My relationship with food has been a mostly happy one.
But when I scroll through Instagram and see hordes of lifestyle bloggers frothing over the latest fad diet, with their stick-thin arms and flat stomach I can’t help feel a twinge of regret about the KFC snack box I just ate.
Objectively, I know these fad diets are, to quote Anthony Warner, “food pseudo-science”. Whatever benefits they claim to have function on the basis of short-term weight-loss. Like I said earlier, my relationship with food has been mostly healthy with the occasional wince when I realise how much junk food I’ve ingested in the past 24 hours.
However, this isn’t the case for a few of my friends who struggle to maintain a healthy relationship with food when faced with the onslaught from social media featuring the same lifestyle bloggers, skinny and privileged with their cup of green plant juice.
I can’t help but feel sympathetic to my friends, but also angry that the society we live in allows these kinds of messages of ‘health’ and privilege to be propagated, either intentionally or unintentionally.
The symbolism of food and our relationship with it is like many other things, now influenced by social media and its proponents; now more than ever before.
References:
Warner, Anthony. “About.” The Angry Chef. Updated 2014. https://angry-chef.com/about.
I completely agree! I feel as though there is a culture in society created through social media that enforces certain ‘rules’ in which we all have to follow in order to live our ideal lives. To some extent, these can be fun and exciting as one may feel as though they are fitting in and following this cool new trend. But to another extent, it can be very toxic and harmful to consumers of it. It can create false expectations and hopes that can lead us into a pit of destruction, screaming and cursing as to why they do not look like what society claims to be the only desirable body type. What we are not being shown through social media is that it is beautiful to be any shape you want to be. To actually have this ‘ideal life’, social media needs and should teach us to have a healthy relationship with food and not to feel bad for what we look like due to this relationship.
I really enjoyed reading your blog!
The twinge of regret is completely relatable when we compare ourselves to what is displayed on social media. The fact is only the meals which these influencers eat which are healthy are posted for the world to see. We are never shown their cheat day/meal. This can be very harmful to younger followers who are not aware that these lifestyles can be unrealistic with unreliable and sometimes fake diets.
I agree that it is frustrating that society allows these trends to continue influencing person after person and that social media has found a way to influence even what we eat.
I really enjoyed reading your blog, and as a “millennial” I think the line between health and appearance and dieting is becoming increasingly blurred. Take for example work-out programmes by Instagram influencer Kayla Itsines- the “Bikini Body Guide”- which correlates health (in terms of exercising) with your body shape. While muscular women are often actually shunned for the way they look (i.e. Serena Williams, Simone Biles) the trend of thigh gaps and bikini bridges are influxed in the world of exercise, as if this is the only acceptable form of physique to reflect a healthy lifestyle of buddha bowls and broccoli.
I feel as though living in a digital world like society today shows how relevant your ideas are. Although some may consider our relationships with food healthy it’s hard to run away from the constant advertising of the perfect body. I can relate to the ‘regret about the KFC snack box I just ate’ because that is something I do a lot. I tend to look on social media, see all these beautiful girls and wish that I tried to take care of myself better. I wouldn’t say it has made a huge impact on my life but the fact that I am able to notice things shows that it still influence me in some way. By identifying the problem with social media and it’s relationship with food, like you have done in this post, shows us how much of an influence social media has over us and how we are able to use it as a powerful tool to instead promote a healthy relationship with food.