Fighting Diet Culture on Social Media

(Analysis of Tik-Tok Videos and their impact)

Social media has become a place that heavily promotes diet culture and eating disorder behaviors. In recent years, this spike in diet culture on social media has been seen heavily through Instagram influencers and most recently, Tik-Tok. Many influencers prey on young girls and boys who have been taught by the world that they are not good enough. They use their platforms to promote products like weight loss teas and coffees that are supposed to be a “quick fix”.

I’ve experienced the allure of this diet culture and even participated in it for a while. It is hard to go through social media and see these picture-perfect people telling you that you need to lose weight, when you may already be struggling with this. It is important to understand that in order to be happy with yourself and your body you MUST learn to love your body at every shape and stage in life. A weight loss tea and coffee will never be the solution to your problems, I promise you.

When I scroll through Instagram and see these people promoting these unhealthy products I think of myself a few years ago, vulnerable and so unhappy with myself. I would buy products like these all the time hoping for a quick fix to my body image issues. Praying that this coffee would make me instantly skinny and that once I was skinny I could finally love myself. This toxicity on social media platforms has so many consequences and spikes eating disorders. The most recent place I’ve seen this unhealthy diet culture spike is on Tiktok.

Tiktok is filled with pro-eating disorder content, ranging from pro-ana (pro-anorexic) and thinspo accounts. Even on my for you page, I have come across countless videos that promote unhealthy eating disorder behaviors and relationships with food. As someone who has recovered from an eating disorder, it is extremely hard for me to see this kind of content on my page. Although there is a way to hide videos like these from my feed, it seems no matter what I do they still seem to pop up. The most recent surge of videos I have seen is these magical recipes for drinks that will help you lose 20 pounds in 4 weeks! 20 pounds in 4 weeks? That is insanely unhealthy. Click here to watch an example of this. These videos promote people to suppress their appetites and that there are easy fixes to weight loss. There is no quick fix to weight loss and videos like these just promote an unhealthy mindset and relationship with food. It is important to nourish your body with the right foods and to never deprive yourself or use “special” drinks to suppress your appetite.

Although Tiktok is filled with this negative content, one thing that has helped me greatly is learning to follow body positivity accounts that promote healthy relationships with eating and yourself. My favorite account is Mik Zazon’s, click here to watch one of her videos. It is so important to see these representations on social media platforms because it is what promotes positivity and steers people away from these negative mindsets.

It is important to recognize how toxic social media is and how it plays a negative role in body image. It is time to stand up against the promotion of diet and workout fads on Tiktok and other platforms. Your dream body is not going to come from a magical drink or a “15-day hourglass figure program”. Your dream body will come when you start to recognize that your body is beautiful in every shape and size because it gives you life and supports you. Your dream body will come when you take care of yourself mentally and physically and learn to nourish yourself with healthy foods and a balanced lifestyle. You don’t need to deprive yourself in order to be fit and beautiful. Life is about balance, not restriction. Life is so much more than what the scale says I promise you. I myself still struggle constantly but life is so much better now that I can eat a bag of chips and not feel the need to throw it up or starve myself for weeks after. Eat the cake, ice cream, chips, eat whatever you want! I am so happy that I am no longer the girl who would immediately try these magical drinks because I was so unhappy with myself and I wish i could go back and tell her that she was beautiful and worthy of love no matter what.

Join me in this fight against diet culture on social media. Stop following accounts that give you these unrealistic images of what your body “should” look like. Everyone’s bodies are different, unique, and beautiful in their own ways. Never make yourself feel like you have to look a certain way because the world tells you so. Start following people who promote healthy relationships with their body and food, it is seriously life-changing.