Can Diets Ever Be Body-Positive?

Do you diet or do you look at your food in regards to how well it will fuel your body and bring about better health? Body-positivity is a newer way to look at our overall health. it encompasses the concept of health more than appearance. Different ways to look at foods and how they affect others is discussed. Certain styles or approaches to eating have come under attack as being more diet focused and not body health focused. In this article they will discuss the need for changing our mindset regarding the word diet. Some individuals with eating disorders can be triggered by certain styles of eating which will perpetuate their disorder, while others find healing in using these styles of eating. This is an intriguing article regarding the term and understating of body-positiviy.

Key Points:

  • 1The word “diet” isn’t necessarily synonymous with body positivity–quite the opposite, actually. The body-positive movement is rooted in ideals such as self-love and appreciation; it’s a backlash against a diet culture that defines beautiful as slim and encourages us to continually strive for “better” bodies. In that sense, it would be oxymoronic to champion a body-positive attitude while adhering to a prescribed way of eating, right?
  • 2There are plenty of news stories to back this up. A few years ago, PETA came under fire for using fat-shaming tactics to promote veganism, associating the diet with thin-idealization. Then there is the plethora of research correlating dieting and societal pressures to look a certain way with the development of restrictive and/or disordered eating patterns. It seems pretty clear-cut: diets are inherently anti-body positive.
  • 3However, I’m starting to wonder if this is always the case. It can be dangerous to assume the characteristics or motivations of individuals who adhere to one diet or another. In fact, it seems pretty backwards to make such judgments based, as always, on food choices. These sentiments are shared by fat-positive vegans who challenge the notion that all vegans are trying to lose weight or otherwise hate their bodies in some way.


The body-positive movement is rooted in ideals such as self-love and appreciation; it’s a backlash against a diet culture that defines beautiful as slim and encourages us to continually strive for “better” bodies.

Read the full article at: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/can-diets-ever-be-body-positive

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Written by HealthStatus
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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