Canadian dietician Abbey Sharp hits back at 'toxic mantras' in diet culture

Abbey Sharp is putting her foot down against bad habits when it comes to diet.

On Wednesday, the Toronto-based influencer and dietician took to Instagram to share an important video message with her more than 180,000 followers about breaking "free of generational diet culture."

The Instagram Reel begins with a stitched clip, originally created by TikTok user Bailey Nicole, of two women chanting with "all the toxic mantras our almond moms live by." During the chant, the women shouted phrases like, "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, a moment on the lips, forever on the hips," and "you're not hungry, you're just bored."

The TikTok user then segued to her aforementioned mother who said, "I want to eat — wait a minute. That won't be as good as what I'll feel like if I'm skinny."

Sharp then intervened with a recording of her own, firing back at the toxic diet mantras.

"If you're a millennial, you've probably heard all of these mantras. And I agree with these girls, they are toxic [as f—]," she explained, adding, "Honestly, I'm sure anyone who watches my channel knows how problematic it is to teach our kids this crap.

"And yet, a lot of us can just follow along with the mantras these girls are singing because they have been ingrained in our heads. So, if you're struggling with the damages of generational diet culture, know that you are not alone."

Sharp admitted that while it "can be incredibly hard to break the cycle" because society has already normalized these "toxic messages so deep into our brains," it is time to "get off that roller coaster."

Sharp also paired the video with a caption doubling down on eradicating "toxic" diet mantras.

"It’s sad that I know these gross diet culture messages by heart, and probably first heard them from my grandmothers when I was very young," she penned. "If you’re a parent looking to break free of generational diet culture, start by not suggesting that eating enough food should be deprioritized over losing weight and being skinny."

"This is not what supportive weight loss motivation looks like," she firmly added.

Fans met Sharp's video with applause for bringing awareness to an issue that has been perpetuated for generations.

"This is so real. My mom was saying this stuff last weekend when we went out to eat. 'I will be bad and have the patty melt, I need to exercise after eating these onion rings, I can't eat dinner after eating this.' I broke the generational cycle, I ate my food and I enjoyed it because it was delicious," one Instagram user commented.

Another wrote, "Diet culture is so toxic. Plenty of things taste better than skinny feels, including some healthy and nutritious foods."

"The funny thing about this is that 'skinny' (underweight) feels like absolute sh—! Not to mention how bad you feel mentally, emotionally and having a horrible social life," someone else pointed out.

One commenter added: "Ugh, this is so refreshing. Thank you for doing God’s work and setting the record straight. So many millennials have distorted views on diet and nutrition that you are actually an outlier if you prioritize eating enough."

Last month, Sharp called on her followers to "delete" dieting apps from their phones. She shared an Instagram Reel of herself dancing, with text over the video that read, "The feeling you get when you vow to stop dieting and learn to respect your body even without weight loss," followed by, "MyFitnessPal reminding me to log lunch."

"Delete," she captioned the post.

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.