Content warning: This article contains mention of eating disorders.

The trend of being skinny is a cyclical one that reimagines itself every few decades. In the 2000s, skinny trends used to promote clearly unhealthy behaviors, such as women on Tumblr showing off their 800-calorie diets and the lemon water they call dessert. But these women were open about their self-destruction, targeting an audience that was willing to do anything to be thinner. Today, skinny culture thrives in a web of corporate branding and social media trends equating the idea of being thin with being healthy. As a result, skinny culture is at its most profitable: Companies reflect and amplify society’s association of skinniness and healthiness in their products, turning the trend of being skinny into a lifestyle market that profits from young girls’ insecurities.

Brands like SkinnyPop, SkinnyDipped and Halo Top have taken over the meal replacement market, creating low-calorie alternatives to snacks like popcorn and almonds. Additionally, Poppi “soda” and other apple cider vinegar-based appetite suppressant drinks — mistakenly and harmfully believed to curb appetites —  have become staples for their perceived benefits for digestion and debloating. 

These are just a few of the countless examples of skinny marketing taking over the food industry. According to the United States Health Food Market Growth Analysis, the health food industry is growing rapidly, having garnered more than $92 billion in 2026, and is expected to grow to nearly $143 billion by 2032. 

It’s not just thin models reinforcing that skinny is healthy, but the unfettered growth of a food industry committed to self-serving standards of health. Today, almost all popular health food brands share one common factor: low calories. Low-calorie foods can certainly support a regimen to lose weight, but they should not define what a healthy lifestyle is. Unfortunately, skinny culture has made these terms interchangeable.

So skinny sells, but what’s the problem? It’s not like these products are bad for you — in fact, they definitely support a healthy lifestyle. While wanting to lose weight isn’t toxic in itself, the constant reinforcement of ultra-thin bodies or that being thinner is better is. Most, if not all, of the advertisements for these diet-friendly products showcase extremely thin and conventionally attractive models who are effortlessly happy. However, there is far more that goes into weight loss than eating low-calorie ice cream or drinking your greens, and these ads don’t reflect that. Rather than promoting healthy weight loss, these ads use ultra-thin models to address the consumer’s fear of gaining weight, and leverage it to persuade them into buying the products. 

The surge in products and advertising that are hyper-focused on a thin ideal makes it easy for young girls to internalize toxic behaviours. A study by Harvard School of Public Health found that 50% of 3 to 6-year-old girls today are worried about their weight. In 2018, The Journal of Pediatrics published a finding that 7.8% of U.S. adolescents were victims of disordered eating. Today, this number is an alarming 22%. It’s no coincidence that at the same time, the health industry has hit its peak. These statistics are horrifying, reflecting a clear issue with the idealization of skinny culture promoted in advertising, promulgated by health food companies and proffered by social media.

Take the protein bar craze, for instance. Health brands like David Protein, Quest Nutrition and Barebells all compete for who can fit the most protein into the lowest calorie bar — that’s what sells. These low-calorie snacks lack essential nutrients and should be an addition to one’s diet, not define a healthy diet. According to a 2023 survey by Whisps, 79% of Americans claimed to be trying to eat healthier snacks, with a focus on protein-rich snacks. However, these protein bar brands don’t acknowledge how, while their low-calorie treats are healthier than a sugar filled dessert, they are still typically highly processed foods and should not replace real, whole foods. Moreover, they are certainly not a meal. A cookie with added protein in it is still a cookie. 

But because this whole cycle is fueled by consumer engagement with skinny culture, we, as consumers, hold the power to end it. While social media promotes small portioned meals — more akin to a snack — as healthy, we must listen to the experts. The 2025 USDA Diet Guidelines placed a heavy emphasis on eating whole foods over processed foods, and we as consumers must be mindful to adhere to the reality of nutrition values in food over brands that prioritize profit over honesty and consumer wellbeing.  

There is hope for change as in 2025, two Zara advertisements were banned by the Advertising Standards Association for picturing models that were “unhealthily thin.” The reason the ASA flagged these advertisements is because consumers reported them. By disengaging from these ultra-thin promotions and creators, brands lose customer engagement and the market of the ultra-thin disappears. So, we must be like the consumers who reported the Zara ads and call out the unhealthy glamorization of thinness. We cannot conflate using products and thinness to promote a healthy lifestyle.

WSN’s Opinion desk strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion desk are solely the views of the writer.

Contact Grace Penny at [email protected].