September 7-13 2026 is Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and this year’s theme is ‘Redefining ‘Wellness’ – Stories We’re Sold About Health and Our Bodies’.
Once upon a time it was easy to differentiate weight loss dieting from programs which were truly focused on health and wellbeing on an individualised, wholistic level. This has however become more difficult as the weight loss industry figures out how to co-opt wellness language to create new diets in disguise.
New weight loss dieting programs have emerged which use the language of food freedom and lifestyle change, while still being focused on restrictive eating and dietary restraint. These programs continue to encourage weight monitoring, and promote the idea that weight loss equals health.
And they’ve added in the buzz words… gut health, inflammation, detoxification, and they’re using the terminology of ‘health’ in a way which very clearly assumes that thinner is better, smaller is healthier, and weight loss is the answer to all that ails us.
When you look closely at many of these programs it’s clear that they’ve not changed their focus, just their branding. The new breed of diet industry companies are smart, and they’re manipulative. They’re recognising the personal pain of weight stigma, and they’re trying to sell us weight loss programs as a response.
Why this Matters?
We know clinically that weight loss dietiting is one of the most significant risk factors for the development of an eating disorder. Yo-yo dieting (cycles of weight loss and regain) damages physical health and compromises how we feel about our bodies. When we restrict food intake, eating becomes an obsession. It dominates our thoughts, as the body continues to send messages to the brain letting us know we need to eat.
The re-branding of weight loss dieting to ‘wellness’ is dangerous and confusing. These programs offer an overly simplified view of health and wellness, which often leads people in the direction of ill-health, psychological distress, and chronic under-fuelling or poor nutritional adequacy.
How to Spot the Difference?
An approach may be a ‘diet in disguise’ if it:
- Encourages you to disconnect from your body by ignoring body signals (including hunger and fullness) or ‘turning off food noise’
- Promises changes to your appearance – weight loss or body shape/size
- Uses moralising language to differentiate ‘good’ v’s ‘bad’ foods, and suggests there’s a ‘right’ way to eat
- Recommends you restrict or eliminate certain foods or food groups
- Acknowledges that diets don’t work, then provides a dieting solution
- Causes you to feel preoccupied with food and weight loss
- Promises more happiness, success, and life satisfaction as a result of buying their (expensive) program / product
Learning to Listen to Yourself
Breaking free from diet culture isn’t about trading one program for another. It’s actually about learning to listen to and take care of yourself, truly focusing on your own health and wellbeing on a wholistic and realistic level. Depending on your needs, this may be about food freedom and flexibility, or it could also be about planning and systems that work for you.
This is where non-diet Dietitians and Psychologists can help. Rather than prescribing one-size-fits-all programs, appropriately trained health professionals can help you explore your relationship with food, your body and yourself. Our health professional team at Mind Body Well are all ANZAED Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinicians, practicing from a truly non-diet perspective. Reach out if we can help.