Diet culture is everywhere and can be harmful to anyone because it convinces you that unhealthy habits are healthy and makes people have unnecessary fear around food. It can be even more harmful for people with medical conditions who can’t follow a restrictive diet because they have certain dietary restrictions. Diet culture affects everyone and can distract you from doing things that would actually benefit your health because it sneaks up on us in clever ways, and sometimes people don’t even realize they are engaging in diet culture behavior. When you have a medical condition, it can be even more dangerous because it convinces you that your poor health is your fault, and if you ate a little bit healthier, you could cure your incurable disability. I spent years stuck in a diet culture mindset because like most people, I thought restrictive diets were healthy and I only wish I realized sooner how harmful diet culture is for people with medical conditions. How does diet culture affect people with medical conditions? In this post, I am going to talk about how diet culture can negatively impact people with medical conditions.
It makes it more difficult to be taken seriously – There are a lot of fad diets that people follow because diet culture makes them believe that it’s healthy and will give them a full-body transformation. Disabled people with medical conditions sometimes can engage in diet culture behavior because it affects all of us, but not everyone who avoids dairy is afraid that the carbs are going to make them fat, and some people have legitimate medical conditions where they have to stop eating these things to feel well. It can be hard for disabled people who have to avoid certain foods to be taken seriously at restaurants because a lot of people who avoid gluten don’t actually have an allergy and are avoiding it out of fear. People with medical conditions sometimes struggle to get restaurant staff to take their allergies seriously because a lot of people follow fad diets, and it’s impossible to know who has allergies and who doesn’t. Diet culture makes it more difficult for people with medical conditions to advocate for themselves because a lot of people claim to be gluten-free but eat a gluten-filled cake for dessert, which completely discredits anyone who comes in after you who actually has an allergy. It can be hard to be taken seriously with a medical condition because diet culture makes everyone believe that everything is bad for you, and people avoid things that they don’t need to avoid.
It makes people think they can heal themselves by eating healthier- Food is medicine and can help improve or, in some cases, cure a medical condition, but not every medical problem can be cured by making healthier choices. People should be very hesitant before taking nutrition advice that they read on social media because Pinterest is filled with nutrition misinformation that claims cures. I have seen countless articles that claim you can cure all your gut problems by fasting a little longer, which is not completely true, and for some people, it may worsen their gut problems. Diet culture can be harmful for people with medical conditions because it makes people think that they can heal themselves by eating healthier and blames the individual when the diet doesn’t work. People without medical knowledge should not be getting on social media and cures because not everyone gets success with the same types of diets. Diet culture is harmful for people with medical conditions because it makes people feel like they are the problem when that couldn’t be further from the truth, and it’s their disability that is making them feel unwell.
It creates more fear around food- When you are disabled, a lot of the time, you need to have some level of restriction to stay well because your body does not handle certain foods well. As a disabled person, I have struggled to have a positive relationship with food because there are some types of foods my bowel problems prevent me from being able to eat a lot of, and there is nothing I can do to change that. Diet culture has made having a positive relationship with food even more challenging because it makes you fear eating the few foods that don’t cause pain. It is common for disabled people to struggle with their relationship with food, and it does not help when diet culture makes you fear eating a banana and only makes an already poor relationship with food even worse.
Diet culture affects everyone, but it can be even worse for people with medical conditions because it makes people believe that they can cure themselves by eating healthier, and when the diet doesn’t work, it blames the individual for not having enough willpower. Healthy eating can help improve pain, and I highly encourage people with medical conditions to pay attention to how foods make you feel, but you don’t have to take your healthy eating habits to an extreme level. Diet culture often wants people to believe that shrinking their body as small as possible and going on highly restrictive diets is healthy, but often these things are not as healthy as people think and can be quite harmful. It is already hard enough to manage a medical condition, and it doesn’t help when diet culture gets in the way of making decisions that will actually improve your health. Don’t follow fad diets if you have a medical condition, because often these types of diets will do more harm than good. How do you think diet culture affects people with medical conditions? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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