The Culture Of It All
The Culture Of It All is a weekly podcast where we don’t just talk about ditching diet culture, we unlearn together, heal our body image, and fight for fat acceptance and true size inclusivity.
Your host, Melanie Knights [she/they] — is an unapologetically fat, fashion content creator, storyteller, introverted Aquarius with a fondness for all things fat and spooky.
This is a space where the fat community is seen, heard, and celebrated. It's where you can come to unlearn, heal, and find connection — and where everyone, in every body, is invited to listen, learn, and actively advocate for change.
Together, we'll challenge weight stigma, confront fat stereotypes, and dive deep into how diet culture impacts every part of our lives.
The Culture Of It All
Haunting Diet Myths: The Diet Industry Cycle That Keeps Us Afraid, Hungry & Invested
In this episode, we’ll be exploring the cycle of fear and blame the diet industry has created and how this impacts our body image and relationship to food. We’ll also look at some of the nuances, including the erasure of fat folks from history, and why it appears to be socially acceptable to discriminate against someone based on their body size/weight. We’ll also take a look at how the diet industry uses fear based marketing practices to sell their products, and the outcomes when the ‘solution’ doesn’t work.
If you’d rather not hear my life, podcast and business update, skip forward to 12:21
Content Warning: use of the word o*esity within context at 13:40
Takeaways:
- Fat people have always existed, even before the invention of BMI and the diet industry
- Fat bias does not respond to exposure
- If we care about people’s health, then we should care about their mental health
- The diet industry is worth $70billion a year!
The Cycle:
Create A Problem > Create Fear > Sell “The Solution” > Blame Individual
Chapters:
00:00 Halloween Preparations and Personal Updates
07:02 Reflections on the Podcast Journey
12:09 Haunting Diet Myths: Introduction to the Topic
20:15 The Diet Industry Cycle Explained
32:03 Understanding Body Diversity and Acceptance
Links mentioned:
instagram.com/historicalfatpeople
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