Dear Diet Culture Letter: How Dieting Steals Joyful Food Memories
Dear Diet Culture,
It’s me, Sunday.
It’s summer and per usual I am mad at you. I’ve been reflecting recently on food memories and how they are an integral part of life. In fact, often a very joyful part of life!
I think of ways we can instantly be taken back to parts of our life before you came in and told us to cut things out, restricted our intake and told us not to trust ourselves with food. Before you told us that the foods we grew up with were wrong and that you knew all the answers. Before you told us, in name of “health,” that sacrificing connection and pleasure was virtuous. Before you told our parents that they needed to be “concerned” about our body sizes. Before the eating disorder and disordered eating began.
You encourage us to restrict our food intake in the name “wellness,” but really I believe you will forever use any reason you can find to put people on diets and tell them what to eat. After all, your science is super shaky which means you need keep shape-shifting so you don’t loose billions of dollars.
So here’s what I want you to know that is super important: food memories are life memories.
The people, places, occasions and experiences that involve food make up life, and the grief that we have to go through to mourn all of life that was missed out on because we couldn’t freely eat is often very painful.
And look, I know what you might be thinking (which, I must admit, maybe it isn’t the best to assume what you are thinking, but I feel like I know you more than you know yourself sometimes), “there is still life without food memories!” And what I say to that is, “yes there is some truth to this.” AND the question I propose to you, Diet Culture, is:
What is life without connection, memory, celebration, and love, without food? What is a funeral, wedding, sports game, baby shower, beach day, pool day, vacation, and much more without food? After all, you are the one who taught us that there is something wrong with celebrating with food, loving with food, and connecting with food (to our culture, heritage, partners, friends, etc.)
You have taken food memories from us, which means you have taken life and our ability to show up fully in it.
And, we are going to change that.
Sincerely,
Sunday, aka your most friendly, righteously angry, anti-diet Dietitian Katherine who wants everyone to experience life with positive, pleasureful, and inhibited food memories