2023-04-20 17:21:01
“There is still a prevailing ideal of beauty: that we should all fit into the same picture,” says food psychologist Diana van Dijken to RTL Nieuws. According to her, being fat is automatically associated with being unhealthy, which is why people quickly turn to a diet to lose the kilos.
This is also evident from figures from Statistics Netherlands. 56 percent of adults in the Netherlands have done something to lose weight. Following a diet is the most popular option.
Trends through the years
Meanwhile, diets come and go. Over the years we went from the bread diet and Sonja Bakker to juice cleanses and intermittent fasting. “Apparently it’s not hot and fancy to just eat healthy,” says dietitian Jolande van Teeffelen. “People want a quick fix, a quick solution.”
And that urge to lose a lot of weight as quickly as possible can, according to her, take on bizarre forms. “There are people who only eat baby food,” says Van Teeffelen. Crazy diets have also passed in the past. Take, for example, the Sherry diet, in which one eats half the normal diet and consumes one or two glasses of sherry with each meal.
According to Van Teeffelen, the problem with diets is mainly one-sidedness. For example, the “hospital diet” is currently popular. People following that diet pretty much only eat broccoli, rice and chicken. And while those are all healthy things, the diet isn’t good for you. “If you only eat apples, it is not healthy either.”
Negative charge
In the end, people on a diet almost always end up in a vicious circle, says nutritional psychologist Van Dijken. “At first it works like a train,” she explains. However, according to her, the reality is that a large proportion of people who lose weight also gain weight again.
And that is not conducive to your self-image, she knows. “We start from the principle that it is up to us. We have not lasted again.” And since the diet works according to others, people quickly doubt themselves.
Diet culture
“As long as health is linked to weight and the beauty ideal, you maintain the diet culture,” says Van Dijken. And that, she says, starts at a young age. For example, girls aged 8 to 9 sometimes worry whether they are too fat, ‘because the school doctor said so’.
“From childhood you hear that being fat is not okay,” she explains. And if society constantly tells you that you are unhealthy, according to Van Dijken it is difficult to accept your own body as it is. For example, she has clients who are not fat at all, but are so afraid of becoming so that they try all kinds of diets.
As a result, she says, many people also develop a disturbed relationship with food and, in extreme cases, even an eating disorder. “They are happy with that for years and sometimes for the rest of their lives. And it could have been prevented if they had just heard: you are good as you are.”
Social media
Social media also plays a role in this. Where in the past the magazines were mainly full of ‘perfect’ bodies, nowadays you are confronted with it at the click of a button. “It’s full of perfect pictures. Often photoshopped,” says Van Dijken. “If you’re fatter or otherwise deviating from the norm, it’s really hard to assume you’re okay.”
However, according to the nutrition psychologist, social media can also be used for the good. This way you can follow hashtags like #bodypositivity and a diversity of people. “Then you get a completely different picture of what society looks like.” Van Dijken emphasizes that if everyone ate the same and exercised the same amount, everyone would still look completely different.
According to her, losing weight for health is too short-sighted. “People don’t just get healthier because they lose weight, but because of the whole health behavior.” In the end, it is just important to exercise enough and eat a varied diet. “We just don’t all look the same. Period.”
Not always safe
There are many different diets, from keto to shakes. And in addition to the fact that every diet works differently per person, there are also diets that are even warned about.
- In 2016, the nutrition center warned against the Green Happiness Diet, because it could cause dangerous nutrient deficiencies and irreversible damage.
- Doctors warned in 2019 about the Gerson diet. The method would cure cancer, but it entailed many risks.
- In 2021, there was a warning about life-threatening slimming pills. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority was then concerned about pills containing the dangerous substance DNP, because there was a risk of skin rashes, cataracts and consequences for the heart and blood vessels.
The fact is that many diets are not scientifically based. Even collective website Select your diet emphasizes this.
#keto #fasting #alltime #diet #trends #dont #work