The Shocking History of Diet Culture

Should I Delete That?

Alex Light & Em Clarkson

Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New year, new me? Welcome to our expansive eight-part series deconstructing our relationships with body image.

From the historical origins of diet culture, to the present day where injectable weight loss drugs are available from high street pharmacies, Alex and Em will strip back our assumptions about diet culture and body image, to find out how we got here, and how we can find a healthy way to look forward.

By speaking to a range of experts, from dieticians to fitness influencers - we’ll explore the damaging effects of tabloid media and weight loss TV shows, we will examine the phenomenon of the ‘Almond Mom’ and we will uncover diet culture’s ‘wellness’ rebrand - to equip our listeners with the knowledge and practical steps to navigate a world where diet culture lurks around every corner.

Today - we’re starting off by taking a look at the origins of diet culture, because to really get a sense of the magnitude of diet culture and the effects that it has had on our lives, we need to go back to its roots.

So, in this episode, we’re going back in time to the advent of diet culture, in the hope it helps us figure out how these debilitating body issues that burden so many women have come to be – and why… Is it all innate? Do we have a biological predisposition to desiring to be thin? Let’s dig in.

If you want to dig further into diet culture, self-acceptance and making peace with your body - Alex’s book You Are Not A Before Picture is available now. You can buy your copy here!

If you would like to get in touch - you can email us on [email protected]

@shouldideletethat

@em_clarkson

@alexlight_ldn

Should I Delete That is produced by Faye Lawrence

Music: Dex Roy

Studio Manager: Dex Roy

Trailers: Sophie Richardson

Video Editor: Celia Gomez

Social Media Manager: Emma-Kirsty Fraser

Artwork: Alex Andrew

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you by Simprove, the UK's number one gut health supplement, backed by
0:06.1	science and loved by thousands, including me. Anyone who follows me on Instagram will know I've
0:10.9	been taking Simprove for years and credited with improving so much of my physical health. It's
0:15.8	also been a non-negotiable for me during this pregnancy, but also for the years before it too. It really has.
0:22.7	You've struggled to get and keep much down you, but I know that Sim Proof has been super important.
0:28.1	And for good reason, Sim Prove is science-backed, water-based, and is the UK's number one gut
0:33.6	health supplement. Also, I know you just love the brand and I'll never forget when you
0:38.1	worked with them a few years ago and literally wore a dress solely made of toilet roll
0:42.4	strutting down your street in the middle of the day. Oh, and didn't you do something with a
0:47.6	toilet in the middle of the road? Yes, yes, I did. I actually bought a porcelain toilet and sat
0:52.7	on the loo in the middle of the road to raise awareness of gut health,
0:56.1	literally stopping traffic.
0:58.4	Can I just ask, were your trousers up or down around your ankles?
1:02.1	They were down now, as they have to be.
1:04.1	But it's actually so important.
1:06.1	It contains live and active bacteria, and it's science-backed by over 15 years of independent scientific research
1:13.4	at leading UK universities. And it's so easy to take. You just take the shot in the morning
1:18.2	and wait 10 minutes before drinking a cup of tea or before you have breakfast to allow the bacteria
1:23.1	to get to work. If you want to try to improve for yourself, you can and you don't even need to take
1:27.9	your trousers down. We have a discount code for you to use. It's Delete 50 to get 50% of your
1:34.9	first 12-week rolling subscription. Link in the episode description. That's Delete 50. Enjoy.
1:41.3	This is an advertisement from Better Help. As you probably know, we're not big fans of the
	...

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