The Dieting Myth That Just Won’t Die

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The theory is also inherently appealing, in that most people don’t like avoiding tasty food; they can easily believe that doing so would be harmful. No wonder, then, that the idea spread far among clinicians and everyday Americans. Social media supercharged the theory, enough that many people now believe that placing any limits on your diet could be dangerous or harmful, Ashley Gearhardt, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, told me. Many parents share the belief that letting kids follow their own appetites will create healthy attitudes toward food; taken to its logical extreme, that way of thinking means that “in a lot of circles now, if you don’t let your kids have unlimited access to ultra-processed foods, it’s a bad thing,” Katherine Balantekin, a registered dietitian at the University at Buffalo, told me.

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