Diet culture and its cousins consumerism and capitalism
Remember when Kellogg's came up with the idea of a weight loss challenge that was buying and eating their Special K cereal? Then years later the CEO suggested buying and eating their cereal as dinner?
The early 2000s (and no, I cannot bring myself to say the early aughts) were a wild ride. I remember the Juicy Couture tracksuits, low-rise jeans, and arguing over who was the cuter boyband, NSYNC or The Backstreet Boys (it’s team BSB forever over here, by the way.) I was a teenager who was thinking about prom, college applications, and if my body resembled the character Bridget Jones or Jessica Simpson. Rember them? The two women (and yes I know one is fictional, but still) who were fat-shamed during this time. Of course, these were not the only examples of the toxicity that spread during the 2000s, but these are examples that so many women can relate to when it comes to the discussion of diet culture. America’s Next Top Model antics, Victoria's Secret fashion shows, the term “heroin chic,” and, of course, the Special K Challenge. Fun times.
Diet culture [noun]: a system that profits off of unrealistic Eurocentric, thin, and unhealthy ideals, and expectations; an industry worth over $70 billion; an ideology that calls itself a lifestyle, a change, a cleanse, a detox in order to disguise that it is really a scam; a philosophy that takes a negative mental toll on its users and leaves chaos in its wake.
The above is my own definition, and I wrote more on this topic in my book Live Nourished (shameless plug.) I started talking about the early 2000s in the above, but of course, diet culture has made its way throughout history, constantly showing itself with new tricks up its sleeves and gaining new victims along the way. I am a weight-inclusive and anti-diet dietitian, so I will always advocate for health to be looked at in a way that is not restrictive or numbers driven. On top of this, I think it's also important to realize that diet culture/weight loss industry is, in fact, an industry. An industry that continues to thrive by churning out high profits and is worth billions and billions of money. So, in other words, there is and will always be a capitalist stake at play here.
Let’s start by following the money and the cookie crumb trail it leaves. The total U.S. weight loss market is estimated to have grown to a worth of $90 billion in 2023, and the market is only expected to grow to another 4.3% to $93.8 billion in 2024. We can even look at the company Weight Watchers, which has rebranded to WW and reported $1.04 billion in revenue in 2022. Yes, $1.04 BILLION. So when I say there is a severe capitalist gain for the weight loss industry, look no further. And I know this feels like a very “duh” moment; however, we really need to remember these huge gains because where does the desire for weight loss come from? I want to make it clear that I am not anti-weight loss or anti-dieter and can understand the desire. However, we need to remember that we live in a society that feeds us insecurities and self-doubts, and there is money to be made from those insecurities and self-doubts.
Again, there is a ton of money to be made here. And its unsustainability is the key to a profit because there is more money to be made with a repeat customer who will keep coming back and spend money in order to alleviate a “problem.”
We know how diet culture works:
1. Society creates a problem to fix, a problem that is rooted in fatphobia and really has nothing to do with health.
2. The diet industry decides to solve the problem with costly weight-loss memberships, apps, pills, and books on how to restrict and overexercise.
3. The options presented to solve this problem are not sustainable for individuals. (This is intentional, because if they were, then the industry would burn itself out and there would be no more money to be made.)
4. Individual goes off diet due to unrealistic expectations.
5. Individual feels guilt and shame, as if they did something wrong.
6. Individual decides to restart (or try a new) diet.
7. Repeat forever.
It’s a hamster wheel that’s hard to get off.
So why the talk of low-rise jeans?
There is indeed an inspiration for this newsletter, and why I started talking about the early 2000s and the diet culture hell that was included in that era. I came across this post on Threads, which was funny but also had such a flashback moment.
And, of course, me being me, I couldn’t help but respond with this:
The Special K Challenge was part of the early 2000s diet culture starter kit. The name alone sounds like something that is completely made up and an inside joke between friends, but oh no, this was actually clever marketing from a large company. I remember it well because I had a couple of friends participating in the “challenge” and had boxes and boxes of the cereal that they ate as their meals. And that’s what this marketing scheme was. For those who need a refresher, for the “challenge,” you were to replace two meals per day with Special K cereal, and then the last meal of the day would be a “normal” and balanced meal.
I mean, what could go wrong, right? This is so simple and so sustainable, a complete no-brainer. (Sarcasm, obviously) The Special K Challenge ad campaign first aired in 2003 and promised that women (target audience) would be able to lose 6 pounds in two weeks by replacing breakfast and lunch with Special K and having a sensible dinner at night. Looking at the picture above, Meal no.3 is labeled “Eat your third meal as you normally do.” How many health professionals do we think were a part of this campaign? How many dietitians? My guess is zero.
Looking at the nutrition label for Special K, there are 150 calories per serving or 1 and 1/4 cups. There is less than 1 gram of fiber and 7 grams of protein. For the “challenge,” it was encouraged to eat the cereal with skim milk, which would bring the total calories to 210 and the protein to about 13 grams. This is an extremely low-calorie meal, and it was encouraged twice a day. So yes, I can understand why some people lost weight, but was this sustainable and the best in terms of health? Not really.
