Could We Ever…Overcome Diet Culture?
Hosts
Ricardo Castrillón BA’17
Danyelle Jordan Gates BA’17
Audio Editor
Sarah Wall BA’19
Producers
Paul Bottoni
Brittany Magelssen
Katherine Morales
Phil Roth
Music by Roxanne Minnish MFA’11, senior lecturer in the UT Dallas School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication
Artwork by Rachael Drury BA’19
The views expressed on this podcast by the hosts and guests do not reflect the views of The University of Texas at Dallas.
Show Transcript
[Ricardo] We’re recording? Okay. Welcome to Could We Ever, part of the [mumbles]… Okay.
[Danyelle] Welcome to Could We Ever, part of the UT Dallas CometCast network.
[Ricardo] Could We Ever shines a light on our experts and ask them to tackle questions you never knew you needed answered.
[Danyelle] From science to art and more.
[Voice 1] It burns carbs. It just burns up all your carbs.
[Voice 2] Mmmm. I really want to lose three pounds.
[Voice 3] Oh my God, what are you talking about?
[Voice 4] You’re so skinny!
[Voice 2] Shut up!
[Ricardo] That clip was from “Mean Girls,” and you guys better be wearing pink because it’s Wednesday and today we’re talking about body image and diet culture.
[Danyelle] That’s right friends. We’re ready to tackle a complex topic that has probably affected a lot of people out there. So with that said, get ready for a chat with a nutritionist at the UT Dallas Student Wellness Center, Sara Asberry.
[Sara] I am Sara Asberry. I am the registered dietician in the Student Wellness Center here at UT Dallas. I actively work with students who need different types of nutrition counseling. So I see students for various types of diagnosis and reasons. It could be just they were looking for general advice and guidance. It could be that they were referred from the health center and maybe they have a new diagnosis or an existing one that they need to try to get under control. It could be an eating disorder or disordered eating disturbance. It could be a student-athlete that’s really wanting to work on their performance nutrition. It could even just be someone who has general fitness goals that they’re trying to reach and want nutrition advice on how to do that. I’m so glad I majored in nutrition and learned the power of nutrition and what our bodies are truly capable of regardless of the way that they look.
[Ricardo] Which is a problem! I mean you, like, it’s a problem nowadays with, like, the way people will see themselves and their body image and all that. Do you want to, do you want to talk about that?
[Sara] I mean I think that unfortunately a lot of the people that I do see in my office are eating more from a body image perspective and not from a true body perspective. We eat because we think it’ll make us look a certain way, whether that’s weight loss, whether that’s, we think it’ll make us get a flatter stomach, or we think it will make us build muscle and, you know, reach, you know, different types of muscle gains, but we’re not really looking as much at how our body is functioning and how we can really help it function better. We focus a lot more on what can we do to make our body look better and we will sometimes say feel better but I think that we do still pair the two together and I hear a lot of language in my office, and even outside of my office, just from a human perspective that well, you know, if I, if I just lost 10 pounds that would mean X about myself. That would mean that I’d feel better, that I’d be happier, I’d be more successful. We put a lot of emphasis on the way that we look, and the way that others look, into how we perceive them. I mean, we know when we look at marketing research, pretty people sell things better. They’re more likely to get jobs over those that might not meet modern-day beauty standards. You know, they’re more likely to be perceived as happy and to be in relationships and to have friends. It’s just unfortunate because then that affects our own self-worth and then I see people who might not fit these beauty standards doing things to their bodies in hopes to maybe eventually meet those and they think that if they do meet those then that will then earn them happiness, success, jobs and it’s, it’s so unfortunate.
[Ricardo] I mean I was, I was one of your first five clients here at the University while I was a student there and I remember coming in and it was about me losing weight and that’s kind of what I wanted to do and it quickly turned into me just being healthier. The number, I mean the number was there and everything, like how much weight I weighed, how much weight I lost, but like, it wasn’t about that. It was about the nutrition and just kind of like getting healthier and like knowing what I put into my body and all this stuff. And I feel like that really makes a difference when you stop kind of, like, thinking about it in those terms of like, how do I look, and start thinking about it like, how do I feel. And I don’t know, that’s… that really helped me out when I was freshman, sophomore, something. I don’t know what.
