Debunking Wellness Culture | Psychology Today

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We’re inundated with messages around “wellness” and “well-being,” as if each product, service, or influencer promises a healthier, happier life. Yet, when you peel back the layers, much of what is sold as wellness is actually a thinly veiled version of diet culture. With subtle but powerful messages, wellness has become a new frontier for diet culture to exert influence, often prioritizing appearance and control over true health. This crossover is more than misleading; it can be deeply damaging to both mental and physical health.

Wellness vs. Diet Culture: Why Knowing the Difference Matters

True wellness encompasses physical, mental, and emotional health, without an emphasis on appearance or restriction. It’s about supporting the body and mind as they are, not altering them to fit a societal ideal. Diet culture, however, emphasizes controlling the body’s weight and shape and the pursuit of thinness as synonymous with health—even though it is not.¹

Recognizing the difference matters because research consistently shows that diet culture harms mental health, leading to stress, anxiety, and poor self-esteem. It can also have severe physical consequences. Restrictive eating, over-exercising, and viewing health through the lens of weight loss contribute to burnout, chronic stress, and even disordered eating patterns, all of which can harm long-term well-being.

How to Discern True Wellness from Diet Culture in Disguise

1. Check the Focus: Weight or Health? True wellness emphasizes how you feel and function. If a program or product centers on weight, shape, or size, it’s likely diet culture at play. Genuine wellness messages are about nourishing and respecting your body rather than aiming for a particular appearance.
2. Notice the Language: Inclusive or Exclusive? Wellness messages are inclusive and embrace diverse bodies, capabilities, and health goals. Diet culture often uses language that promotes guilt and shame (think “cheat day” or “earn your meal”), creating a moral hierarchy around food and bodies.
3. Assess the End Goal: Thriving or Striving? True wellness is about adding positive experiences and nurturing habits to help you thrive mentally, physically, and emotionally. Diet culture, on the other hand, creates pressure to “strive” for an ideal body or the “perfect” diet. Wellness should empower you to live fully, not keep you striving for an unattainable ideal.
4. Look at the Science: Evidence-Based or Trend-Driven? Authentic wellness practices are backed by evidence-based science and support holistic health without extreme measures. In contrast, diet culture frequently promotes unscientific trends, extreme diets, and products like detox teas and restrictive meal plans that promise rapid changes.
5. Ask: Does It Bring Joy or Anxiety? Wellness is empowering and energizing. If an activity or habit brings feelings of anxiety, guilt, or fear around food or your body, it’s more likely a product of diet culture than genuine self-care.

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The Psychological Pull of Diet Culture Disguised as Wellness

Despite the harm, diet culture has a powerful hold on many people. Social psychology explains this pull through several lenses:

1. Social Norms and Comparison. Humans naturally compare themselves to others, and societal norms influence what we view as desirable. When we see peers or influencers engaging in diet-culture wellness, it can feel like the “right” thing to do. This comparison bias keeps us fixated on a narrow vision of health, which often promotes self-criticism rather than making us feel better.
2. Cognitive Dissonance. People may hold conflicting beliefs, such as knowing that restrictive diets aren’t good long-term, but they may still pursue them because of the perceived rewards of thinness or social approval. This conflict creates cognitive dissonance, where people justify unhealthy behaviors because they feel they align with the values imposed by diet culture.
3. Fear of Weight Stigma. The pervasive stigma against larger bodies fuels diet culture’s influence. The pressure to avoid discrimination or judgment can drive individuals toward restrictive eating patterns and the pursuit of wellness trends that promise thinness, even at the expense of mental and physical health.
4. The Appeal of Control in an Uncertain World. Pursuing wellness or weight control can provide a sense of agency in a world that often feels chaotic. However, when control over wellness and diet becomes obsessive, it can lead to disordered patterns and a narrow focus that excludes genuine self-care.

Why This Matters

The consequences of diet culture disguised as wellness are profound. Psychologically, the pressure to conform to a thin-ideal image can result in chronic stress, low self-worth, and an increased risk of developing eating disorders. Physically, the stress caused by restrictive eating and over-exercise can harm the body, affecting digestion, immune function, and overall vitality. Research highlights that yo-yo dieting and weight cycling – common byproducts of diet culture – are linked with adverse health effects, including increased cardiovascular risk and metabolic issues.

Moreover, diet culture’s influence often fosters disconnection from our bodies, encouraging us to override natural hunger cues, ignore fatigue, and view wellness as something that must be earned rather than experienced.

Moving Toward True Wellness

A genuine approach to wellness is self-compassionate, sustainable, and evidence-based. It involves practices like mindful eating, intuitive movement, and self-compassion, which promote a strong, supportive connection to oneself. By focusing on practices that enhance physical and mental health for their own sake, we can embrace wellness without falling into the traps of diet culture.