It's a fad that's sweeping the nation. People everywhere are participating in a dangerous game, using their precious lives as pawns. As in any game, risks are taken. In this game, risks are high stakes. These risks can change the course of a person's life in such a manner that it can chip away at the happiness contained in a once happy and healthy life.

These negative effects fall to those around them until the game becomes a competition, an epidemic spreading to thousand of others that can't help but feel the tug of the demons that oversee this horrifying game. The worst part is that these ideas aren't even consciously absorbed. These demons are constantly forcing as many people as possible to buy into their sick and twisted ways in search of a new member in this disheveled way of life.

No, this is not the start of some post-apocalyptic novel. This is a terror tale from the real, modern world. It seems so dangerous to put it in this perspective, but this game is better known as the current Diet Culture. The Diet Culture that is created by an economy that feeds its consumers by depriving them of the happiness that all humanity is entitled to from birth.

It's dangerous because, news flash: the media who creates this culture do not care about you. Not at all. Sorry to tell you this because I know that you were really counting on that ab roller company or that fad diet from the infomercial to magically slim you down. Sorry, but they really only care about the money you paid to get that worthless product or that tasteless cardboard. You are likely destroying your body. Fad diets often do not work and even more often, are restrictive to the point of true starvation. These companies do not care. To them, you are just a dollar sign, not a real person.

Some people are more affected by this than others. Some people are perfectly capable of ignoring the taunting of that cultural demon in their ear and eat whatever they want anyways Some can ignore the desire to be "skinny" and give up on the diet or the exercise plan. That's all fine and well. You've wasted money, but you've escaped the potential downward spiral into a miserable lifestyle. If you are one of the lucky few that can do this, good on you. However, this is not the case with everyone and the instances of the latter have increased over the years.

This is not okay. Ignoring the suffering of others will never be okay.

When we place dieting and dieting methods on such a high pedestal in the media, pushing products that claim they will "shrink your waist" and help you "shred fat in minutes," we are not only hurting ourselves, but the future generations. Over the years, this constant exposure to such a culture has impressed upon us the idea that the size and shape of a person's body makes them more or less desirable, defines your worth. It becomes harder and harder to feel good in your own skin when you constantly face the advertisements that prey on consumers that just want to fit into a culture that is consistently telling us that "smaller is better."

For some people, this is a toxic push over the edge.

With all of this in mind, I ask you: do you really want this for your kids? Do you want your daughter to constantly feel that she can't enjoy an ice cream cone every now and then for the fear of being considered "fat" or "ugly" by her crush? Do you want your son to grow up lacking the confidence to try out for sports teams because he lacks that "hot body" that all of the grotesquely shredded actors have on commercials? Do you want your children to grow up feeling that they are worthless because they do not "pass the test" under to such a twisted assessment of human value?

I hope the answer is no.

I'm not saying that health is unimportant when it comes to diet in the sense of what you put into your mouth. Food is fuel for the human body and we should consider that when we put things into our body. Vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients are important to enjoy a healthy life. However, I am saying that this is a matter of consuming foods that are deemed "healthy" or "superfoods" for their benefits to the human body, not for the purpose of going down a pants size.

Health is important, but so is your happiness. Life is a consistent balancing act that takes time, failure, and multiple "restarts" to find that happy medium in any aspect. While we may have had a slight setback in finding this balance earlier on, I say that we prevent this issue for the next generations.

That's right, I'm calling on you to act. Instead of encouraging your friends and family to go on some fad diet, to start working out, to "cut calories around every corner" to lose weight, encourage them to start living a healthier life a little bit at a time while still enjoying the things that they are eating and the things that they are doing. Life will not only be so much easier for all of us in the existing generations, but those in the generations to come.

If we start this trend of "Anti-Diet Culture" now, our kids will have a better chance of finding their happy medium of health and happiness sooner in life, avoiding the demons of self-doubt, depression, eating disorders, and general dissatisfaction that is based solely on what they look like and what size they wear.

We are human beings. Let's start valuing ourselves and others by the humanity, the compassion, the love we have to give to one another and the things that we can accomplish with the bodies that we are given instead of constantly trying to change them.

Self-love has often been touted as the mere manifestation of a current generation's selfishness but I think it is a beautiful movement towards change. No, we are not selfish. No, we are not self-absorbed. No, we are not vain. We are simply appreciating who we are and what we have more than what we look like or worse, what we do not look like.

We are simply attempting to be the generation that ends this dangerous game of Diet Culture.