[Sara] I love that. Well, and look at you. A successful human, now professional staff at UT Dallas.
[Ricardo] Podcast over! That is it. Thank you for listening everybody. We–
[Sara] I’d drop the mic but it’s on a stand.
[Danyelle] What is the trend that you’re seeing for girls, specifically, because you were a girl, but even children in general going on diets to achieve a certain body type that they feel is acceptable or worthy?
[Sara] When we look at research regarding body image the unfortunate truth is showing us that like, the vast majority of eight-year-old girls think that they need to lose weight. Eight! Eight-year-old girls! They haven’t even gone through puberty yet. You know but something to also be said around eating disorders, you know. We know that the majority of eating disorders start with a diet. And we have, I think, thought of eating disorders as a like, young girl, young teenage girl issue, and we’re actually seeing that’s not necessarily true. That we’re finding the peak onset of these behaviors and of diagnosis is actually coming at, more at college age. And part of that is because there might be a young teenager who is definitely at risk, you know, myself included, they start dieting, they start thinking that they need to lose weight for whatever reason that may be, and then maybe they go off to college and then they get the freedom to maybe more fully engage in these behaviors. So they may not be observed by their family members or caretakers on a daily basis and having those types of meals or accountability or eating lunch at the same time, at the same place, with the same friends every day, having consistent teachers and staff that they see on a daily basis. Maybe they were involved in sports programs where they had coaches who were actively engaged in their well-being. And then they come to college and it’s a very different dynamic and now they’re all of a sudden having to feed themselves. They don’t have nearly as much supervision. We also find the college lifestyle can tend to be less structured. So eating meal times and patterns are variable, and so when, yes, everybody might be traditionally stopping and having lunch, for the college student that’s very different every day. You know that could be someone’s first meal, it could be their third, and you know I think it’s likely that if you told your group of friends, “oh, I already ate,” no one’s really gonna be checking in on you.
[Danyelle] Let’s talk a bit about what diet culture is and how it differs from regular diets.
[Sara] Yeah so, I mean, the real breakdown of diet culture is the idea that thinness is what’s best. That thinness is what makes us successful and happy and that we, you know, we need to get our bodies to look this way in order to achieve what it is we want out of this life and what we want for ourselves and it’s an unfortunate series of lies that I think that are reinforced on a daily basis whether that be in, you know, media and marketing or whether that be within our own friend systems and family systems. We have a lot of thoughts about bodies and what that means. You know, if we look a certain way, what does that mean about the potential of us to ever get a date, or to meet somebody that we would find to be significant? But it could just be things like, [sigh] “I feel fat today.” Like, what does that mean? What does that really mean about us, and who are we saying that around into, and, and what sort of energy is that creating for our environment and for all those within it? Is that’s not an OK thing, right? That, that being fat means something really sad about you. And that’s not true. I think there’s also something to be said about labeling foods “good” and “bad,” and then how that ties into our self-worth. You know we might come into the office or to class on a Monday morning and say, “I was really bad this weekend.” And that doesn’t mean, you know, you got a DUI. No, it means you ate something. You know, it may be multiple things. I don’t know. But it, we know it’s become very commonplace for us to say things like, “Oh man, this is really bad for me.” You know, and then we create this whole rabbit hole of, well if we eat this and that means we’re bad, if we eat this then oh well we might as well continue being bad. You know we have things like cheat day on our diet and– Y’all, any relationship that encompasses cheating is never a healthy relationship, right? We need to be open here about what’s occurring in all of our relationships and if we call it cheating then that automatically has all of its own connotation to it that heaven forbid we eat a doughnut or we have you know a cheeseburger and fries or something. That means all of a sudden that we’ve engaged in infidelity and that we should be really guilty and we should feel very shameful about what we just did. And it’s very unfortunate because it was what it was – a cheeseburger and fries. I love cheeseburgers and fries and if someone told me that if I ate them that would mean that I was some like, sinful, like person and that I didn’t deserve to– We say it I think intending to be harmless and funny and I don’t want to take the fun out of it, but it’s interesting though, what it keeps perpetuating in our culture around what food means and then how that translates to us.