The whole premise is clever marketing and a way for Kellogg’s (the parent company of Special K cereal) to continue to gain revenue and profits. The Special K Challenge required Special K cereal, not just a cereal of your choice, but specifically this brand. Not to mention, the snacks listed for this weight loss challenge are all Special K brand meal replacement bars and chips. And there is much to gain here. According to Kellogg's's latest financial reports, the company's current revenue is $11.42 billion, which is a bit of a decrease from 2023, when the company revenue was $12.41 billion. So yes, there is money to be made and new interesting ways to make it.
What’s interesting is that eating cereal multiple times a day for meals seems to be a theme with Kellogg’s. First, we had The Special K Challenge, and more recently, earlier this year, the company put out ads encouraging consumers to have cereal for dinner. Yes, that is correct. Multimillionaire CEO Gary Pilnick went on air, suggesting that families with strained finances could cope by eating “cereal for dinner.” I wrote a newsletter about this back in February:
In my opinion, this campaign was incredibly out of touch considering that having limited food choices due to poverty and food insecurity is the reality of many Americans. In New York City, nearly 2M residents live in poverty, including 1 in 4 children. That is nothing to laugh at or make an out of touch marketing campaign about. Unfortunately, this is not surprising considering that we live in a capitalist society, which, in my humble opinion, is also fueled and goes hand in hand with consumerism.
Capitalism is defined as an economic system in which a country’s trade, industry, and profits are controlled by private companies instead of by the people whose time and labor power those companies.
Consumerism is the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable.
Encouraging consumers to purchase and, therefore, eat multiple bowls of a certain brand of cereal had nothing to do with health or even weight loss. Eating in a calorie deficit will most likely result in weight loss. Most likely short-lived and temporary but not a novel concept. And while the Special K Challenge isn’t really advertised as it once was in the early 2000s, there will always be a new idea or concept on how to get people to buy, purchase, and spend their money. Whether it’s Special K cereal or another way, diet culture is constantly evolving.
We live in a society that uplifts thinness so much that it isn’t a surprise many people go through great lengths to contort themselves, and most of the time, it’s to unrealistic standards. And I will again give my disclaimer that weight loss isn’t inherently bad and there are some people who do lose weight permanently with a diet. This discussion isn’t about those persons; it is about using dangerous and ultimately ineffective methods. Eating a meal that is about 210 calories isn’t going to help many people with anything, not to mention leave people tired and with possible nutritional deficiencies. The fact is, these tactics are not often seen as unnecessary or dangerous, they are seen as being disciplined and having willpower. Diet culture subtly affirms that our physical and mental health are just unfortunate casualties in our quest for our desired body.
All this to say that going on diets or doing weight loss challenges is like going through a hamster wheel. It’s endless, and it leaves you going through a cycle where you end up back in the beginning. It lures you in with not only false promises but also the idea that you somehow lack willpower and control when the diet or challenge fails. You are still hungry after only eating 210 calories and no fiber? Something is definitely wrong with you! (Sarcasm) Diet culture is a multibillion-dollar industry, so it depends on you failing and it will always look for new fun ways to fail you and also blame you.
If you like what you just read, this is a reminder that I wrote a whole book on this topic and more. Live Nourished is out today and available wherever books are sold. Get yours today!
There are a few things I remember about the Special K challenge.
I was still about a decade away from finally breaking free of diet culture, so I participated in this bullshit. I was also using Slim Fast at the same time. I was so hungry I could have eaten the box and the can too. No, it didn't make me thin.
Kellogg's stole concepts like "Size Sassy" from Marilyn Wann, a fat liberation activist, co-opting her anti-diet stance into diet culture rhetoric.
I have no doubt that my constant diet cycling, especially combined with the food insecurity I tended to experience anyway contributed to my developing diabetes. I'd like to see this condition renamed hypopancreatism, which would be more direct and to the point than a Greek word meaning "to pass through."
Dieting certainly contributed to my self-loathing. I was 46 years old when I discovered Health at Every Size and Size Acceptance. I'm now 59. I started dieting and became bulimic at 12 years old. I wasted 33 years of my life trying to hate myself thin. Since my thyroid killed itself off when I hit puberty and I also had PCOS, it was inevitable that dieting would eventually stop working (in the short term) for me. I lost a lot of weight during the years when dieting worked (temporarily.) The weight always came back with friends.
I still struggle with my self-image. I will never see myself as even moderately attractive, let alone beautiful. I fight to see myself as worthy of common decency.
I know this is wrong, and it's such bullshit. Diets don't work and fat people aren't lazy or undisciplined. Most of us have varying levels of endocrine disruption. However, there are some fat people who are metabolically normal.
Medical professionals need to treat the patient, not the chart. The entire world needs to stop believing the hype force-fed to them by the multi-billion dollar diet industry.
I have a vague feeling that I did that challenge, but it would have been short lived as I never did well for long with hunger.
However Special K has always been a diet food for that reason and I don’t think I’ve eaten it in 20 years.