At least one online influencer down under has come out in opposition to a new dieting ‘trend’. She says it’s ill advised at the very least, and maybe downright harmful. It involves followers imitating influencers’ far-out eating habits…
Laura Henshaw (right) and her business partner, Steph Claire Smith,
have built a reputation calling out diet culture. They’ve appeared
in a host of major publications including Vogue Australia…
Aussie influencer Laura Henshaw, 31, wanted to go on record saying, “I am not going to tell you what I eat in a day. It is harmful. I struggled with disordered eating for two years, and I fell into the trap of consuming this type of content.”
Henshaw says the trend – more like a radical fad, in my book – has gone viral in Australia and is infecting celebrity circles around the world, as well. And that’s just feeding back into the upward spiral of attention the phenomenon is getting.
Misguided motivation
Henshaw ways she tried many celebrity diets over a period of a couple of years, but never got the results their promoters advertised.
The truth, she realized, was that no two people following a fad diet (or any diet, for that matter) will experience the same results. In other words, if you see a glamorous celebrity on your screen telling you she got that way by eating nothing but broccoli for supper for 3 months… Just don’t go there!
That sounds like a reasonable, mature and intelligent stance to me. But, apparently, there are folks out there who’ll do it. Many of them, impressionable young people.
It’s more about ‘body aspiration’, Henshaw observes, than ‘food inspiration’.
How pervasive is it?
It’s hard to surf certain online communities (based anywhere in the world) without encountering at least some of the thousands of videos showing before and after pictures of their creators to illustrate the effectiveness of their pet weight loss diets. And critics add, the ‘after’ photos usually show the person in tight-fitting active wear or swimwear, maximizing the appearance of their slimming success.
“On the surface, it can seem just like another daily trend featuring young women documenting their lives,” A News.com.au feature states. “But really it is a new and trendier version of watching a weight loss commercial. ”
Experts concerned
The Communications Director of the Butterfly Foundation, Australia’s national support organization for people with eating disorders is Melissa Wilton. She’s very concerned about the influencer fad diet trend.
“These posts invite comparison, and can cause you to feel guilt or shame if your intake doesn’t match up,” she warns. “This is a sneaky way that diet culture is telling you to do ‘better’ to reach an unattainable beauty or appearance standard.”
Psychologist Carly Dober agrees: “This content can bring about an increase in urges to diet, To cut out foods or food groups, two over exercise, to binge and/or purge, or to engage in many forms of unhealthy eating behaviours.”
My take
I’m glad Henshaw has chosen to call out diet culture – especially this new celebrity-driven version. And I’m glad her message is getting out, far and wide.
The fad is a double whammy for teens and young 20-somethings. They’re in a critical stage of physical and emotional maturation. And they need to follow healthy eating habits. How they eat now will influence their well being for the rest of their lives.
~ Maggie J.