As obesity rises, Big Food and dietitians push ‘anti-diet’ advice
...videos that Rochon encountered are part of the “anti-diet” movement, a social media juggernaut that began as an effort to combat weight stigma and an unhealthy obsession with thinness. But now global food marketers are seeking to cash in on the trend. One company in particular, General Mills, maker of Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms cereals, has launched a multipronged campaign that capitalizes on the teachings of the anti-diet movement, an investigation by The Washington Post and The Examination, a nonprofit newsroom that covers global public health, has found. General Mills has toured the country touting anti-diet research it claims proves the harms of “food shaming.” It has showered giveaways on registered dietitians who promote its cereals online with the hashtag #DerailTheShame, and sponsored influencers who promote its sugary snacks. The company has also enlisted a team of lobbyists and pushed back against federal policies that would add health information to food labels. Online dietitians — many of them backed by food makers — also are building lucrative followings by co-opting anti-diet messages. Anti-diet hashtags, such as #NoBadFoods, #FoodFreedom and #DitchTheDiet, have proliferated on social media. Most of the influencers who used anti-diet language also were paid to promote products from food, beverage and supplement companies, the analysis found. The rapid spread of anti-diet messaging — and the alliance between some of the country’s registered dietitians and the food industry — has alarmed some in the public health community. Since the 1980s, the U.S. obesity rate has more than doubled, according to federal data. Nearly half a million Americans die early each year as a result of excess body weight, according to estimates in a 2022 Lancet study. The anti-diet approach essentially shifts accountability for the health crisis away from the food industry for creating ultra-processed junk foods laden with food additives, sugars and artificial sweeteners. How the anti-diet movement has been distorted Anti-diet proponents have been fighting against weight bias and diet culture for decades. The movement now known as Health at Every Size, or HAES, began in the 1960s as a grass-roots effort in tandem with other civil rights movements to promote equal access to health care, said Ani Janzen, the operations and projects leader for the Association for Size Diversity and Health, which holds the HAES trademark. Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole, both registered dietitians, popularized the term “intuitive eating” with the publication of their 1995 book “Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach.” Intuitive eating urges followers to listen to their internal cues about hunger and is frequently used to help people with eating disorders. In the past few years, academic interest in these anti-diet philosophies has surged. From 2019 to 2023, academic mentions of “anti-diet” tripled, according to a Post-Examination analysis of Google Scholar data. Lifting the burden of diet culture Health experts say the most worrisome trend among anti-diet influencers is the alarming amount of misinformation they spread, including claims that excess weight isn’t a health risk. “Most chronic diseases blamed on weight can most likely be explained by other phenomena, such as weight stigma and weight cycling,” wrote Christy Harrison in her influential 2019 book, “Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating.”
More From The Washington Post (subscription required):