Dieting V. Healthy Living: What's the Difference?

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College students today are constantly bombarded with ads on social media for products like diet pills, teas and meal plans, many of which promise weight loss. Many of these products and programs are promoted by celebrities on their accounts. These ads seem harmless, but they can promote insecurity and perpetuate diet culture.

One of the differences between dieting and healthy living is how long habits can be sustained. Mira Mehta, who holds a doctorate in International Nutrition and is a nutrition professor at the University of Maryland, College Park said that living healthily is not complicated in principle, but it’s difficult to implement.

“The emphasis is on health rather than this narrow emphasis on weight… the health emphasis generally means a commitment to long-term goals… I don’t actually see diet as being sustainable over time,” said Mehta.

During a diet, a person tends to eat foods that are drastically different from what they’re used to. This drastic difference is not compatible with long-term sustenance and eventually leads to unhealthy results.

Diet culture is dangerous because it tends to only fixate on weight. In reality, there is so much more to health than weight alone. Because the results of diets are usually not sustainable, people tend to regain the weight they lost. Weight regain can lead to issues such as chronic disease, obesity and have a negative impact on mental and emotional health.

Traci Mann, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, was the lead author of a study that examined the efficacy of dieting. Mann told the UCLA newsroom that “people on diets typically lose 5 to 10 percent of their starting weight in the first six months… at least one-third or two-thirds of people on diets regain more weight than they lost within four or five years.”

According to The College Tribune, the average college student gains 10 pounds over the 4 years they spend in college. These statistics might explain what makes university students more susceptible to diet culture. The U.S. National Library of Medicine, which is a part of the National Institutes of Health reports in, College Students and Eating Habits: A Study Using an Ecological Model for Healthy Behavior, that students tend to gain weight because of stress, time constraints and insufficient dining hall food.

Oluwalayomi Omolola, a third-year Public Health major said, “I live on a college campus, the access to good and fresh fruits and veggies is poor. Sure, my campus has a farm and prides itself on fresh produce, but what I see in the diners is a mess so I don’t eat them.”

According to Youth Health Education, health has six essential components that contribute to one’s overall well-being: mental, emotional, social, physical, spiritual and environmental stability.

These categories are typically not addressed in diets. The strict emphasis on food can cause the other categories to suffer and lead a person to an unhealthy state.

Robert L. Buchanan, who holds a doctorate in Food Science and is a food science professor at UMD said, “Healthy living is a combination of what you eat, what you do, who you interact with and how, where you spend enough time outside yourself.”

Living healthily in college is hard, but not impossible. According to Mira Mehta, a good way to start living healthier is by creating a dietary pattern that is rich in vegetables and fruits. It is important for your meals to contain some quantity of whole grains, protein and nutrients needed for bone health. Also, it’s good for your body to engage in a form of exercise everyday, in addition to walking to class.

As for maintaining mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and environmental health, make sure to get enough sleep, periodically take time away from electronics, spend enough time with people who love you, and spend enough time by yourself. Never be ashamed to delete your social media accounts or to reach out to a counselor for help.

Diet culture preys on the insecurities of young people and presents an image of perfection that is unattainable for most. Unfortunately, it is very easy to be sucked into diet culture because of the attention that fad diets often get on social media. Focus on all aspects of your well-being rather than fixating on the one that these ads claim to have a solution for. Doing so will create a healthy lifestyle, even if the results aren’t instant.