*TW Food and Diet Culture*
Social media has made it easier to get a peek into the lives of celebrities. This gives outsiders an opportunity to know about their lives; their homes, and more recently, their eating habits. Maybe it’s something that we deep down, want to strive for and emulate.
Gwyneth Paltrow shared what she typically eats in one day. There was a great backlash due to how restrictive it was, as well as the fact that it was mostly liquids she would consume such as coffee, juice and bone broth.
While people are criticising it, there is no doubt that at least a few people will strive towards something similar. Celebrities are coming from a place where they are able to influence trends, from cosmetic procedures, to something as trivial as a diet.
There seems to be a growing number of people who have a distorted sense of body image, perhaps because of the ubiquity of social media and these “What I Eat in a Day” videos. The good news is that there is a choice and there is power in choosing to ignore them, as well as the tool to hide similar content from your feed.
I fell into the trap of these “What I Eat in a Day” videos, but after reflecting, I arrived at the question, “Who am I doing this for?” as it most certainly was not for myself. A deep sense of unhappiness and lack of contentment was all it ever brought me.
I realised that the food I ate was a reflection of how I saw and felt about myself – at that point, I was not eating anything.
While self-image is a complex issue, the singular truth to it is that we must all treat our bodies with kindness.
The becoming of bodies is transient; maybe I would like to eat chocolate cake now, but tomorrow I might want to eat a smoothie bowl. Both are okay.
Much like everything in life, what works for others will not always work for us. Instead of being fixated on these videos that are harmful to the morale and self-image, we must consider investing more time in knowing ourselves and our bodies: what works, what does not, but most importantly, how we can treat it in a way that brings us peace and a healthy view of ourselves.
Words by: Marinel Dizon
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