I’ve been toying around with doing a “diet culture rant of the month,” so this might be the first in a series—or it might just be a one-off. If you have strong opinions either way, let me know.
My rant today is about weight-loss content that seems to target people who care about fat positivity, body liberation, and eating disorders. If you’re parenting without diet culture, you’re probably in this boat, too.
Is the algorithm embarrassingly unsophisticated?
Or is the highly profitable weight-loss industry doubling down on efforts to ensnare the very folks who’ve worked so hard to reject the thin ideal in favor of actual wellbeing?
And regardless of the cause, what can we do about it?
Nearly every mainstream piece about eating disorders, body image, or diet culture comes with ads and suggested articles promoting restriction and weight loss.
My hunch is the algorithm is responding to words like “weight” (even when it’s about weight stigma), “eating” (even when it’s about eating disorders), and “diet” (even when it’s about rejecting diet culture). But it’s hard not to take a more cynical view.
It seems like AI should be able to make smarter distinctions by now. But what company would limit this profitable click-bait?
As you may know, I run a public Facebook page called “Parenting Without Diet Culture,” and while I was logged in recently to post about—get this—Weight Stigma Awareness Week, the first thing I saw was a suggestion to follow a woman’s “weight loss journey” account. Did Meta simply assume a page with “diet” in the name would be eager to learn about weight loss? Or does Zuckerberg’s algorithm know this group is mostly moms, a prime demographic for body insecurity?
I routinely mark diet culture content as spam or irrelevant, but it hasn’t made much of a dent. One interesting thing to note: when I first started blocking and reporting weight-loss content a few years ago, I was bombarded with ads for plus-size clothing. I happen to wear straight-sized clothes (so my shopping history cookie crumbs wouldn’t suggest otherwise). It was an interesting assumption the algorithm was making.
At first I wondered if this could be a reflection of the progress made by fat acceptance and body liberation activists? Had the algorithm learned that many people in larger bodies are more interested in buying clothes that fit than in trying to shrink themselves?
Or was this just a gateway to the sneaky “health journey” content that claims to be “body positive”?
Or were they trying to make a non-dieter assume they were instantly going to need bigger clothing sizes? Who knows.
What I do know is the weight-loss ads came roaring back with a vengeance. I started getting more aggressive “medical” weight-loss ads and the creepy ones for “hypnotic gastric band.” With the ever more lucrative market for new weight-loss drugs, I don’t think these types of ads are going away anytime soon.
If media corporations wanted to, they could give users the option to filter sensitive topics more thoughtfully. We have the technology.
And it’s not just unwanted diet content that infiltrates our screens. People experiencing infertility or pregnancy loss see ads for maternity clothes and baby products despite changing their ad preferences. Those who are vocal about being in recovery from alcohol use disorder get presented with offers for discount booze delivery.
Yes, we need to have resilience and be able to live in a real world full of triggers—but does it have to be quite so cruel and relentless?
Blocking, reporting, or hiding unwanted ads does not necessarily have the desired effect, at least in my experience. If anything, it’s felt like trying to defeat a hydra: for every ad I report, two more appear. Diet culture doubles down on its efforts to win us back.
Instagram seems to be doing a better job of honoring my preferences, except for the “Explore” section, which can feature “before & after” body photos and “healthy cooking” content that is usually diet culture in disguise.
The weight-loss ads on Twitter (I refuse to call it by its new name) seem to have that low-budget back-of-the-magazine vibe that I find kind of humorous. Occasionally the ads have really graphic anti-fat imagery, so I report those.
I have tried using TikTok a few times but found it overwhelming, and I can’t unsee some truly horrifying videos (about abuse and other topics) that just started playing automatically. If you’re a TikTok user, what’s it like over there? How easy is it to curate the kind of content that you see?
Until we have a way to block weight-loss ads, how can we navigate this diet culture minefield?
I wish this were a “seven simple strategies” situation. For me, this process feels so individual and context-specific. And yet, here I come with numbered bullet points! These are the things I usually do, and it doesn’t mean they will resonate with you.
Block and report. Even though the current ad preference system doesn’t seem to work as it should, I can find it satisfying to take that action. I have no idea who or what is on the other end of those little feedback buttons, but it still feels good sometimes.
Remember “the dose makes the poison.” So one option—not realistic for everyone, depending on how tied your livelihood is to a digital presence—is to limit time spent online. I love that we have Substack because it provides a way to read, learn, and engage—without the threat of pop-up ads for IF.
Keep a receipt. I have a not-so-little folder of screenshots of some of the worst offenders that I report/block. Wait—I’m now wondering if hovering over these offensive images might be signaling the algorithm that I secretly want to buy these products and services? Ack! So maybe that’s not a useful approach. I fantasize about making a hate-collage someday, and there’s a pleasure for now in just documenting these things.
Roll your eyes—and scroll on. I think about the way my kids tend to respond when I try to make a teachable moment out of some anti-fat bias in a movie or TV show. “Yeah, we know, mom. Diet culture.” Channeling your inner Cher Horowitz with an “ugh—as if!” can be another way to go when encountering these unwanted ads. We’re telling our brain, “That is not good and not for me—I deserve better.”
Do you have strategies for handling anti-fatness that invades your digital life? I’d love to hear what’s been working for you lately.
What does all of this have to do with parenting?
When we’re supporting kids to swim upstream in diet culture—often with a smartphone in their hand—it’s important for us to model boundaries, critical thinking, and whatever other coping skills that work for us. With teens, we might even enlist their help us curating our feeds or adjusting preference settings. What a great conversation-starter that could be! And our kids are likely to have more creative and effective strategies than we could imagine.
Now, I recognize that online media—especially this week—can serve up content more traumatizing than an ad for keto snacks. So I hope you’re taking care of yourself and getting the support you need.
In other news:
Reminder that I’m hosting a free virtual book group on October 19th to discuss Virginia Sole-Smith’s bestselling Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture. You can sign up here.
Picking up where I left off last time with the diet culture in schools topic, I wanted to share my latest piece for CNN, which focuses on school nutrition lessons and how they tend to backfire.
Thanks for reading. I hope you and your family are feeling safe and nourished.
I've experienced something similar. I recovered from my ED and stopped looking at all of this content. After a couple of years I stopped getting suggested ads and even reels etc that were blatantly weight loss or diet culture related (I had to unsubscribe from all accounts that had anything to do with food, health, weight loss, ED, binge eating etc) and then scroll past content without looking at it or engaging in any way. It was work...but I was so triggered by it that I wanted it to all go away as fast as possible.
Cut to a few months ago, I decided I wanted to do some bodyweight strength workouts at home for my health/physical and mental wellness. All the weight loss ads came back [not that they ever fully went away]. It was across all platforms too when I had only been looking for videos on Youtube to follow. It was like the assumption is: if you're exercising it must be for weight loss or to change the shape of your body.
We’re now into Feb., and I feel exhausted from the whack-a-mole of reporting the incessant stream of Instagram adverts for weight loss/fitness for weight loss/dodgy supplements.
I love your idea for engaging your teen’s assistance in setting up the online security filters etc. to block out such undesired content. It works on so many levels, and could hold the space for a real conversation around the issue and how it shows up in their life.