Diet Culture: The Real Virus on Campus

Graphic by Agnes Lee

I remember the first time I heard the word “diet.” I was seven years old, and my mom was counting the calories in her breakfast while ordering shipments of food from Nutrisystem, a program targeted at those looking to lose weight by restricting food intake.

On Mother’s Day, I bought her chocolate from See’s Candies, and she said, “I can’t. I am on a diet.” I felt the balloon of excitement in my chest slowly deflate. 

The diet industry is worth over $70 billion and has become the way of life for all too many people. Ironically, according to a recent study, 95% of diets fail, meaning that 95% of people who diet gain all the weight back eventually or end up gaining additional weight. 

Diet culture is not just about promoting weight loss, but also the message that thinness, body shape and appearance are more important than happiness. 

People often hold the misconception that diet culture is restricted to being on a diet. However, diet culture also manifests by assigning morality to foods; for instance, eating a cupcake makes you bad or naughty while eating a carrot makes you good. 

The diet culture monster is everywhere. Magazine covers push new fad diets that promise ten pounds off your waist. Gossip columns publish thousands of articles about celebrities either gaining or losing weight. Friends convene for wine nights, only to spend the time counting the calories of the alcohol they consume. Food marketing pushes lower-calorie options as guilt-free. College students go to extreme measures to avoid the so-called freshman 15. We’re automatically congratulated for weight loss and shamed for weight gain. 

When diet culture is so pervasive, how can we escape from it?

This powerful and manipulative marketing causes people of all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds to fall victim to the narrative that the dieting industry creates. The allure of diet culture can have rippling consequences for young people in particular. 

According to Dr. Neumark-Sztainer, over half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting and taking laxatives. 91% of women recently surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting, 22% of whom dieted “often” or “always” (National Eating Disorders Association). 

Northwestern University is no exception. In a high-achieving and stress-inducing environment, the desire to lose weight can be overwhelming. Natalie Norquist, a freshman in McCormick, has noticed this mentality on campus. 

“I know people who count calories while drinking, and I can’t even begin to describe how toxic that is,” Norquist says. “I feel like when you’re going out to eat with friends, there shouldn’t be this undercurrent of diet culture and calories.”

Joanne Haner, another freshman at Northwestern, says that diet culture affects both her academic and social experience at college. She explains the fear of the “freshman 15,”  where one gains 15 pounds during their first year of college. 

“The ‘freshman 15’ is always seen as such a bad thing, but it’s really quite normal,” Haner says. “I hate that weight gain is perceived as a negative when that isn’t always the case.”

A study examining students’ relationships with food during freshman year of college found that disordered eating increases during this time and is predicted by forms of dietary restraint and concerns about weight gain.

I conducted an anonymous poll on social media in which I asked my followers how they observe diet culture in college, and the responses astounded me. Here are a few highlights:

Results from a poll I conducted on my Instagram account that asked, “What are your thoughts on diet culture, specifically on college campuses?”

If someone who has previously struggled with disordered eating or body dysmorphia enters this environment, the effects could be detrimental. Though Norquist has never struggled with these issues herself, she understands that someone who has would have a difficult time transitioning to a college environment where there are challenges like planning your own meals and navigating the dining halls.

“I would be so intensely uncomfortable [at Northwestern]— I cannot imagine how hard that would be,” Norquist says. “So much revolves around food, and here, there is a breeding ground for unhealthy diet culture behavior.”

STITCH reached out to the dietary team at Northwestern for their input on diet culture and disordered eating on campus, but received no response.