[Ricardo] How does social media play a part in making this an even bigger problem than it already was?
[Sara] Oh my gosh, social media is so amazing and so unfortunate, right? I think that it’s one thing to have a platform but then it’s all about how you use it. And what, what I’m finding a lot of on social media, and especially in relation to my clients, is that it, it’s causing us to sit there and almost ruminate more on our current situations and how they compare to everyone else’s, right? So that being about our bodies, that being about what we’re, what we’re eating, where we are, who we’re friends with, how busy we are, versus how busy everybody else is. And it’s so unfortunate because it makes us feel less than. It makes us feel like we’ll, we don’t have anything going on. I think it also encourages us to be less authentic in so many ways. I mean, we are automatically photoshopping and filtering ourselves now. And there’s not something to be said about having fun with photos and, and being able to share more about what’s going on with you, with other people. But again it’s when we take it too far. I mean people are also using social media in order to start dieting groups and weight-loss movements and shame people. You know but then there are also others who are out there doing a lot of really wonderful work on social media. And so I always challenge my clients to evaluate who they’re following and why, because we can really make a difference for ourselves if we would make sure to armor up in regard to our social media and are we following movements and people that are truly positive for us and generating more of that, or are we following people that are making us feel worse about ourselves? That might be you know– Y’all, I started following some different fashion bloggers because I’m a young mom. I don’t get out a lot, at least not anymore, and shopping is not something that I can do very often or well. And so I mainly shop online and so I started hearing about how all these fashion people on Instagram will go into try-on hauls and so you don’t even, you can just kind of figure out things about the fit and all of it and so I was like, “This is awesome.” So I started following some people and then I quickly it was like, “Oh!” Starting to realize that even within that I had to quickly unfollow people who were then gonna not just talk about try-on hauls from Amazon. No, they were then going to be giving advice about their diet routine and what they eat in a day and their workout routines and the fact that they, they work from home and have the flexibility to do all these things that I don’t and the next thing I know, they’re all going and getting peels and waxes and, and all kinds of, like, Botox and facials and then they have these really expensive skincare lines and I was starting to feel like there’s no way I can keep up with these people. I just cannot. And so, you know, I’m having to kind of distance myself and realize and recognize, look — there are some that I have found I really appreciate their input and there are some that I think are relatively toxic for me and I don’t need to follow them. I am in control. I have the power to unfollow and not engage in that, especially if I recognize that it’s not good for my own self-esteem.
[Danyelle] Do you find that your students are able to come to the same place that you are and recognize what is and isn’t toxic in the media they’re consuming and the people that they’re following?
[Sara] Not, not always. I think that you know with college students, it’s so fun because there’s this big shift, I think, in terms of just, like, emotional maturity that happens, you know. When you’re an incoming freshman, you’re like 18. So I think that there can be a difference of clients as they are in college and really learning how to be independent and learning more about who they are and what they want for themselves. And I think that once they can do that work they are in a better place to then advocate for themselves moving forward, whether that be with toxic relationships, whether that be with their social media presence and who they’re following. But I do think that it takes time and I think that it’s, it’s very variable for the students that I do actively work with. Because I also work with graduate students and I can definitely feel the difference typically when I’m working with a graduate student who’s maybe been in recovery for a while and has maybe even gone to treatment and they are much more grounded in that process than maybe someone who’s 18 and I’m trying to convince them to go to treatment.
[Ricardo] Have you seen the Beyoncé documentary?
[Sara] I haven’t. I haven’t. I’ve been told there’s some info in there about how she lost the weight after giving birth.
