Social Media’s Toxic Diet Culture affecting Mental Heath

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Social media is often everyone’s respite from the real world, from studies, assignments, projects and the never-ending burden of life. I always find myself going on Instagram or YouTube whenever I need a break from my studies, and I’m sure the person reading this does that too.

Social media can be quite fun, showing you different challenges, games, showing you new influencers to follow and new trends to try out. Apart from being fun, it can also be toxic. It can reflect the unreal standards and expectations that society sets for teenagers and what teens are supposed to do.

It sets unreal beauty standards which teens are expected to live up to, so that they can be labelled as the “ideal girl” or the “ideal boy” by our cruel and unforgiving social media society.

Social media can have various troll accounts and the main purpose of them is to make people feel bad being themselves. But, apart from these troll accounts, there are also accounts that directly or indirectly tell you to be someone you are not.

social media, toxic

Social media sets unrealistic beauty standards for teens, especially teen girls, who think they have to look a certain way to be accepted. Social media is toxic when it comes to its diet culture.

A lot of blogs, videos and websites tell you that you need to cut out carbs completely, a never eat junk food again if you want to lose 10 kilos in a month. They tell you that you need to starve yourself for 16 hours to see results. They tell you to follow unrealistic diets which claim to help you lose weight. It shows you videos of weight loss smoothies and low-calorie foods just so you can go from someone you are to someone you’re not.

Diet culture tells you that you need to deprive yourself of food that you love, so that you can fit into societal standards which expect you to be “thin” and not “fat”. Teens are told to cut off food from their life, follow a strict diet plan to lose all the weight they have. Along with losing weight, they also lose their happiness and restrict themselves.

So many influencers out there on YouTube and Tiktok post what I eat in a days. That is what is compatible with their requirements, their needs and wants. It might not work for your body. Your body is so different.

Find out what works for you. It will take some time, but it will all be worth it.

What diet culture doesn’t tell you is

The changes you see after doing month-long diets aren’t long-lasting. You may see a change for a week, but then your body resets and tries to go back to normal because during that diet it was deprived of basic nutrition.

Social media’s diet culture is not good. It shows you models with “perfect” bodies with the “perfect” lifestyles and forces you to be the same. It tells you that there is no other choice other than putting yourself in a miserable position so that you can achieve a body like them. It tells you that what your body looks like is a mistake that can only be fixed by starving yourself.

The one thing diet culture is good at is telling what you should do, so that you can do the opposite of what it tells you. If it is telling you to starve yourself, don’t. Nourish your body with proper food and nutrition. If it tells you that models are perfect, they’re not. Each of them has their own imperfections. If it tells you that there is something wrong with the way your body is, its wrong. Your body is beautiful, it is a work of art, and is your home and your sanctuary.

Remember, you’re not ugly, society is.

-By Suhaani Hardikar

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