Культура диет заставляет женщин чувствовать вину за еду и подавлять свои потребности

I have never understood why women are expected to be so polite aroundfood. We may have strong opinions and big careers. We may negotiate salaries, run companies, raise children and tell people exactly what we think. And yet, a tiny voice in our heads often polices us around food. "Do you really want to eat that?" "Didn't you have carbs earlier today?" "You know what, YOLO. You had a kickass workout today." Instagram/Alia Bhatt It's exhausting to justify your own cravings to that tiny voice in your head. And the funniest part is that nobody has to tell us to do any of this anymore.Diet culture has done such a thorough job that many women have become perfectly capable of policing themselves. It usually starts with cutting out junk to focus on healthy alternatives. Good start. Your body starts rewarding you with better skin. You get fitter and the compliments on your glow up start flowing in. Then you wonder what would happen if you cranked it up a notch. You read some pseudoscience on how cutting carbs can help you lose weight faster, so you police your food harder. Then an influencer starts talking about how they got fit and you try to ape their workout and diet. And so, the spiral continues. X/Hilton For generations, women have been handed the same basic bargain: be thin, be disciplined, don't be greedy, don't take up too much space and, above all, don't look like you want too much. Food just happens to be one of the easiest places to enforce it. The 'Good Girl' Diet isn't really about nutrition. It's about teaching women a few things. Be thin, be disciplined, don't be greedy, don't take up too much space and, above all, don't look like you want too much. Food just happens to be one of the easiest places to enforce it. What is the ‘Good Girl’ Diet? Instagram/Shraddha Kapoor The 'Good Girl' Diet isn't a diet in the traditional sense. There is no 7-day meal plan, no designated breakfast and no smug PDF promising you'll lose five kilos before your cousin's wedding. It's much sneakier than that. It's the collection of rules women absorb about what they should eat if they want to be considered disciplined, healthy, attractive and, frankly, well-behaved. Don't eat too much. Don't eat too late. Don't have seconds. Leave the meatier pieces of chicken for the men and kids. Choose the salad. Skip the dessert. If you do eat the dessert, call it a cheat meal. And if you've had a particularly indulgent weekend, spend Monday ‘being good’. Maddock Films Following these rules is evidence that you're disciplined, have self-control, and live for your family instead of your own self. That you prioritise others’ well-being over your own. That you’re freakin’ Mother India and deserve to be placed on a pedestal and looked up to as an inspiration. This is how diet culture is internalised. You don't need someone standing over your shoulder telling you not to eat the cake. Eventually, you do it yourself. Why Society Wants You To be a ‘Good Girl’ YouTube/McDonalds India We're living in a culture that still finds a woman's body easier to celebrate when it is smaller, controlled and aesthetically pleasing. Add centuries of expectations around femininity, throw in unrealistic beauty standards, diet culture and now social media, and you've got a fairly effective system for convincing women that their bodies are always one meal away from becoming a problem. The 'good girl' is desirable because she's controlled. She doesn't make anyone uncomfortable by wanting too much of anything. And this goes far beyond food. Instagram/Priyanka Chopra Women are often expected to make themselves smaller in every possible sense of the word. Smaller voices. Smaller demands. Smaller egos. Smaller bodies. Food just happens to be one of the places where that expectation becomes incredibly visible. And social media has taken this to another level. We now have endless content telling women how to eat ‘clean,’ manage cravings, avoidbloating, reset after holidays, fast before events and compensate after a night out. The message is rarely just be healthy. It's often: be better. The ‘Good Girl’ Diet is Causing More Harm Than You Think YRF The obvious problem with this ‘diet’ is that constantly restricting what you eat can make food stressful. When every meal becomes a negotiation, you stop listening to your body and start listening to rules. “Am I actually hungry or am I just craving something?” “Should I eat this?” “Did I eat too much yesterday?” “Do I need to work this off?” Instagram/Anushka Sharma And the constant cycle of restriction, guilt and compensation can complicate your relationship with food. You start thinking about food when you're trying not to think about food. You obsess over the thing you've decided you're not allowed to have. Then you eat it, feel guilty and promise yourself you'll be ‘good’ tomorrow. So the cycle continues. Things get worse when you start looking at nutrition as a restriction. Food isn’t just calories. Food is energy, nourishment, culture, pleasure and a massive part of your social life. It fuels your work, exercise, recovery and simply getting through a long day. Instagram/Bhumi Pednekar Women, especially those who train regularly, need enough food to support their bodies. Constantly eating as little as possible isn't a fitness strategy. It can leave you exhausted, under-fuelled and constantly thinking about your next meal. Health shouldn't require you to be terrified of hunger and fitness shouldn't require you to earn your dinner. You should be able to eat a slice of cake without a long explanation to your own self about how you can compensate for it tomorrow. That’s the part we need to unlearn in order to move on from the scam that is the ‘Good Girl’ diet. Lead Image Credit: Instagram/Deepika Padukone Frequently Asked Questions What is the 'Good Girl' Diet? The 'Good Girl' Diet refers to the set of rules and behaviors women absorb about what they should eat to be considered disciplined, healthy, attractive, and well-behaved. What are some examples of rules in the 'Good Girl' Diet? How does diet culture affect women's behavior around food? What is the purpose of the 'Good Girl' Diet? What happens when women follow the 'Good Girl' Diet? Read iDiva for the latest in Bollywood, fashion looks, beauty and lifestyle news.