Ep 152: "Understanding Diet Culture & Its Impact on Body Image"

Diet culture is making a resurgence and we couldn't be more pissed off about it.

The signs are everywhere. New weight loss drugs that are making people think our bodes are more changeable than they actually are and promise in their advertising the same shit diets have promised for generations and failed to deliver on -- the myth of transformation. Former champions of body positivity have gone to the dark side. Vogue Business is reporting a "worrying return to using extremely thin models" and a drop-off in size inclusivity in the fashion industry.

There are whole industries out there that make billions of dollars each year by making us feel bad about our bodies and selling "solutions" to our "problematic" bodies that never actually provide any sustainable long term results. And every time we get wise and push back, they come up with some other thing that we should obsess over in order to be deemed worthy.

In this week's episode of The Fit Bottomed Girls Podcast, I sat down with FBG Alex to explore the resurgence of diet culture, its historical roots, and our personal experiences with disordered eating habits and poor body image provoked by diet culture's false promises of "thinness = health."

We're calling out diet culture for what it is—a force that keeps people perpetually chasing thinness under the guise of "health," often at the cost of their mental health, physical health, and overall well-being.

We both have been deeply affected in a negative way by diet culture—as two women who grew up in two different generations and two different countries—so we are not going back without putting up a fight. In this episode, we tackle diet culture head-on, expose its toxic roots, and call bullshit on its core arguments that:

• Conflate weight loss with health
• Make assumptions about people and their health based on their body size
• Establish certain foods or ingredients as “good” and others as “bad”

We also call out platforms like Tumblr (flashback to the "thigh gap" years) and Instagram for perpetuating toxic body standards. Social media has become a breeding ground for unrealistic “fitspiration” and fear mongering over what defines “good” or "clean" food. This influence has paved the resurgence of outdated thin-focused trends, even after years of body positivity efforts.

In this episode, we also share our own personal raw stories along side real, uplifting strategies for reshaping how we see our bodies. We also stress the importance of support systems in navigating these challenges and emphasize that healing is a journey that involves recognizing and managing one's thoughts and feelings about body image.

Whether you’re over the endless scroll of “fitspo” or tired of battling unrealistic expectations, this episode is packed with wisdom, compassion, and a whole lot of truth-telling. If you’re ready to challenge the noise and start rewriting your own body story, give this one a listen.

Here’s why we’re obsessed with this episode:

It's a raw and deeply personal chat about the re-emergence of diet culture and its unsettling impact on mental