International "No Diet" Day

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Yesterday was 'No Diet' Day.   Did anyone know this?  May 6th is International 'No Diet' Day.   I had no clue.  I found out today when I read this and this in my newsfeed.

I have so many questions.....
 
Why is this not a bigger deal?  Why no fanfare? Why no big campaign with advertisements?   Diets are bad......big, scary, bad so why does 'No Diet' only get one measly day (who decides these things?).....further,  'why is No Diet day not smack dab in the middle of ED Awareness week?'  They are kinda related, no?

Is it new...this 'No Diet' day thing? is it just catching on?

According to wikipedia (a fine enough source, I believe, for the origin of newly fabricated international holidays):      "This day is  dedicated to promoting a healthy life style with a focus on health at any size and in raising awareness of the potential dangers of dieting".

'The potential dangers of dieting', now, this is awareness that I can get behind.    Dieting behaviour is akin to ground zero for eating disorders.  It is funny, post ED life, I now think of all dieting behaviour as restriction.....it is difficult to see distinctions between dieting/cutting back/watching what one eats:  It all smacks of disorder to me.  Living with mental illness in the house will blur lines that way. Of course not all who diet will develop eating disorders...it does not work that way, I know.   Dieting behaviour is however strongly, strongly implicated in eating disorders.   Isn't it odd that the media/fashion industry is excoriated but bizarrely the diet industry (billion dollar behemoth that it is) is left mostly alone.  Why is this?

Next year I am on this.  I am sitting ED Awareness Week out and I am saving myself for May 6th.   Cause, honestly, I gotta tell you......turning this ship around is going to take more than one day a year.


A few studies on the causal relationship between dieting and eating disorders:
Onset of adolescent eating disorders: population based cohort study over 3 years

Obesity, Disordered Eating, and Eating Disorders in a Longitudinal Study of Adolescents:  How Do Dieters Fare 5 Years later? 

Comments

  1. suzannahgreenbeanMay 7, 2014 at 3:53 PM

    lets move no diet day directly into ED awareness week. right now. do we have the power? damned right we do.

    ReplyDelete

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