A list of diets that people will claim are not diets:

[therealieblog]

intermittent fasting

juice cleanses

completely cutting out carbs, sugar or dairy for “health reasons” as part of a weight loss routine

eating in moderation/”practicing moderation in all things”

Intermittent fasting - This is just starvation. If you don’t eat for most of the day or for a several hours long stretch in order to change your metabolism, you are ignoring your body’s hunger signals and you are dieting. Period. 

Juice cleanses - feel free to drink as much juice as you want. A kale, apple, ginger smoothie is delicious! Are you using them to replace meals or to “cleanse” or “purify” your body? Then you’re on a diet. 

eating in moderation - Not OK. Moderation is just another word for restriction. Food should not be controlled by outside opinions. You should be following your body’s cues for hunger and needs for satiety, rather than eating only a certain amount in an attempt to stay ‘moderate’. If fast food makes your stomach hurt, don’t eat it as often. If you have an allergy to blueberries, don’t eat them. If you are suffering from a severe eating disorder that makes you eat until you’re painfully full, seek IE aware help for that. But for god’s sake, don’t try to eat “moderately”. That’s just another word for a diet. 

cutting out food groups - yup! it’s just a diet. If the food group causes severe pain, discomfort or medical issues, that is up to each person to look into, consult with their doctor about, and find a way to have a relationship with that food group. Or, it could be that you avoid dairy because it messes up your stomach. That’s all fine and good. But avoiding dairy because someone told you it was “unhealthy”, or because it will get you to lose weight, is just a diet. If you’re vegan or vegetarian for animal cruelty reasons, that is absolutely your right. But if someone told you being vegan is a good way to lose weight or be “healthy”, they’re just telling you to diet.