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D.I.E.T= Dare I Eat That and the Indian millennial’s quest for flat stomach and great skin

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When those commercials came up, my 9-year-old self would start pinching the belly mimicking the model on screen and concluding that I was fat. 

The first time I was introduced to the word diet was in third grade when a substitute teacher decided to engage 56 girls into a game of guess the acronym. WHO, World Health Organisation, was an easy guess. The next word that followed  DIET – was more confusing. We had heard it being spoken here and there, on TV, read it in the celebrity section of the newspaper. There was always that TV commercial promoting a certain type of tonic or belt that would make losing weight possible. Often, when those commercials came up, my nine-year-old self would start pinching the belly mimicking the model on screen and concluding that I was fat.

 Anyone who knows the full form of diet? the teacher asked again. Ashamed at my lack of knowledge, I listened to what the answer was and have never forgotten it.

D.I.E.T = Dare I Eat That

Growing up watching TV commercials, movie actresses flaunting size-zero figure, excessively photoshopped magazine covers, and just pop culture in general, made me believe that if I didn’t look like Kareena Kapoor from Tashan I was fat. And anyone who is fat is ugly.

There was some solace at hand from grandparents: She is not fat, she is a Punjabi girl, she is healthy. But then that solace didnt last too long. Because the slim Geet from Jab We Met became the look of Punjabi beauty.

If scrutiny from TV wasn’t enough, the internet took exploiting ones insecurities to a whole new level. With Instagram, it became even easier to curate a perfect visually appealing feed that with every refresh reminded you of your own lack of perfection. If you weren’t sipping rainbow smoothies, sitting on a white sand beach with clear blue waves crashing at your perfectly toned lean endless long legs, were you even living?

Today, it isn’t just the big corporates, companies or gym chains that are providing knowledge and fitness service. An online course, an unrealistic looking body, a good quality camera and the latest version of Photoshop and one can go online and create her own fitness and nutrition programme and sell it to women and girls who dont know any better. There are detox teas, waist trainers and turquoise gummy bears that promise you a bikini body and shiny long mermaid hair for the annual cost of an average womans monthly salary.

Now, I would like to believe that Im a confident young woman with great cardiovascular strength that I built up with years of professional tennis training and physical conditioning, but at some point even I gave in. All the years of knowledge that I had gained working with the best coaches in the country goes down the drain because a blonde barbie-doll-like woman tells me that what I really wanted is the flattest stomach in the world, flatter than Samuel Rowbothams idea of a flat earth. Who wouldn’t want it? Since the onset of puberty, we are all introduced to the concept of attractiveness and chubby is crossed out with a big red marker.

I opened the browser, typed probably one of the most typed searches — how to lose weight. There is no one way, and people have their individual methods and lifestyles to promote. I was introduced to the world of paleo, high-carb vegan, high protein low carb, keto, organic, juice detoxes, tea detoxes and many many more. It was overwhelming.

But I was on a mission to get a flat stomach, mermaid hair and smooth glowy skin that reflected sunlight just enough to create an illusion of a halo around myself.

That evening, me and five health lifestyles walked into a salad bar and

Can I get one of your specialty salad meals? I said. But instead of a juice on the side can you give me water? I had to add that because one healthy lifestyle pack told me juices were great, and another told me juices were plain sugar and carbs sans fibre. I thought I would get a fruit instead but keto lifestyle suggested against it because no matter how much fibre, it still had high amounts of carbs.

What is in your salad? I had to make sure I was on the right track to be healthy. Chicken, dressing, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbersVegan health coach said no to meat, so the chicken was out. Organic asked me to only eat organically grown things, so the dressing and imported cucumbers and tomatoes were out too.

My order didn’t take long and I was billed half of my weekly allowance for one meal of lettuce and water, and a lesson for a lifetime. If I was to listen to every diet fad in the world, I would starve. So, in the end, the easiest was to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle (note: does not have to mean flattest stomach). I need to learn to listen to my body. If the fried chicken at KFC made me nauseous and gave me a headache, I was to avoid it. If eating just salads made me lightheaded, I was to go eat what made me feel better. The trick here is not finding a label or a type to fit your eating habits into. It is learning to be happy without fitting into any type at all. 

Gurmehar Kaur is a writer and student activist.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Few earlier ,my mother was fell into some kind of DIET trap too.But after some time,she has to gave up that diet plan.Because she had to starved almost to follow several regimes of weight loss,her face gone paled & fitness get reduced.Now she is fine & get back to her own state.I think,she should read this article.

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