Mock&Mole: Why Diets Are A Toxic Waste of Space

Let me start with this: self-love is the biggest middle finger of all time.

The woman next to me is currently on My Fitness Pal scanning the barcode of a pot of nuts to log into her food diary. My insides flip – both from bad memories, anger and jealousy… that she has snacks with her and I don’t.

As I write this, it’s only been six days into the new year and already I have the words ‘detox’ ‘diet’ and ‘lose weight’ ringing in my ears. Everywhere I go I am bombarded with adverts for gym memberships, slimming world, detox teas (aka laxatives) and meal replacement tablets. I switch on the news in the morning and they’re talking about putting a tax on pudding (God forbid) and how children consume too much sugar. I scroll through Instagram and I see Kim Kardashian promoting some flat tummy shake that will give her the runs (no doubt that her bum hole will be the next thing needing surgery).

It’s 2019. When will we learn that diets are stupid? Literally… stupid. There’s a difference from ‘being on a diet’ and ‘have a good diet.’ But both are pretty annoying. Before I sound like a hypocrite by advocating to ‘eat what you want’, when I myself have had a big FAT fear of food for the past six years, I just want to say I’m doing this because I have experienced and witnessed the damaging effect the diet industry can have. This week, that Michael Mosley idiot has been back on our screens promoting the utter ridiculous 5:2 diet. I THOUGHT THIS HAD DIED ITS PATHETIC DEATH 7 YEARS AGO?!? Nope, apparently people are still buying into it. No surprise though, because it’s everywhere. There is nothing healthy about fasting. Of course you will see results on this diet; you’ll be losing so much water weight, because you are basically starving yourself. But is this really a life long way to live? Are any ‘diets’ a way to live? No. They make you lose weight and then you’re back at square one – because you can’t sustain a life by living off of egg whites and spinach for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

(Can you tell I’m angry?)

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a bit healthier, or if you are overweight, making sensible changes. However, there are two messages that are still being drilled into us, and which need addressing ASAP. These being:

Women (and men) should hate their bodies.
Food is the enemy.

Imagine for a moment that we lived in a world where we all loved our beautiful bodies, and we enjoyed food?! Wishful thinking.

Having an unhealthy relationship with both food and my body has been hell for me. Fortunately, I have been able to begin to rationalise it and not be too affected by adverts, social media and celebrities. Nonetheless, it’s hard to escape the messages that we are being infiltrated with.

Scroll through the majority of female media influencers photos’ on Instagram and nearly all of them will have photos of them on a white sandy beach flaunting their ‘perfect’ flat stomachs and long thin legs. How do they have such flat stomachs when they supposedly live their best life eating at fancy restaurants and lazing on the beach all day? This is not reality.

With the diet industry capitalising on this fantasy body, the tummy is an easy area to target. Stomachs change shape throughout the day; you may wake up and it be somewhat deflated or ‘flat’ and come lunch time it’s probably a little rounder as it is holding all the drinks and food you have so far consumed that day. There seems to be some ideology that if your tummy is flat then your life is complete; you have achieved what all women want to, you will be satisfied and proud of your body. Now let me tell you, as somebody who has once had a flat stomach… it really isn’t that great. In those days I was unhappier than ever, knowing that I ‘had’ to work hard to maintain this shape. Analysing everything that I consumed to ensure there was no way of adding any fat to my stomach became my entire focus and it sooner or later spiralled out of control – full blown eating disorder madness. Of course, this is an extreme example and not all men and women will develop an eating disorder by dieting, but the industry no doubt can tarnish anybody’s relationship with both food and their body.

Was I happy when I had a flat stomach?

Did I love my body when I had a flat stomach?

Did I enjoy food when I had a flat stomach?

Was I confident when I had a flat stomach?

Did having a flat stomach get me the career I wanted?

Did having a flat stomach determine graduating from university?

Did my boyfriend love me more for having a flat stomach?

How about, did I waste too much time obsessing over avoiding food and staying skinny? Yes. Yes yes yes.

It is so life consuming that it really does overtake your day to day life, your relationships and your entire being. The media is constantly telling us that we are a ‘fat’ nation, they we consume too much fast food, that we don’t exercise enough. But where are the reports on the millions of women who are victim of low self-esteem and disgust at their own body? No doubt heightened by the constant diet adverts that are everywhere, especially in January and the run up to summer.

Christmas always used to be the worst day of the year for me, fearful of food and any chance of over indulging or eating more than I used to. However, now that my eating disorder is much more under control, it was much easier than previous years because I knew that I wouldn’t be forced to eat anything I didn’t want to. I am now strong enough to eat what I want to.

Nonetheless, this year, it was the post-Christmas period that hit me like a tonne of lard. Everywhere I looked we were being told off for what we had eaten. We were being told off for foods that the same companies had been selling us.

Being in recovery from an eating disorder during this period is excruciating. As we are learning to accept our new bodies, everywhere we turn we are told that our body shapes are ‘not perfect.’ Your thighs aren’t meant to touch, your stomach should never be round, your ribs are supposed to be visible. It’s all such rubbish. Moreover, for those who have been in hospital or received therapy will have fought through the understanding that food is not the enemy, and that our bodies need a lot of fuel to run.

This whole ‘New Year, New Me’ ‘I’m Going to Lose Eight Stone This Year’ thing is more often derived from the idea that food is bad. There are good foods and bad foods… apparently. This is utter bull shite (unless you have an allergy of course). Whether it be carbs or sugar, there is always a trend of which food is going to be the devil this year. Sure, if you ate solely a diet of Haribo Tangfastics for every meal, every day of the week, then we have reason to be worried… but it’s like that with any food. If you eat the same food, and lots of it, then sure – that’s not healthy. But it doesn’t have to be loads of crisps to deem this an unhealthy lifestyle, I survived for a few months on a diet of boiled cabbage – to some a ‘healthy’ food, but for me it was what nearly killed me (and my bowels).

What I’m trying to say is, that it is so easy to demonise food and become fearful of it, but cake isn’t going to kill you. (What a way to die though!) As Cringey McCringe as it is, we only live once - and if I were to be hit by a bus tomorrow - *touch wood* - I want to die knowing I hadn’t wasted years avoiding foods that I actually enjoyed and loved my body just the way it was.

Right then diet industry, supermarkets, self-titled nutritionists and Instagram influencers, do yourself a favour and shove your diet fads up your bum and poo it out once those laxative detox do their dirty work.