advise you to do 640 00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:27,960 Speaker 1: is to find healthy role models, either around you or 641 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:31,560 Speaker 1: in the media. There are so many people who promote 642 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,920 Speaker 1: a really sustainable and healthy outlook towards their bodies and 643 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,000 Speaker 1: towards their appearances. And kind of counter to that is 644 00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:43,360 Speaker 1: eliminate people from your feed. Eliminate people from the content 645 00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:47,040 Speaker 1: you absorb that make you feel bad about yourself. I 646 00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:49,600 Speaker 1: did this the other day. There were people I had 647 00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:54,480 Speaker 1: been following since I was like fifteen years old, whose 648 00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:58,680 Speaker 1: bodies had, for like so long since I was fifteen, 649 00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:03,439 Speaker 1: made me feel feel bad about myself, and week on week, 650 00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:06,239 Speaker 1: week by week, I still see those images of them, 651 00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:10,640 Speaker 1: and every time I see those images, I feel bad. 652 00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:14,799 Speaker 1: I feel bad about myself. That's not their fault, right, 653 00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,239 Speaker 1: they're just living their life. But it's my choice to 654 00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:21,160 Speaker 1: decide what is helpful and what is harming my self perception. 655 00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:26,800 Speaker 1: So removing those that triggering content, that content that asks 656 00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:30,200 Speaker 1: me to be thinner, that requests me to you know, 657 00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:34,680 Speaker 1: engaging calorie counting and to exercise excessively, removing that it's 658 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:38,160 Speaker 1: going to be super helpful. I also want you to 659 00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:41,720 Speaker 1: call yourself out when you find yourself engaging in negative 660 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:44,640 Speaker 1: self talk and change the narrative. You know, if you're 661 00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:46,319 Speaker 1: staring in the mirror and you're wearing something that you 662 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,239 Speaker 1: don't like, and you're like instead of being like, oh 663 00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:50,560 Speaker 1: my god, I look so fat in this, just be like, 664 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,000 Speaker 1: oh this outfit just like isn't for me right now? 665 00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:56,160 Speaker 1: Or instead of being like at the gym and being 666 00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,320 Speaker 1: like wow, she's so much skinnier than me, be like, wow, 667 00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:01,880 Speaker 1: isn't it amazing thing that my body could get me here? 668 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:04,799 Speaker 1: And that my body is able to move me and 669 00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:08,160 Speaker 1: is able to do the things I want it to do. 670 00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:12,359 Speaker 1: Try not to engage in so much comparison, first of all, 671 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:16,400 Speaker 1: but also call yourself out when you find yourself talking 672 00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:21,040 Speaker 1: to yourself negatively. I saw this the other day on 673 00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:23,160 Speaker 1: the internet, and it was like, when you say bad 674 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:26,480 Speaker 1: things to yourself, you're also saying those bad things to 675 00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:30,160 Speaker 1: your inner child. Like would you ever sit across from 676 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,759 Speaker 1: six year old or five year old you and be 677 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:36,200 Speaker 1: like you're fat and be like you need to lose weight. 678 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:41,000 Speaker 1: You look hideous, you look ugly. Can you imagine saying 679 00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:44,920 Speaker 1: that to your younger self or to any child? You 680 00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:47,359 Speaker 1: would never do that, So why are you saying it 681 00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:49,880 Speaker 1: to yourself now? That little person is still in you, 682 00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:55,160 Speaker 1: that childlike wonder, that childlike innocence that is still within you. 683 00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,440 Speaker 1: So don't say things to yourself that are going to 684 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:02,680 Speaker 1: hurt that kind of inner child or going to negatively 685 00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:06,000 Speaker 1: impact how you see yourself. I think the other thing 686 00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:09,880 Speaker 1: to do is to stop labeling foods as good or bad. 687 00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:13,200 Speaker 1: Once again, change the narrative. Try not to use language 688 00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:17,560 Speaker 1: like bad foods or cheap meals. Choose outfits and clothes 689 00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:21,799 Speaker 1: that make you comfortable, and more importantly, choose people that 690 00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:26,040 Speaker 1: make you comfortable. If the friends you have sit around 691 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:28,440 Speaker 1: and talk about how you know they can't eat that, 692 00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,319 Speaker 1: or they're going to get the sugar free version, or 693 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:33,360 Speaker 1: how they're going to skip lunch because they're going to 694 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:36,440 Speaker 1: have a really big dinner, I really don't think that 695 00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:38,799 Speaker 1: that's a positive impact. I know it's hard to step 696 00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:42,799 Speaker 1: away from friends and family members as well who talk 697 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:46,399 Speaker 1: like that because we obviously love them. But maybe it's 698 00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:49,960 