Haunting Diet Myths: The Diet Industry Cycle That Keeps Us Afraid, Hungry & Invested

In this episode, we’ll be exploring the cycle of fear and blame the diet industry has created and how this impacts our body image and relationship to food. We’ll also look at some of the nuances, including the erasure of fat folks from history, and why it appears to be socially acceptable to discriminate against someone based on their body size/weight. We’ll also take a look at how the diet industry uses fear based marketing practices to sell their products, and the outcomes when the ‘solution’ doesn’t work.If you’d rather not hear my life, podcast and business update, skip forward to 12:21Content Warning: use of the word o*esity within context at 13:40Takeaways:Fat people have always existed, even before the invention of BMI and the diet industryFat bias does not respond to exposureIf we care about people’s health, then we should care about their mental healthThe diet industry is worth $70billion a year!The Cycle:Create A Problem > Create Fear > Sell “The Solution” > Blame IndividualChapters:00:00 Halloween Preparations and Personal Updates07:02 Reflections on the Podcast Journey12:09 Haunting Diet Myths: Introduction to the Topic20:15 The Diet Industry Cycle Explained32:03 Understanding Body Diversity and AcceptanceLinks mentioned:instagram.com/historicalfatpeopleThank you for listening to The Culture Of It All! this podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive early posts, bonus material and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber on Substack. Come say 'hello' on social media! You'll find episode content on Instagram stories. Looking for more conversations around the politics of fashion? Join me on TikTok Until next time, pals — keep showing up, speaking up, and taking up space.