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Picture this, you have eaten half a pepperoni pizza, chugged twelve ounces of soda, and realize that you probably should not have eaten that last brownie. In a moment of discomfort and guilt from your gluttonous act you proclaim, ‘Tomorrow I will be starting a diet!’ But wait, isn’t this already your diet? Or will you be changing your current diet for a different diet? What exactly is a diet? Well, it is funny you should ask. According to Merriam-Webster it is “food and drink regularly provided or consumed”. However, it is also “a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight”. This would definitely not be the kind of diet we have just described. I find this word very inconsistent which is why I have decided to elaborate on it. Although dictionaries have other definitions for diet, these will be the two that are focused on. So technically, aren’t we always on a diet?
You can consume a vegetarian diet, dairy-free diet, high protein diet, and so on, but why would we decide to choose a word so vague when explaining the consumption of food plus the exclusion of food? It seems quite contradictory. Possibly not as contradictory as the word buckle, but enough to make you think. Diet in our society can be used in either way to let someone know you are actively dieting, or you consume a specialized diet, although the word itself just tells us that this is what we regularly consume. So, if you are only eating a specialized diet for 3 weeks before reverting to your previous way, would it even be a diet?
The word diet derives from the Greek ‘diaita’, ‘a way of living or regimen’. With that translation, regimen is a “systematic plan especially when designed to improve or maintain the health of a patient”. To me, this sounds like diet was originally referred to as a healthy way of living. Perhaps we have gotten so mixed up on this term because society is constantly trying to find the next best way to be healthy. One day it is low carbohydrates, the next it is low fat, some people swear by a vegan diet, perhaps just a vegetarian diet is best. Whichever diet you may choose, we can sum up by saying that ideal diet is pure conjecture.
So how did a term we took from the Greek, meaning a way of living, become something that meant you would be cutting out sugar and carbohydrates this week? There really is not too much history of how diets became diets. You can find large amounts of previous fad diets, which just goes to show how the definitions for a term like ‘diet’ are so contradictory. Fads, they come and they go and if they are lucky there will be some nostalgic post on social media that reminds you just how cringe-worthy your past choices were. My point here though is that fads are not regular ways of doing anything; they are temporary.
So why does any of this matter? Maybe because we have become so comfortable with changing the way we perceive things that we do not even take a moment to actually consider what the word means. This happens every day with slang terms as well. We have created a category of words that mean something different from their actual meaning. If we do not understand the meaning of a word, how can we use it in the correct context? Maybe we should be looking at using a term such as diet with more explanation. Since we know that regimen is a systematic way of improving or maintaining one’s health, maybe we should say that we will be starting a new dietary regimen, and with this people could be more precise. You could always elaborate on what you will be changing and the goals you plan to achieve. I am sure you are thinking that this is nonsense; why change how we say things if someone understands already? You could be right, and maybe it is pointless, but one of the biggest problem’s society faces is misinformation. Maybe we understand what a diet is when you use it in a particular context, but what if we could improve our language altogether? Getting in the habit of clarifying what you mean can prove to be a valuable trait.
I think that the distinction between these two meaning of diet is large enough issue to create a paper about. How could a word mean your regular way of eating but also a special way of eating? Why have we not taken the time to develop a new word or phrase that better suites the meaning? I think the biggest problem with such terms is comfort. We know what is meant and that’s fine with us, but what about someone visiting from a different country or even if we decide to visit somewhere else? When using this word interchangeably if makes zero sense. When we do not spend our time critiquing the definition then it does make sense. Funny how that works, isn’t it? The next time someone you know decides to go on a ‘diet’, make sure you remind them they are really going off their diet to achieve a new, hopefully improved dietary regimen.
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