“Dieting” means different things to different people, but when your eating habits veer into the extreme, they might end up being the very opposite of what you intend. I’ve seen it in my work as a registered dietitian and through the research: following trendy diets can often lead to future weight gain and even disordered eating behaviours.
“Diet culture” is how dietitians like me describe our society’s obsession with thinness, musculature, and having the “ideal” body. While dieting has historically been a female domain, recent studies have found that diet culture for men is definitely a thing too. You know the biggies: the carnivore diet, banting, keto, paleo, Whole30.
Yes, people can lose weight on these diets. And yes, some people can stick with them. But the current thinking within nutrition is that diet culture isn’t contributing, long-term, to our physical, mental, or social health.
Here are five reasons you may want to rethink trendy diets and diet culture in general.
Weight Loss Doesn’t Automatically Mean Better Health
Most diets give the messaging that losing weight is all you have to do to be healthy. Yes, excess weight is linked to numerous health issues, but achieving a certain weight does not mean that you’re automatically in the clear. And some trendy diets can even offer incorrect or contradictory directives about “better” health.
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Let’s take inflammation as one example. Some diets, like the popular weight-loss diet Whole30, suggest that you restrict whole grains, dairy, and legumes to avoid inflammation. Actual science tells us that these foods are anti-inflammatory in most people.
Plus, restricting whole grains, dairy, and legumes? Sounds rough, right? That brings me to my next point.
Diet Culture Distances Us From Food
One of diet culture’s most insidious effects is how it warps the way we see food. What we consume becomes moralised: “clean” versus “junk,” “good” versus “bad.” Or, food becomes all about numbers: macros, calories, grams of protein.
Food is so much more than the sum of its parts. Drilling it down to data points can create a disconnect between what we think we “should” eat, and how a food nourishes us and makes us feel, emotionally and physically.
When food is reduced to rules and restrictions, we lose trust in our bodies. Instead of tuning into hunger, fullness, and satisfaction, we outsource our decisions to calorie counts, points, or the latest influencer’s meal plan. This undermines our bodies’ natural cues and makes eating far more stressful than it needs to be.
More often than not, extreme diets aren’t sustainable, leading to weight and health rebound and feelings of failure when we eventually return to our normal habits.
It Messes With Your Social Life
I’ve seen a lot of clients over the years who push their social life to the back-burner in favour of following a restrictive diet. It’s great to have goals, but if you’re isolating yourself from social situations because your diet doesn’t allow you the freedom to be flexible with your food choices, something is off. Healthy eating accounts for your social health, too.
Food is so much more than fuel. It’s culture, storytelling, and flavour. Even if you’re the type of person who “eats to live” versus “lives to eat,” having flexibility with your eating habits allows you to relax and enjoy social occasions with people you care about. It’s not a flex to bring your own food to a braai or to sit with your friends in a restaurant and not eat because the food doesn’t align with your strict diet. (Important note: what I’m saying here does not apply to people with medical reasons for doing these things.)
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Consider what you’re missing because of your eating habits. Is it really worth it?
When you think back on your life, do you want to remember the quality time you spent with people you loved, or are you thinking instead that you’ll want to congratulate yourself for saying “no” to enjoying meals and connecting with friends just so you could follow the carnivore diet?
Diet Culture Is Expensive
Diets like carnivore, banting, or even “wellness” plans promoted by popular influencers make money by suggesting that you buy special foods and supplements in order to achieve success.
Grass-fed biltong? That’ll cost you around R350 for a few hundred grams. Specialised banting bread or low-carb meal kits? Easily upwards of R1 000 a month. Collagen coffee sachets? Around R500 for a box. Imported greens powders? Over R1 200 for 30 servings.
The cost of these things alone might make you think that they’re special enough to give you a head-start on your health goals, but the truth is that you’re buying into their marketing spin.
Not only do we not need fancy food or supplements to be healthy, the money we spend on them continues to feed the massive revenue share the wellness industry.
Better nutrition does not have to cost you a ton of money. Lower-cost conventional versions of luxury items (think: regular yoghurt versus the R300 “gut health” version), and the unsexy yet scientifically proven diet that’s rich in plants, whole foods, and lean proteins will improve your health in a far more meaningful way than unproven fads and poorly-regulated, ineffective, influencer-endorsed products.
This Stuff Is Passed On
Children learn by watching us. Research shows that kids who grow up in households where parents diet are more likely to struggle with body image, restrictive eating, and dieting themselves as adults. The ripple effect of diet culture doesn’t end with you — it can shape the way your children think about food and their bodies for the rest of their lives.
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Instead of passing down the stress and shame of diet culture, model a balanced approach: flexibility, variety, and enjoyment. Show your kids that all foods can fit, that health isn’t about deprivation, and that their bodies are worthy no matter their size.
The Bottom Line
Just because you can follow a strict diet doesn’t mean you should. Diet culture makes a lot of promises, but more often than not, it ends up stealing your money, time, peace of mind, and joy. Real health is rooted in balance, consistency, and compassion, not rigid rules.
Let’s stop majoring in the minors and get down to the basics.
Daily, many South Africans eat far less fibre than recommended, drink more alcohol than is healthy, and rely heavily on ultra-processed foods. At the same time, only about half of adults meet the minimum physical activity guidelines.
Start by brushing up on the nutrition basics, like eating enough fibre, drinking less alcohol, and adding foods to your diet rather than eliminating them. Our bodies are made to metabolise and get different nutrients from a variety of foods.
Other things that you can do to move the needle on your health? Improve your sleep hygiene, reduce stress, and be as active as you can. Diet isn’t everything.
This article by Abby Langer, RD was originally published on Men’s Health US – additional reporting and products added by the Men’s Health SA team.