[Danyelle] So for those of you who don’t know, Beyoncé released a documentary about her groundbreaking concert at the Coachella Music Festival. And in the documentary she talks a little bit about what she did to prepare her body for the performance. She went on a very extreme diet where she cut out all meat, dairy, carbs, sugar and alcohol.
[Ricardo] That seems extreme.
[Danyelle] Yeah, it was pretty extreme, and right after the documentary came out #feedbeyonce was trending on social media. So we’ll get back to see what Sara had to say about this.
[Sara] We are all human and, and, and we all still want to fit in and find our place in this world. And I think that especially looking at someone like Beyoncé, she succumbed to the pressure that is fame, that is the expectation that she will look a certain way in order to be the person that she is, and unfortunately it’s not true. She does not have to look a certain way in order for her to be an amazing remarkable human.
[Danyelle] Facts.
[Sara] Right. But unfortunately, I’m sure she has a manager and producers and people telling her, “No, you do.” Because unfortunately, our society does expect that. Right? And I think that if she didn’t, I mean it’s like you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. So she either can lose all the weight and get shamed for it – honestly by a much smaller percentage of the population – or she could not lose all the weight quickly and be that much more publicly shamed for not looking like she did and then all of a sudden she’s going to be ridiculed for every little imperfection that her body might have. If you’re gonna have a baby then you, you must come back and of the most fierce way possible. Right? I think it’s just unfortunate for the other postpartum moms out there who are struggling and now are almost you know being encouraged inadvertently to do this. Because that would mean that they would be more beautiful.
[Danyelle] What’s really interesting about the thing that happened with Beyoncé – as a member of the hive – is that she lost a ton of weight for Coachella, but because she had a c-section she still had a little bit more of a pooch than she would normally have. And through the entirety of the tour she went on after Coachella people were still dragging her through the streets like, “She’s still, she’s pregnant again. She never lost that baby weight.” This and that. And then the documentary comes out and people are like #feedbeyonce. And it’s like there is nowhere that you’re satisfied, and there’s no winning, like you said. And I, it really hit me hard cause I was like, “Wow, even Beyonce can’t escape this.” Like, what does this mean for the rest of us?
[Sara] And you know what gets me, is the truth is – what is the obsession with bodies? Right? Like, Beyoncé is an amazing performer, right? And an advocate. She has so much to contribute to this world and to our culture and yet we are nitpicking her body. Right? Because the truth this that we treat each other like ornaments. Right? So like in our bodies. It’s like we look at them like ornaments as opposed to vessels. Right? And so as opposed to really looking at where we can go and what we can really contribute and do, we’re looking at, well, how will we look doing. It, it’s very unfortunate because there’s no true substance there. But we’re obsessed with it. I would encourage anyone listening to this ever to do their best to stop that conversation. We do not need to be so focused on other people’s bodies and the way they look. Let’s talk more about content, what they’re saying, what they’re doing. Let’s talk more about, you know, the music and her dance moves and just, oh my gosh, look at the energy she has and how energized the audience is. We do not need to be criticizing her stomach. What does that have anything to do with her talent?
[Danyelle] Can we actually talk about the history of this obsession with the way that people look and how that culture has morphed because it’s easy to talk about the social media aspect and the comparison but this has been a long time coming. So can you give us that…?
[Sara] Yeah, I mean, bodies have been, I mean, and beauty standards have been set across the centuries of what’s desirable but a lot of it has to do, especially historically, more of what your body said about your class, your status. Right? So those that maybe were heavier, they had more access to food. Maybe they were wealthier. Those that had lighter skin would probably also be of a higher class and wealthier because they didn’t spend as much time in the sun. And so, you know, it was thought to be more attractive to be maybe curvier, in a larger body, with paler skin and over time that really has evolved. You know thinness didn’t really start to become attractive until maybe around the 1920s.
[Danyelle] So Sara went on to explain to us some of the decade by decade changes in beauty standards that all seemed really exclusionary and pretty unattainable. But, all hope is not lost. Let’s see what she had to say.
