Diet culture no longer always looks like obvious calorie counting or restrictive meal plans. Today, it often hides behind words like wellness, clean eating, balance, and self-care. It presents itself as concern for health, discipline, and “doing what’s best for your body”- making it harder than ever to recognize, especially for those struggling with or recovering from an eating disorder.
When diet culture wears a wellness mask, it can feel socially acceptable, even praised. But underneath, the same harmful messages remain.
What Is Diet Culture, Really?
At its core, diet culture is a belief system that:
- Equates thinness with health, worth, and morality
- Places food into “good” and “bad” categories
- Promotes control, restriction, and discipline over listening to the body
- Suggests that changing your body is a requirement for happiness or success
When disguised as wellness, these ideas become harder to question and easier to internalize.
The Language of “Wellness” That Still Harms
Modern diet culture often uses softer, more “health-forward” language. Instead of saying weight loss, it says:
- “Reducing inflammation”
- “Healing your gut”
- “Balancing hormones”
- “Resetting your metabolism”
- “Being mindful” (when it really means restrictive)
Instead of rules, it promotes lifestyles. Instead of diets, it offers protocols, clean eating, or food freedom with hidden conditions.
For someone vulnerable to disordered eating, this language can reinforce fear of certain foods, rigid routines, and the belief that health requires constant monitoring and self-control.
When Wellness Encourages Disconnection From the Body
True wellness is about supporting the body. But diet culture often teaches people to distrust hunger, fullness, cravings, fatigue, and rest.
Examples include:
- Ignoring hunger in favor of “intermittent fasting windows”
- Pushing through exhaustion to maintain workout streaks
- Feeling guilt for eating foods deemed “inflammatory” or “processed”
- Believing rest must be earned
These behaviors are often praised as discipline, when in reality they disconnect people from their body’s needs.
Why This Is Especially Dangerous for Eating Disorders
For individuals with eating disorders (or those in recovery) diet culture disguised as wellness can be particularly triggering. It:
- Normalizes restriction under the guise of health
- Makes disordered behaviors harder to identify and challenge
- Reinforces perfectionism and all-or-nothing thinking
- Creates shame when the body doesn’t respond “correctly”
Because wellness culture is often celebrated, people may feel confused or invalidated when their mental health worsens, even while doing everything “right.”
The Problem With Moralizing Food
Wellness-based diet culture often assigns moral value to food: clean, toxic, pure, junk. This creates guilt, anxiety, and fear around eating, especially when life doesn’t allow for perfection.
Food is not a measure of worth. Eating something for pleasure, convenience, or comfort is not a failure. When food becomes a test of morality, it stops being nourishment and starts becoming a source of stress.
What Real Wellness Actually Looks Like
True wellness is flexible, inclusive, and compassionate. It does not require constant optimization or self-surveillance.
Real wellness:
- Honors hunger, fullness, and satisfaction
- Allows for rest without guilt
- Makes room for pleasure and social connection
- Supports mental and emotional health
- Adapts to real life, not rigid ideals
Wellness should help you feel more connected to yourself, not more controlled.
Moving Toward a More Supportive Approach
Unlearning diet culture (especially when it’s disguised as wellness) takes time. A gentle place to start is asking:
- Does this belief increase or decrease my anxiety around food?
- Does this help me trust my body or fear it more?
- Is this sustainable for my mental health, not just my appearance?
If “wellness” feels exhausting, rigid, or shame-based, that’s information worth listening to.
You do not need to earn health through restriction or control. You do not need to fix your body to be worthy of care. And you do not need to participate in wellness trends that harm your relationship with food.
True nourishment supports your whole self, not just how you look on the outside.
Reach out today for a complimentary phone call with an Evolve intake coordinator.
