Diet culture has negatively impacted society through spreading false information and creating unattainable beauty standards. Men and women of all ages are negatively affected through these messages. As children are being exposed to these messages more consistently and frequently, they have difficulty separating reality from advertising which can lead to unrealistic body image ideals, low self-esteem, and mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders. If we do not put a stop to this propaganda we can only expect to see a great amount of deterioration in humanity’s mental well-being.
        Our letter explains how the diet industry has harmfully manipulated society through: promoting false information of health and nutrition, unrealistic lifestyle goals, competitiveness and comparison between individuals, creates negative body image ideals, and ultimately can lead to the development of an eating disorder. Our mission is to not only spread awareness but to make change to the diet industry.
       Our intention is to send our letter through this platform to the following leaders in negative diet cultures: Fitbit, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Doctor Oz, Plexus Worldwide, Hollister, Victoria Secret, Brandy Melville, Aeropostale and Bluenotes, Slimfast, Fit Tea, The Biggest Loser, Forever 21 and many more.

This is the letter we are sending:

To whom it may concern
We see that your product promotes false information on health and nutrition, unrealistic lifestyle goals, competitiveness and comparison between individuals, creates negative body image ideals and ultimately can lead to the development of an eating disorder. These influential factors can affect all types of people beginning at a young age and continue through to adulthood; through modelling from their parents, other adult role models and the media.
Misinformation can trigger the onset of an eating disorder through demonizing specific foods, promoting restriction in intake of food, and endorsing unrealistic body ideals leading to ongoing feelings of shame and guilt. These unrealistic body ideals are unhealthy, harmful and can lead to physical and mental illnesses that can require ongoing treatment. Each year approximately 3,016 people in Canada are diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa, 4,528 are diagnosed with Bulimia Nervosa, and the number for Binge Eating Disorder being much higher than both Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa (Hoek, & van Hoeken, 2003). Interestingly enough, Schizophrenia effects about 3,019 people of the Canadian population per year, which is a small number compared to the prevalence of all eating disorders combined. (Hafner & an der Heiden, 1997). 
We feel that your product and subsequent advertising spreads misinformation regarding health and nutrition. We find that you operate under the pretense of falsehoods and inappropriate health ideals for the purpose of creating fear in order to manufacture a desire for your product. We find your research, if any, to be misleading by using small sample sizes and short term studies. Studies show that less than a fifth of websites have correct data on over 50% of the central information about nutrition, weight loss strategies, and physical activity (Modave et al. 2014). As a result, we believe that your claims of long term weight loss resulting in health, happiness, and success to be misleading and deeply physiologically and psychologically damaging. In this way, your promised results realistically do not work for the majority of the population, and you have no knowledge of any long-term damage that may result from your product. As a whole, we believe that your product does not promote a holistic and honest opportunity for true health and wellness. Therefore, we urge you to be transparent about the true facts of health and nutrition instead of promoting a restrictive mindset, misinformation regarding the necessity of supplements, and the demonization of particular foods and food groups.
The promotion of unrealistic lifestyle goals by your product leads to a vicious cycle of short term weight loss for temporary satisfaction. Promoting crash dieting is dangerous because it is a short term solution that can lead to continuous disordered eating, as one may feel they need to turn to restrictive eating after returning to their normal weight. Diets are promoted as a permanent solution, however studies show that this is not the case, as the majority of people who restrict their intake could be more prone to gaining weight in the long term (Lowe et al. 2013). The weight gain comes from physiological urges after restricting specific food items. After depriving yourself of a certain food for a long period of time, when you allow yourself to have it again it
 
 
can lead to uncontrollable eating, which can be physiologically and psychologically damaging.  This can lead to returning to the diet to re-lose the weight and can become a never ending loop.
When we think of ‘competition’, many different ideas and definitions likely come to mind. Healthy competition, for instance, can be fun and motivating for people of all ages. What companies and products like yours promote, however, is an interpersonal competition that is unhealthy and unsafe: a competition that encourages comparing and self-depreciation. Comparing the number of steps you can take in a day, or how few calories you can eat on a diet, leads to obsession around false ideals of ‘health.’ Our self-worth becomes intertwined with, or even solely based upon, weight and exercise. Therefore, when someone else weighs less, takes more steps, eats less than you, etc. - you end up feeling like you’ve failed. This leads to competition and comparing where the goal is no longer health or enjoyment, as companies claim to promote, but destruction and misery. The exposure of media that encourages thinness and weight loss, can lead to: an obsession with being thin, body dissatisfaction, unhealthy competition leading to feelings of inferiority, and Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa, (Harrison, 2000).
The media strongly influences the population by promoting the wrong idea of health, body shape, self-acceptance, and how we view ourselves. It is proven that the media has many benefits but it is also harmful. The concept of body image is the way people view themselves, internally and especially externally, which can be manipulated by the messages of the media (Lawrie et al. 2006). The focal point of the media pin points only one type of body shape, which is thin and toned. In no way is this responsible or reasonable because human bodies are incredibly complex, varied, and unique to each person. Media causes many people to feel insecure, or highlight a part of the body the media demonizes. When you advertise thin, perfect looking models it not only damages the model by forcing them to preserve that body shape, but also the media consumers who feel the pressure to look that way. 87% of women and 65% of men compare themselves to images through social media (King University, 2019). Teenagers and children especially, feel they need to look like people on the media, and when they are not able to reach that, one may start to hate themselves because they do not look like what they see. Up to 60% of girls and 30% of boys in their adolescence are trying to lose weight. Studies have shown that dieting is one of the central risk factors for developing an eating disorder which implies that these adolescents are at a much greater risk (Barlow, Durand, Hofman, & Lalumiere, 2018). They often become disappointed in themselves and highlight every part of their body that doesn’t measure up to the ‘media standard.’ They can also feel pressured to change their bodies to feel valued and worthy. This is damaging and disturbing to promote.
In conclusion your product effects more than someone’s number on scale, it effects their general well-being and happiness. These negative outcomes happen through: your promotion of false information on health and nutrition, unattainable lifestyle goals and competitiveness and comparisons. Your unsustainable ‘standards of health,’ which are unsupported by studies leads to detrimental body image ideals which ultimately can lead to the development of an eating
disorder. We owe it to future generations to break the cycle of worshiping one body type at the cost of others, to instead promote body equality.
 
Advocating for current and future generations,
Connor Holyoak, Victoria Miller, Marissa Wiebe, Emma Zadeiks