An Anti-Diet Dietitian Rant, Delish Meals, and Part Two of the Seconds Podcast
Of course diet culture wants to co-opt being anti-diet...
By now, you all know that I’m an anti-diet dietitian. Being an anti-diet dietitian does NOT mean I’m anti-health. It means I want you to see the lies of diet culture so that you can make the best decisions for yourself, your family, and your values.
Anti-diet dietitians, those who can see the nuance around eating, bodies, health, lifestyle decisions, etc… get attacked in the media regularly (the Washington Post loves to hate on us). We help people see the lies of diet culture while the media often promotes it. It’s infuriating and exhausting. :(
There’s so much more to health than whether you have a bowl of cereal for breakfast or share a pack of candy with your kid after school. Health isn’t just food and movement - in fact, it is so much more. When we’ve been taught to ignore the social determinants of health, like access to food, housing, medical care, clean water, education, and safe communities, we think health is simply about balancing our lunch plate or daily jog. If you take a look at the social determinants of health graphic below, you’ll see just how many factors have more influence on our health than food. It’s not that simple.

Diet culture makes us think health is that simple - just a matter of individual priorities (ugh!). The media would have us believe that dietitians that don’t want you to feel like crap about your available food choices are under the spell of “big food.” We are under no spell. In fact, we know and teach something that makes them very uncomfortable - that most media outlets and a large portion of the medical community work for and profit from diet culture. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, right?
I hope you’ll see through the diet culture schemes wherever you may find them—an article in the media, a flyer at your doctor's office, a diet influencer recipe on TikTok, a calorie-counting assignment your kid brought home from school, or a diet plan your church group is doing for a more “righteous” body. Diet culture is A LOT, but you can unsubscribe. We have to choose to unsubscribe every single day. And we’ll keep fighting together.
Now for Your Menus
This week, we’ve got ham, beef tips, burritos, salmon Caesar salads, and more! I hope you love it. Hopefully, we’ll catch some post-Easter sales as well. Happy eating!
Get your April Week 2 Menu HERE
Part Two of “Seconds”
If you missed part one of the Seconds Podcast with Mysti Jordan, you can watch it HERE. This series sheds light on common yet harmful and disordered dieting practices. You can catch part two below.
If you want more information about how diet culture holds us hostage, how our medical systems uphold diet culture practices, and how to break free, read FEED YOURSELF. If you’ve read it, I’d be honored if you left a review. You can leave one by clicking below.
Take care,
Leslie
Love your graphic!