How To Protect Teens From Toxic Diet Culture at Home

It’s impossible to protect yourself and your kids from danger if you don’t know how to identify it. The same goes for diet culture and your family.

Kids and teens aren’t too far removed from diet culture just because they’re young. Research shows that between 2018 and 2022, eating disorder diagnoses rose 107.4% in people younger than 17. They may start showing psychological signs before disordered eating habits begin, such as:

• Anxiety or negative self-talk regarding their body.
• Avoidance of social activities involving food.
• Mood swings triggered by hunger.
• Low self-esteem.
• An increased interest in exercise when they weren’t interested before.

When these red flags go unaddressed, they may snowball into disordered eating, like avoiding food or binging after meals. A child might start to use an app to count every calorie or start intense daily exercise routines.

Diet culture can also sneak into homes in the form of something helpful. Although there’s nothing wrong with clean eating if you prefer organic foods, taking it to extremes can turn into disordered eating.

When individuals become obsessive about clean ingredients and portion sizes, it creates the risk of an orthorexia condition that parallels eating disorders. Orthorexia isn’t a recognized eating disorder, but it shares similar conditions that trap people in self-hatred and an intense focus on losing weight.

Before social media, kids could face toxic diet culture influences in their friend groups and at home. The two worlds were separate. If their parents prevented diet talk from entering their house, children had few other ways of running into it.

Now kids can access diet culture all day, every day. Social media is always one tap away. Influencers from global cultures get paid to sell diets, "detox teas," workout programs, and more. It’s why researchers found social media causes disordered eating globally for people aged 10 to 24.

There’s also the issue of photo-manipulating apps that adjust how people look in pictures posted online. Teenagers could shrink various body parts before posting a photo, reinforcing thought patterns that lead to related issues, like body dysmorphia.

When kids post an edited photo and start getting more likes as feedback from their peers, it reinforces the drive for approval of their bodies. If they get more likes on pictures of their edited, thinner body, the resulting dopamine becomes something children will crave.

Kids don’t even need to see celebrities specifically selling diet culture to experience a decline in their mental health. A study found using social media for more than 60 minutes per day deteriorates your body image just by the instinctive comparisons you make between yourself and the people you see.

Parents should also remember the role of peer pressure in adolescent years. Kids are already dealing with their changing bodies, which might make them feel awkward or different. When they get bulled for reasons unrelated to their body size, they’re more likely to develop disordered eating as a body image response.

Body positivity is the practice of accepting yourself at every stage of life, no matter what you weigh or look like. Someone with a firm conviction in those things is less likely to fall for diet culture suggestions about being better looking or inherently worth more when they weigh less.

Parents can start this work while their kids are still in their preschool and elementary years. Avoid overemphasizing how great your child looks. Instead, compliment emerging skills or abilities.

When body language comes up, talk about how all bodies are beautiful. Everyone is worthy of love regardless of their appearance. You can even weave those sentiments into conversations when your child starts puberty. A growing body will undergo significant changes during that phase, but it will always be perfect.

Modeling positive self-talk is also essential. Try to catch yourself before saying something negative about your body or appearance. If it happens anyway, you can explain why that comment isn’t helpful and demonstrate positive body image language by describing what you appreciate about your body instead.

You can avoid toxic diet culture at home by deconstructing beauty norms with your kids. Ask them why they think they should wear a dress to look pretty or have certain-sized body parts. Pointing out how much your children are loved, appreciated, and valued — no matter how they look — takes the power out of harmful beauty norms that segue into diet culture.

If your kid expresses an interest in exercising, ask why. They may only think of exercising as a means of weight loss. It’s an opportunity to discuss the other benefits of exercise to see if any additional reasons might be more important for them.

You could mention how outdoor workouts give you more sun exposure, which provides vitamin D that strengthens your immune system so you don’t get sick as often. Gentle exercises like yoga reduce your overall stress levels, which might otherwise lead to burnout for teens learning more challenging topics at school.

Exercising could also be a great way to help your child socialize. Joining a workout group that dances, swims, or jogs together encourages new friendships and subconsciously connects exercise with fun instead of weight loss. Kids will also devote more time to caring for their muscles through stretching if they have friends to chat with while they do it.

Someone with a positive body image could still develop an unhealthy relationship with food if they lack guidance. When selecting groceries or making meals, talk with your kids about the nutritional benefit of each food group. They’ll learn everything is beneficial when eaten as part of a balanced diet, instead of thinking of certain foods as bad.

Parents can also turn food into a positive trigger for their children’s happiest memories. Pick fun recipes your kids can help you make. Turn on some music and transform your meal prepping into a dance party. Interacting with food and positively preparing meals establishes healthy eating rituals that are harder for the diet industry to deconstruct.

Introduce the concept of mindful eating to your children while they’re young. Ask them to savor a bite and consider its flavor, texture, and temperature. They could describe why they like each part of the food and why. Paying more attention to each bite turns eating into an engaging experience, preventing it from becoming a singular fuel or chore.

You might remove things from your house like diet-focused cookbooks and products, but your kids will see them eventually. Prepare to discuss why certain foods aren’t bad or necessarily better than others. Your child will know you’re a helpful resource if you can explain how each food group benefits the body and what the wording of a product intends to do, like to make a profit.

Recognizing you can’t protect your children from everything is crucial. Outside influences will reach them whether you have a strict or laid-back parenting style. Talking with your kids about recognizing diet culture in school and on social media gives them the tools they need to thrive when they’re independent.

You might also mention you’re there to support them, no matter how old they get. They can come to you if they feel pressured to lose weight or have negative self-image thoughts that scare them. Let your child know you love them more than the diet industry or friends pressuring them to change.

Combating toxic diet culture and promoting body positivity starts at home. Parents with kids of any age should stay vigilant for signs of negative body image or an unhealthy relationship with food. If you become proactive about your child’s sense of self-worth, avoid judgment, and always remain open to any conversation, toxic diet culture doesn’t stand a chance.