Girl dinner is being co-opted to promote deeply unhealthy body ideals
The latest in viral trends, 'girl dinner' has swept the internet, opening up a charming, funny dialogue about the meals women sometimes make for themselves. The videos shared have since been viewed over 1 billion times. Started by creator Olivia Maher, girl dinner features plates of incongruent foods (it is never a recipe) which is to say, social media is now championing the idea of picky bits. Of mishmash summer suppers. And the infallibility of a plate of random nonsense.
Hula hoops alongside Quorn scotch eggs and cucumber with a gently steaming hot chocolate on the side. Whole, raw carrots complement a deep bowl of carbonara. Often, the meal is intensely, wonderfully juvenile: pasta, oil and a fistful of grated cheddar.
Girl dinner is the epitome of antipasti that originates not in Tuscany but in the cooked section of Tesco. So, when did the joyous, heavily relatable trend morph into yet another space championing restrictive eating habits and the perma-harmful 'thin ideal'?
A slippery slope
Like most things related to social media, the exact moment the girl dinner trend was first co-opted by diet culture isn't clear but there are several notable instances that made us shudder.
On TikTok, a creator shared a video depicting a bowl of ice, captioning the post 'girl dinner'. The comment section applauded her. Another video showed a plate accommodating just two boiled eggs, one cut-up strawberry and single-string cheese; the meal a toddler might eat, not that of an adult woman.
While those 'meals' (one of which was literally frozen water) might not represent the wider diet of each individual, it begs a larger question: why are we celebrating women undereating, further entrenching diet culture and instilling deeply unhealthy body ideals?
"The pervasiveness of diet culture is largely fueled by media, societal norms, and industries that profit from insecurities about body image, such as the weight loss, fitness, and cosmetic industries. It's an enduring ideal because it capitalises on the human desire for acceptance and perfection, often by setting unrealistic body standards," explains clinical psychologist and mental health expert at Headspace, Dr Sophie Mort.
"One thing that makes these ideals so tricky is that most of us have been exposed to them since a very young age, meaning they are woven into our belief systems. This can mean that even if logically we disagree with diet culture, many people notice that they find it easy to step outside diet culture and ideals when it comes to other people but not when it comes to themselves.
"This might mean that they believe that others can be healthy, happy, accepted and loved at any size, but when it comes to their own body, they struggle. They feel shame and the desire to take diet-culture-related-action whenever they catch themselves looking a certain way."
Despite the ingrained 'coolness' of the heroin chic and size zero eras, rapid or unhealthy weight loss should have never been normalised or celebrated. And the thing these videos don't explain is that undereating, crash dieting or choosing to overly restrict yourself can have lifelong consequences.
The risks of undereating
What will constitute undereating depend on your lifestyle, physical activity level, occupation and age. Current NHS guidelines suggest adult women should eat around 2,000 calories (8,400 kilojoules) per day. This could be condensed into three meals totalling approximately 670 calories each or spread out to include smaller meals and snacks. Undereating – consuming fewer calories than your body needs to function – goes beyond feeling hungry more often, it can create serious health issues.
"Over a prolonged period of time, crash dieting or heavily restricting your calorie intake may cause your metabolism to slow down. This will mean you burn less energy and consequently it can become more challenging to lose weight. You’re also more likely to start breaking down muscle mass rather than fat mass," explains registered nutritionist Jenna Hope.
"Moreover, the risk of nutritional deficiencies significantly increases when you’re following an overly restrictive or crash diet. Nutritional deficiencies can impact a women’s hormone function, skin health, hair health, cardiovascular and immune systems and can also lead to slower recovery and poor sleep and mental well-being. The function of a normal menstrual cycle may also be impacted.
"In addition, this way of eating can contribute to a poor relationship with food which can lead to a binge-restrict cycle and may leave you gaining more weight once you’ve come off the restrictive or crash diet."
Videos suggesting that a bowl of ice should constitute a 'girl dinner' (joking or not), only serve to further the idea that women should forever be in the active pursuit of a smaller, thinner body and that with it comes personal happiness and social acceptance. This way of thinking was aptly surmised by America Ferrera's character Gloria in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, "You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin." The perceived pressure to conform to the thin ideal is suffocating.
How to disengage from diet culture
Dr Mort has some suggestions when it comes to reframing the way we approach food and self-esteem. Unsurprisingly, much of her advice centres around becoming more aware of the content we flick and scroll through all day long.
1. Curate the media you consume
In 2022, research showed that adults in the UK spend on average four hours and 14 minutes on their phones each day. Of those hours, two were spent on social media. Becoming aware of the type and volume of content we consume can help to reframe the way we view ourselves and create a stronger buffer against diet culture.
"This might mean unfollowing social media accounts that propagate harmful ideals and subscribing to those promoting body positivity and health at every size," she says. "Additionally, educating ourselves about the realities and diversity of human bodies, as well as the harm of diet culture, can provide a buffer against such content. Developing critical thinking skills to analyse and challenge such narratives is also essential."
Of the type of content or creators that you retain after curation, Dr Mort recommends following people who are fighting against or raising awareness about diet culture. "Following them can mean you have a constant drip feed of anti-diet culture information that will help shift your ideals over time."
2. Get media savvy
"Research also shows that being able to spot airbrushed images, and recognising the ways in which the media edits images and portrays certain themes and ideas, helps people of all ages mitigate the effects of the pictures and ideals we are shown," says Dr Mort.
3. Go slow
"Don’t assume you will shift your opinion overnight. The head/heart lag means we often learn something logically and believe it intellectually before we believe it in our core. So, if you are still beating yourself up even after shifting your beliefs, don’t worry. This will take time, but you will get there," reassures Dr Mort.
A final word
I can understand that the line between a snack plate and a well-rounded diet is not necessarily an easy one to tread and that for many (including myself) girl dinner is a lighthearted reflection of our real lives. My issue is that diet culture is a beast with an everchanging face, able to slip past and take root in even the most fun of ideas. Naming it takes away its power.
This article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
If you need help with your or someone else's eating disorder
Get in touch with your GP and explain what's going on, so you can be referred for specialist help
Contact Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677 or beateatingdisorders.org.uk
Get in touch with eating disorder support service Seed on 01482 718130 or seedeatingdisorders.org.uk
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