[Sara] The unfortunate reality is that we keep comparing ourselves to things that aren’t even real. Because in the day that we live in everything is photoshopped or touched, that even when you see a beautiful person on the cover of a magazine or even on Instagram, they’ve still been touched up or filtered. And we’re trying to really recreate this for ourselves but it doesn’t even exist for that person. And so we keep fighting to try to earn this status that doesn’t really seem possible for anybody. Even the most beautiful people that exist in this world don’t truly look the way that they’re being portrayed. They’re being portrayed with these like flawless smooth complexions and yeah, no cellulite and no stretch marks and no tan lines and I mean, I’m just like, my goodness. Who looks that way? Nobody. And the truth is that we only know about these beauty standards because of the way they’ve been marketed and advertised to us. And I think there’s also something to be said about the fact that we can’t deny that people make money off of our dissatisfaction. When we look at products and when we look at you know whether it be skincare or whether it be a diet pill or an exercise routine, they can tend to promise things that sound too good to be true. And then those that advertise them and market them also fit this, like, unreal beauty standard. And so we convince ourselves, well if I use that product, if I, you know, take those pills, if I do that exercise routine, that I’m gonna look that way. And we forget about the fact that we all are shaped differently. We all have different sizes and curves. We have different metabolisms and different genetic predispositions that we want to pay attention to and bone structures and we’re not just gonna all of a sudden make ourselves look like this person and, to be quite frank the saddest part to me about it is that we’re so busy trying to look like somebody else rather than looking at the beauty that is already us.
[Ricardo] Weight-loss marketing is very successful, unfortunately. according to Market Data, a firm that has tracked the U.S. weight-loss market for nearly 40 years now, estimated in 2017 that market is worth $66 billion. That’s billion with a “B.”
[Sara] But I think that in terms of advertising and marketing it’s so important to be a critical consumer and to start understanding that they want you to be upset with your current situation, whether that be your body, your skin, your hair, your nails, anything. Your outfit. But if they’re promising you something that sounds too good to be true, then it’s really, it’s just diet culture wrapped up in a pretty bottle.
[Ricardo] You said something yesterday about how, that I really liked, how things change around you but you only have one body, and that you should… and I just want you to fit that in some way. That was really cool.
[Sara] I, I find that it’s been – especially working with college students – but in general as humans we’re very transient and we live in a very transient place. We’re not always going to live in the same place, drive the same car, work the same job. Our friends might change, who were dating might change. And so there are very few true consistencies and guarantees in this life. And regardless of all of the trials and stages of life, our bodies are going to carry us through them all. And I think that it, it would be really awesome, which is really special and unique, if we could really respect our bodies and embrace them and recognize how they’ve carried us through. As opposed to torturing them and hating them. It’s just so interesting to me how much we put ourselves down when there’s so much more room I think to really build ourselves up. And we use our body as an excuse to not engage in activities and things, you know. Like, “Well I can’t go because I don’t have a bikini body.” Well, you know, bodies aren’t seasonal. Everybody’s a, everybody has a bikini body, you just have to put one on. You know, and of course I want you to wear what you feel comfortable in but I don’t want you to not do something because of the way that you feel about your body. I think that feels very isolating and very unfortunate and very unfair to you.
[Danyelle] Are there any other ways besides what you’ve already discussed that nutrition can help combat diet culture instead of perpetuate?
