🎙️ Behind the Episode: Diet Culture, Workout Culture, and the Business of Health

Hosted by Auria Zahed, LMFT & Bethany Busch, CSCS
UpLift Women’s Wellness Podcast

Modern “health” messaging is messy — part truth, part marketing, and part billion-dollar manipulation machine. In this episode of UpLift Women’s Wellness, Auria and Bethany unpack the mixed messages around diet culture, workout culture, and the business behind both.

If you’re tired of being told to shrink, hustle, or hate your body into “health,” this one’s for you.

🥗 How Diet Culture Got So Loud (and So Profitable)

Diet culture didn’t appear out of nowhere — it was built.
Starting with the 1990s low-fat craze and fueled by the Industrial Revolution’s move toward mass-produced, hyper-engineered food, the modern food landscape became a playground for corporations designing products to override satiety and drive consumption.

Auria and Bethany dig into how:

  • Big Food and Big Pharma shape what Americans eat, how they medicate, and what they believe about “health.”

  • The U.S. remains one of the only developed countries that allows direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising, reinforcing a system that treats sickness more profitably than prevention.

  • Highly processed foods — the ones engineered to be addictive — leave us overfed and undernourished, confused about hunger, and disconnected from real nourishment.

If you’re working on repairing your relationship with food, Bethany’s balanced plate method (based on Precision Nutrition) gives you a simple structure. To get personalized help, explore nutrition coaching with Bethany.

🏋️‍♀️ Workout Culture, Shame, and Why Cardio Dominates

It might feel like every message about exercise boils down to “burn more, shrink more, do more.”
But Bethany explains why this happens:

  • Cardio is easier to market and sell — machines, classes, and quick-fix programs.

  • Many people turn to cardio because they think it’s the only way to “undo” their eating.

  • Marketing preys on shame, pushing a cycle of indulging, regretting, restricting, and repeating.

The real antidote?
Strength training — especially for women.

Bethany breaks down how lifting weights supports:

  • muscle tissue

  • bone density

  • metabolic health

  • long-term vitality

If you want a grounded, supportive entry point into lifting, check out strength coaching or performance coaching.

For clients needing a private or flexible option, virtual training is available nationwide.

🧠 Why Shame Sells (and Why It Works)

The episode gets honest about how the health and fitness industry profits by making women feel “not enough.”

When you dislike your body, your job, your stress levels, or your eating habits, you become the perfect customer for:

  • cleanses

  • programs

  • supplements

  • trends

  • “fixes”

A mentally grounded, self-respecting woman is the least profitable kind of consumer — which is exactly why these industries work so hard to keep women doubting themselves.

At Head 2 Toe Strength, Bethany and Auria’s entire philosophy centers around offering spaces that support confidence, clarity, and capability (not shame).
Read more about their approach here:

🍽️ What Real Health Actually Looks Like

Both hosts agree:
Health is not a size.
Health is not a number.
Health is not a punishment.

True well-being shows up in:

  • regulated blood pressure

  • consistent energy

  • supportive nutrition

  • strength and stability

  • menstrual cycle regularity (for those who menstruate)

  • mental clarity

And yes — it is okay to have fat on your body.
It’s also okay if you’re working toward feeling stronger, more nourished, or more connected to your physical self. Both can be true.

If you want help building a grounded, sustainable strength or nutrition routine, you can book a consult through any coaching page or explore the full site:
Head 2 Toe Strength Home

🎁 Want More Support?

Women often need a different kind of space to talk honestly about their bodies, health, identity, and strength. That’s why Bethany and Auria created:

📋 Episode Show Notes

Episode: Diet Culture, Workout Culture, and the Business of Health
Hosts: Auria Zahed, LMFT & Bethany Busch, CSCS

In this episode we discuss:

  • The rise of diet culture and the money behind it

  • How food manufacturing changed what Americans believe about “healthy eating”

  • Why highly processed foods are engineered to override satiety

  • How the fitness industry uses shame as a marketing tool

  • Why cardio became the default and how strength training reshapes women’s health

  • The disconnect between external size and internal health

  • Socioeconomic factors like food deserts and access to fresh foods

  • A simple, realistic approach to building balanced meals

  • How accepting yourself makes you a “bad consumer” — and a healthier person

Relevant Links:

Work With Us

Explore all services at Head 2 Toe Strength:
https://www.head2toestrength.com