Are diets the modern day religion?
There is an astonishingly strong link between religious culture and diet culture. May seem rogue, but both cultures laud control, clarity, moral superiority and purity. (They both also make a fuck ton of money by manipulating the vulnerable, but that’s a conversation for another day).
Baptism in Christianity (where someone is submerged in a body of water) and the washing of the hands and feet before prayer in Islam, symbolise the washing away of past mistakes, and ridding oneself of sin. A cleanse, if you will. Diet culture also loves itself a cleanse to compensate for slip ups, and whilst it favours a juice cleanse, or detox, as opposed to a bath, the sentiment is pretty similar: remove the effects of your bad actions, ie for eating a ‘naughty’ food, or for eating ‘too much’. Religious cleansing is an effort to avoid an unfavourable judgment on judgment day, and a juice cleanse is an attempt to avoid an unfavourable body.
The Orthorexic obsession with “clean eating” is another example of how diet culture makes us feel the need to maintain physical spotlessness in order to be healthy. Those who religiously (pun not intended) stick to a ‘clean’ diet (which doesn’t exist) find themselves terrified of eating any food that doesn’t fit the narrow criteria of lettuce and chicken breast, thanks to their internalised diet culture-voice that punishes them with unbearable guilt and shame. We see a parallel in conservative religious culture, where sex before marriage is prohibited, because the only pure union (in God’s humble op) is the one between a married couple. Whilst a clean sex life is very different to a clean diet, again, the sentiment remains the same; the belief that maintaining internal purity will somehow make you a better person, and that impure actions (whether that be having casual sex, or eating a piece of cake) are shameful.
Fasting is another screamingly obvious common thread between diets and religion, and whilst it might seem like a superficial comparison, the motivations behind fasting in both cultures are again, oddly similar. Whilst duration, practice and the specific reasons for fasting differs from faith to faith, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism all practice fasting traditions that (according to Cultural Awareness International), “have the similar goal of showing sacrifice and cleansing oneself”. (Back at it again with the purity shmurity). Within religion, fasting is respected as an act of strength and dedication, just as diet culture likes to encourage restriction as a display of willpower and determination. It’s interesting to think about where the obsession with denying ourselves of food came from. Whilst I cannot prove that religious fasting is the origin of the ridiculous fasting fads we see all the time now, *cough cough* Gweneth Paltrow’s promotion of ‘intuitive fasting’ (as if starving yourself could ever be intuitive), it is clear that religious culture laid some sort of foundation for the fucked up association between restriction and a sense of pride.
There’s a sinister, cult-like feature of the diet and religious worlds that breeds a superiority complex. Our way is the one, true, CORRECT way!!! Because both cultures are built upon strong societal precedents, (eg it is widely believed that striving for thinness and ‘health’ is makes you a ‘better’ person), those who fully invest in them tend to subconsciously feel like they are above people who don’t. Like they’ve cracked some sort of secret life-code. It’s understandable, if you’ve been taught to believe that disobeying the word of God will lead to eternal damnation, you would most likely perceive atheists as irresponsible and dangerous. Similarly, if you’ve been taught that crisps are ‘bad’ and to be avoided, someone who regularly eats crisps will seem like an ignorant fool to you. I know it sounds very all-or-nothing, and that’s because it is. The simplistic, black and white mindset is the perfect antidote to a world of grey areas and chaos, which, to many, is extremely appealing.
Essentially, the over-arching umbilical chord that connects diets and religion, is self-control. Both cultures hold the core belief that we cannot trust ourselves and are inherently incapable of making wise decisions on our own, and therefore need a set of guidelines to keep us on the straight and narrow. In religious culture, we have a higher power, or a God/s who is leading us not into temptation (cheeky Lord’s prayer reference for the fans), and in diet culture, we have meal plans, workout programmes and food rules to tell us when, what, why and how we should or shouldn’t eat and rest.
In reality, both diet and religious cultures are just societal constructs that happened to be popular, which enabled their belief systems to catch on. You don’t have to buy into these belief systems if they don’t serve you. You’re allowed to trust and follow your own instincts, and lead your life by your values, as opposed to an external, predetermined list.