[Sara] I think that a lot of it is the language that we use around food and to stop feeling like food is bad or good but recognizing that it’s just food. And so we call it, like, liberating food. Right? Like all foods can fit into your diet. My desire for all of my clients is that they can learn to eat in a way that makes them feel physically and emotionally well at the same time. So eat something that is going to make them feel good, is going to make them feel energized, but then not deny them their favorite foods. Right? And what that looks like for them and so I think that could look different on a daily basis depending on how you’re feeling and what’s going on for you in that moment. But I know that I feel good when I eat nutrient-dense foods. Like when I eat you know good sources of protein and carbohydrates and fruits and vegetables, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t occasionally feel really good when I eat a cupcake. You know? I, I think that there’s a lot of context there that we tend to forget about food and that diet culture really robs us from in regard to food. Diet culture has a way of only looking at food from, like, a physical perspective and a nutrition perspective, but completely takes out the different functions of food and eating. When we look at just ways of connection. When we look at how we celebrate, how we love, how we might express ourselves through the joy of cooking or by cooking for others – diet culture doesn’t allow us to engage in that. It tells us the we need to follow this plan and if we deter from it then we’re bad or we cheated. And that’s just not the truth and it’s not sustainable. And so I would much rather it be, I’m, I’m gonna eat foods that make me feel good and I’m also not going to deny myself the opportunity to engage in social eating and eating for fun and making sure that I can find a balance of the two so that I still feel really good in my body in terms of how its functioning. Because if we’re not meeting our nutrient needs and only eating cupcakes then what are the chances that we’re going to feel physically well? And the truth is we’re not going to be feeling emotionally well either. Right? But what would it look like for you to actually advocate for yourself and have a nice breakfast and to really think about what you want for breakfast. Is it eggs and toast? Is it oatmeal? Is it a smoothie? You know, what, what’s gonna make you feel good? What are you also going to enjoy? I don’t want you to feel like you can only eat this flavorless crap. Because how unfortunate is that? You should enjoy your food. And food can be fun. But we also have to make sure that the way that we’re eating isn’t isolating us. Because I find that a lot that when students come to see me and they want to do a particular diet, I’m pretty quick to remind them that can maybe feel a little lonely, if that’s the way they want to eat. And I also encourage my clients to think about the way they want to eat forever and not the way that they want to eat right now. And can you truly sustain this program forever? What does that look like for you? And do you think that you can accomplish everything that you’d want to do doing this?
[Danyelle] Hey friends. We’re just gonna break in really quick. So there are some diets out there that have good results but aren’t realistic in the long term. These diets may give you fast results but not long-term results. We’re looking at you slimming teas and potions and meal replacements. But there are some healthier approaches and Sara is gonna give us the deets on all those.
[Sara] So for instance, we can talk about a few trends.
[Danyelle] Mm-hmm.
[Sara] So like intermittent fasting is very popular right now and we can’t deny that research has shown us some benefits of fasting. But we also know that we should be fasting through the night while we sleep – that’s why it’s called “breakfast.” Right? We’re supposed to be breaking the fast because we know that the majority of cellular repair actually happens while we’re sleeping and so the thought around, like, extended fasting is that maybe could generate even more cellular repair and reduce inflammation and oxidative stress and so that would be really cool.
[Ricardo] Hey, so we had no idea what oxidative stress was, so we looked it up and it turns out to be a very complex process involving electrons and imbalances and really just things over our heads. So rather than us trying to explain it and make fools of ourselves, we left the link in the show notes for you guys to check out and learn more about it.
[Sara] Research is still very limited. I actually went to a conference in October and got to see basically the most forward, you know, movement in terms of research around intermittent fasting and I got to see him speak. He’s from Florida. And even he only had 15 studies to show us. We don’t have protocol around how to do it, who would benefit truly from it, but of course our culture is so obsessed with weight loss they want to do it anyway even though we don’t truly know the safety of this kind of program. And something that I ask students a lot when they want to do it is I just, I ask them to really explore what this looks like for them and how socially isolating is this going to be for them to participate in. Are they going to be able to meet friends for brunch and go on a date that night, that same night? What if, what if both of those things came up on the same day and they both sound really fun. Do you have to choose, or can you do both? I also ask them if it feels truly necessary because the truth is it’s not. We have plenty of research that also supports healthy diets that aren’t intermittent fasting in terms of disease reduction and prevention. I will say that with intermittent fasting I have concerns not only about it being socially isolating but also, especially if I’m working with a client who has a predisposition to disordered eating, I would never recommend that for them. Because it could literally just be a, you know, a distraction. You know, something to kind of cover up their restrictive behaviors. And/or it could be enabling them to engage even in more binge eating and encourage binge eating inadvertently because if I tell someone, well you can only eat within this eight-hour window, they are probably going to be more likely to eat more food and eat past fullness because they won’t get to eat again. If we look at things like ketogenic diets, you know, where the amount of carbohydrates that you can have are very limited. My first question is well what if, what if some, what if your grandmother made you a birthday cake? You tell her “no thanks?” You take it and don’t eat it anyway and give it to somebody else? I’m like, what a sad reality is that, right? And so I think that there’s something to be said about not making it too hard. But we tend to want to do extreme things because we expect extreme results. And so I’d like to talk to my clients a lot more around the behavior. Why that diet? What results are they really trying to get? Do they think they’ll lose weight faster? Well what if we did it a different way and it didn’t have to be as fast? What would that mean about them? And in really challenging, so you think that if you lose 20 pounds in two weeks that makes you a better, stronger, smarter, more attractive something? Like, because, no, you’re still going to be the same person, 20 pounds heavier, 20 pounds lighter. And really trying to challenge that with them and that my goal for them is for them to be nourished, to feel strong and to be able to eat in a way that makes them feel emotionally and physically well.