Speaker 1: your responsibility to take what you've learned today and take 699 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,120 Speaker 1: what you've learned from many other aspects and many other 700 00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,759 Speaker 1: shows or many other learnings, and not so much call 701 00:45:56,840 --> 00:46:01,319 Speaker 1: out that language, but to push back against it. Someone's like, oh, 702 00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:03,799 Speaker 1: I'm not going to eat lunch because you know I'm 703 00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:05,799 Speaker 1: going to have a big dinner, and be like, oh, 704 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:07,359 Speaker 1: I'm going to have lunch and I'm going to have 705 00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:09,960 Speaker 1: dinner because my body needs food right now and my 706 00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,600 Speaker 1: body needs fuel, and I'm not going to punish it 707 00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:15,239 Speaker 1: because diet culture has told me. I need to look 708 00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:19,319 Speaker 1: a particular way and set boundaries with those people who 709 00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:24,800 Speaker 1: make you uncomfortable. If you find that after being around someone, 710 00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,719 Speaker 1: maybe it's your parents, maybe it's your friends, that you 711 00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:31,280 Speaker 1: walk out of that situation and you feel bad about 712 00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:35,400 Speaker 1: your body, maybe it's time to push back against the 713 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,880 Speaker 1: aspects of their behavior and their dialogue and their language 714 00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:43,239 Speaker 1: that make you feel like that. Push back against unsolicited comments, 715 00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:47,320 Speaker 1: reinforce your positive ideals about how you treat your body, 716 00:46:47,719 --> 00:46:52,279 Speaker 1: reinforce your positive attitudes towards food. And if you are 717 00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:56,360 Speaker 1: someone who is really struggling with disordered eating, go and 718 00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:58,920 Speaker 1: see a therapist, go and see clinical help. It is 719 00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:04,000 Speaker 1: so important that if you are struggling with your self perception, 720 00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:07,680 Speaker 1: with your self worth, with your eating habits or your 721 00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:11,560 Speaker 1: exercise habits in any form, there is so much support 722 00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:14,200 Speaker 1: out there for you and you don't have to live 723 00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:17,239 Speaker 1: like this. It's a really, I think, terrible way to 724 00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:22,200 Speaker 1: live your life worrying about your body and live your 725 00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:25,359 Speaker 1: life caring about it that much and letting it take 726 00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:29,200 Speaker 1: away from the joy and happiness and wonder that life 727 00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:33,160 Speaker 1: really contains. So there will be some support numbers in 728 00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:36,919 Speaker 1: the show description if you're at that point where you 729 00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:39,680 Speaker 1: think you might need some help. And I also just 730 00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:41,840 Speaker 1: want to thank you guys for listening like this is 731 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,560 Speaker 1: a hard topic to talk about. I'm sure for many 732 00:47:44,640 --> 00:47:47,439 Speaker 1: of us it's hard to listen to to understand how 733 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:51,800 Speaker 1: our body and our attitudes and beliefs has been manipulated 734 00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:56,359 Speaker 1: by what is a massive industry that is benefiting from 735 00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:59,839 Speaker 1: our insecurity. So thank you for walking through this with me. 736 00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,279 Speaker 1: It was such an important episode I think for me 737 00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,319 Speaker 1: to do. I learned so much. I was able to 738 00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:08,600 Speaker 1: process so much, and I'm really going to take this forward, 739 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:11,319 Speaker 1: I think into my conversations with my friends. I hope 740 00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:16,400 Speaker 1: you do as well. Start that conversation, recognize how diet 741 00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:20,520 Speaker 1: culture is insidiously working its way into your daily practices 742 00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:24,319 Speaker 1: and your beliefs about yourself, and actively push back against that. 743 00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:29,440 Speaker 1: Once again, your body is the least interesting thing about you. 744 00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:33,640 Speaker 1: You contain so much more than just your physical attributes, 745 00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:39,319 Speaker 1: your creativity, your love, your generosity, your intelligence. That is 746 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:43,040 Speaker 1: incredible that is incredible. Those are the things about you 747 00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:47,680 Speaker 1: that matter more than anything else. And thank you for listening. 748 00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:50,480 Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, 749 00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:54,080 Speaker 1: if you learn something, please feel free to give it 750 00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:58,200 Speaker 1: a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen, 751 00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:03,480 Speaker 1: follow the show on Instagram It's at that Psychology podcast. 752 00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:07,040 Speaker 1: Every week I do a poll and let you decide 753 00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:09,000 Speaker 1: one of my episodes. So if there is something you 754 00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,640 Speaker 1: really want to hear, reach out, I'll probably do it. 755 00:49:11,719 --> 00:49:15,320 Speaker 1: I love getting some inspiration. And thank you again for listening. 756 00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:17,240 Speaker 1: I hope you have an amazing week.