Ditching Dieting
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 05:48AM 
What does the word ‘diet’ mean to you?
Ditching Dieting – speak out against the misery caused by the diet industry
STOP PRESS: ACTION PLANNED FOR 16TH JAN
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Endangered Bodies is a global and local initiative to fight the culture of body anxiety, body hatred and fear that is pervading all parts of our society.
This month we are starting a campaign to expose the role of the diet industry in de-stabilising women and girls’ appetites and desires. We believe that eating disorders and the so-called ‘obesity epidemic’ are merely more visible extremes of a much bigger, everyday phenomena: that we are accepting fear and hatred of our own bodies like gravity, that we are accepting ‘I am not good enough’ as a fact.
In the past weeks we have once again been swamped with headlines announcing an obesity crisis and we have seen news stories with the message that children may be taken away from their parents if the kids’ BMIs are deemed offensive or threatening. This ‘crisis’ is constructed from research funded by the industries that can make money from it, such as pharmaceutical and diet industries.
THESE INDUSTRIES ARE MAKING OUR BODIES THEIR BUSINESS
The diet industry claims to offer solutions – to the ‘crisis’ it has just funded researchers to determine. However, there is overwhelming research stating that it is the process of restricting food that leads to a consequent weight gain, meaning that diets ultimately make you fat.
DIETS DON’T WORK
Diets are set up to fail us so we will return to them again and again. The health risks of yo-yo dieting are higher than those of being overweight or obese (catergories on the BMI scale).
THE RESEARCH IS OUT THERE TO PROVE IT
If you are moving around, living your life, and listening to your own desires -eating when you are hungry, stopping when you are full, eating precisely what you need and want in that moment – then you should not feel your health threatened by being in the ‘obese’ box on a flawed BMI chart.
However, this kind of intuitive eating becomes harder and harder under the onslaught of methods to make money from your body.
The diet industry claims to offer comfort, support andsolutions to make your world a happier, healthier place. We want to gauge from your responses how diets are really affecting the lives of women in this country.
BECOME A PART OF THIS MOVEMENT
Help us by answering as many of the following questions as you wish:
• What does the word ‘diet’ mean to you?
• What did you hope would be happen as a result of your dieting?
• What effect has dieting had on your life?
• Do you feel guilty when you aren’t dieting or restricting your food in some way?
• Have you ever had a carefree time of eating?
• Can you imagine making peace with your body?
Talk to us about your dieting experience
Campaign with our Ditching Dieting Flyer:
and Ditching Dieting Frequently Asked Questions:
Reader Comments (6)
Please can you send me further information about this campaign and how we can support it through our work with women and girls?
your workshop at fem 11 was amazing. how can i get more involved?
Thanks for sharing such useful information. The information provided is very very niche and this information is not available so easily. Therefore I thank the writer for the useful input.
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I am so glad that someone is FINALLY doing something about this, i would have loved to have done something like this myself but i just don't have the resources or time (i'm 17, doing A levels) my girlfriend has anorexia, there several other girls in my school who show signs of it, and over time its become clear to me that the diet industry and the media play a huge role that needs to be addressed.
once again, thankyou :)
Why dont you try eating less and doing more exercise instead of blaming other people?
Well done in organising this and the best of luck with getting your message across. The underlying problem is really with the idea of calorie restriction which is not just coming from the slimming industry, the medical profession have also hitched themselves to this broken jalopy and that in my view is a far bigger disgrace.