[Sara] We asked Sara to touch on a very difficult topic and that was, how do parents navigate concern about a child’s health and well-being without making them feel self-conscious about their weight and continuing the cycle of body image issues?
[Sara] First, I would say I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to talk about a child’s weight. I think especially if we are looking at a young child that’s pre-puberty, that’s not, that’s not the point. I would look more at, you know, how is the family dynamic? Are, you know, are they encouraging their child to engage in any sort of activities? Are they, you know, making opportunities for that? Do they ever do engage in activities as a family? I think that there are things you can do around your lifestyle, especially as a parent and a role model, but you do not need to police your child’s food. I find that actually creates more of a problem later. I think in terms of language, though, we can make a lot of progress stop talking about other people’s bodies, especially in front of your children. Stop talking about how you need to lose weight because I will tell you, a lot of the messages they hear come from their parents. And come from their friends and their peers. You know their, their mom might be engaging in the ketogenic diet and so now all of a sudden all flour has been removed from the pantry. I mean kids feel these things. And so again, I’m just wondering what would it look like to ditch the diet and to stop talking about people’s bodies and to really look at what a healthy sustainable lifestyle is for you and your family? We also find that, like, family meals are really impactful and it doesn’t need to be your generic, you know, type nuclear family. It could be whatever family means to you. But connection is powerful. So instead of, you know, maybe eating in isolation or everyone’s on the go and your family is just gonna eat whatever is available, try to make time for one another. Because that’s when you truly know what your kids are doing. That’s when you can be modeling these behaviors because if your kids see you eating really nice balanced food, they’re more likely to eat it, too. And there might be days where they don’t and that’s okay. That doesn’t mean that you’ve failed as a parent or that they’re not a healthy kid. It just means that tonight they want cheese fries.
[Danyelle laughing] You know? And that’s okay. Sometimes I want cheese fries, too.
[Ricardo] I love cheese fries.
[Danyelle] Same.
[Sara] Cheese on everything.
[Ricardo] Thank you.
[Sara] Cheese on everything.
[Ricardo] I knew you were cool.
[Sara] But I do think that what ends up happening and what I see a lot, is we have our own body image issues and unfortunately, we then reflect that on our children and we almost live vicariously through them.
[Danyelle] There are some silver linings here. New research shows the number of active dieters has fallen in the U.S. by about 10 percent since 2015. That means it’s down to 97 million people. This is because of a growing size acceptance movement and dieter fatigue.
[Ricardo] So Sara, could we ever conquer diet culture?
[Sara] I sure as hell hope so.
[Danyelle] You have really enlightened us and you’ve given us a lot of really important information that we lay folk wouldn’t have.
[Sara] My pleasure.
[Ricardo] The UT Dallas CometCast is a podcast network brought to you by the UTD Office of Communications.
[Danyelle] A special thanks to senior lecturer Roxanne Minnish for our music. Be sure to follow the University on social media and check out Could We Ever and our other shows at utdallas.edu/cometcast. So listen out for us next time.