Source: Photo by Dominik Martin on Unsplash

We’re inundated with messages about “wellness” and “wellness,” as if every product, service, or influence promises a healthier, happier life. However, when you peel back the layers, much of what is sold as wellness is actually a thinly veiled version of diet culture. With subtle but powerful messages, wellness has become a new frontier for diet culture to wield influence, often prioritizing appearance and control over true health. This crossover is more than deceptive; it can be deeply damaging to both mental and physical health.

Wellness vs. Diet Culture: Why Knowing the Difference Matters

True wellness encompasses physical, mental and emotional health, without emphasis on appearance or restrictions. It’s about supporting the body and mind as they are, not altering them to fit a societal ideal. Diet culture, however, emphasizes weight and body shape control and the pursuit of thinness as synonymous with health—even if it isn’t.¹

Recognizing the difference matters because research consistently shows that food culture harms mental health, leading to stress, anxietyand poor self-esteem. It can also have serious physical consequences. Restrictive eating, excessive exercise, and viewing health through the lens of weight loss contribute to exhaustionchronic stress and even disordered eating patterns, all of which can harm long-term well-being.

How to discern true wellness from diet culture in disguise

1. Check the focus: weight or health? True wellness emphasizes how you feel and function. If a program or product focuses on weight, shape, or size, it’s probably food culture at play. Authentic wellness messages are about nourishing and respecting your body, rather than chasing a certain look.
2. Notice the language: inclusive or exclusive? Wellness messages are inclusive and embrace diverse bodies, abilities and health objection. Diet culture often uses language that promotes guilt and shame (think “cheat day” or “earn your meal”), creating a moral hierarchy around food and bodies.
3. Assess the end goal: flourishing or striving? True wellness means adding positive experiences and nurturing habits to help you thrive mentally, physically and emotionally. Diet culture, on the other hand, creates pressure to “strive” for an ideal body or the “perfect” diet. Wellness should empower you to live fully, not keep you striving for an unattainable ideal.
4. Look at the science: evidence-based or trend-based? Authentic wellness practices are backed by evidence-based science and support holistic health without extreme measures. Instead, diet culture frequently promotes unscientific trends, extreme diets, and products like detox teas and restrictive meal plans that promise quick changes.
5. Ask: Does it bring joy or anxiety? Wellness is responsible and energizing. If an activity or habit brings up feelings of anxiety, guilt or fear around food or your body is more likely a product of diet culture than genuine self-care.

Source: Photo by Alina Karpenko on Unsplash

The psychological appeal of diet culture disguised as health

Despite its evil, diet culture has a powerful hold over many people. Social psychology explains this attraction through several lenses:

1. Social norms and comparison. People naturally compare themselves to others, and societal norms influence what we consider desirable. When we see peers or influencers getting involved in the health of diet culture, it can feel like the “right” thing to do. This comparison bias keeps us fixated on a narrow view of health that often promotes self-criticism rather than making us feel better.
2. Cognitive dissonance. People may have conflicting beliefs, such as knowing that restrictive diets are not good in the long term, but may still follow them because of the perceived rewards of being thin or social approval. This conflict creates cognitive dissonance, where people justify unhealthy behaviors because they feel they align with the values ​​imposed by the diet culture.
3. Fear of weight stigma. The pervasive stigma against larger bodies fuels the influence of diet culture. The pressure to avoid discrimination or judgment may lead individuals to restrictive eating patterns and the pursuit of health trends that promise thinness, even at the expense of mental and physical health.
4. The call of control in an uncertain world. Tracking your health or managing your weight can provide a sense of action in a world that often feels chaotic. However, when controlling one’s well-being and diet becomes obsessive, it can lead to disordered patterns and a narrow focus that excludes authentic self-care.

Why this matters

The consequences of diet culture disguised as wellness are profound. From a psychological point of view, the pressure of a conformable to a thin-ideal image can lead to chronic stress, low self-esteem and an increased risk of developing eating disorders. Physically, the stress of restrictive eating and excessive exercise can wreak havoc on the body, affecting digestion, immune function, and overall vitality. Research highlights that yo-yo dieting and weight cycling—common byproducts of diet culture—are linked to adverse health effects, including increased cardiovascular risk and metabolic problems.

Additionally, the influence of diet culture often fosters disconnection from our bodies, encouraging us to override natural hunger cues, ignore fatigue, and view wellness as something to be earned rather than experienced.

Towards true well-being

An authentic approach to wellness is self-compassionate, sustainable, and evidence-based. It involves practices such as CAREFUL intuitive eating, movement, and self-compassion, which promote a strong and supportive connection to self. By focusing on practices that improve physical and mental health for their own sake, we can embrace wellness without falling into the traps of diet culture.