An Open Letter to Diet Culture,

In short, you ruin lives.

You tell us that our physical appearance is of utmost importance and equates to our

worth, not accounting for genetics or similar scientific facts. You know bodies come in different

shapes and sizes naturally, but have created an unattainable ideal that we strive to conform to.

You tell us that weight loss and dieting are a constant and necessary part of life. You

claim it is for our own health, but brush over the dieting cycle, which always fails and ends in

misery and relapse.

You convince us to track everything: weight, calories, nutrients, and any other micro

detail whose tracking is intended for medical professionals. You get those numbers stuck in our

minds until they consume our thoughts and transform into representatives of our worth.

You fill our brains with these messages. The apps, commercials, advertisements,

magazines, posts, and products bombard us constantly. They claim a simple ‘hack’, pill,

superfood, cleanse, exercise, or diet will change our lives. Many of us know you target women.

Throughout history, you have instilled your ideas into our culture. It is obvious in the specific

television channels, magazines, and social media pages where you make yourself especially

loud.

You’ve figured out how to be subtle, though, especially for females. From the day we are

born, our nurturers are lured in by your gendered clothing and baby products, a certain half of

which are glittered with hints to beauty’s value and tagged with the pink tax. Starting from the

beginning, you set up the structure for what you think we should be and what we should value.
 And we fall for it. We always do. We become conditioned to look in the mirror and hate

and criticize everything we see. We fall for the belief that if we could only lose a few pounds,

have more self control, eat clean or follow a diet, and get a better body, then we would be

happier, healthier, and more successful. It shows up in our everyday speech and actions.

Somehow it is normal to make constant comments regarding others’ weight and appearance, or

the contents of a ‘bad’ food being indulged.

You have begged the question, how much harm can this truly cause? Is it not all for the

best? You know the answer, you know the danger, you know the evil. But you ignore it in favor

of the constant growing cash stream from the American empire you have created.

Your unavoidable presence leads to many fall into a deeper torture: eating disorders. You

have created a taboo around the subject to avoid jeopardizing your creations with the truth. You

don’t want them to know that the latest diet craze is likely as restricting as anorexia. Or that

continuing this pattern could lead to a plethora of consequences: unhealthy and dramatic weight

change; weakened organs, skin, hair, and nails; losing the ability to focus, sleep, have fun, love,

and be happy; mental torment; to name a few. Purging and binging and their effects are almost

completely off the radar, they’re all tainted with shame.

You further hide these results by twisting them to seem like a choice, not a mental illness

you helped create. People now think that one is simply choosing to follow a diet for their own

health, or that an eating disorder is entirely their fault, as they are the ones choosing to not eat,

purge, or binge food. You have done this so effectively that even many researchers don’t

research eating disorders and their causes and consequences, leaving us in a mist of painful lies

and shame.
 You don’t mind the fact that over 116 million American adults are dieting to lose weight,

with 10 million diagnosed with these eating disorders and 20% dying from it. You lack sympathy

even for children, ignoring the 80% of kids dieting before they’ve even reached the fourth grade,

ignoring the 50% of pre-teen girls who see themselves as overweight. No, all you care about is

the $72 billion you’ve made from brainwashing countless people.

Some are starting to see the damage being done to us. They think they can help change it,

but you don’t let them slip all the way from your grasp. The well-intentioned message from

foundations, companies, and influencers that everyone is beautiful and doesn’t need to change is

almost there. Almost. Despite the positive spirit, they are subconsciously still putting the focus

on looks and beauty. As long as that is the focus, you are still there, lurking between the lines.

But you won’t always be on top. Some of us survive and rise above you, and we won’t be

silent. Through our actions, examples, posts, and teaching, your lies are being torn down, slowly

but surely. People are starting to learn to love themselves the way they are, reject your ideals,

and eat and act intuitively. You can and will be defeated.

Sincerely,

Whitney Ashby

A former prisoner