’Tis the season. The season I’m rolling my eyes so much I’m going to strain them.

Press releases about how to enjoy a “guilt-free” Christmas are dropping into my inbox, as welcome as low-cal, fat-free puddings. Then there are all the articles about getting through the silly season without gaining weight, as well as the ones about the naughty foods that will derail your diet this festive season.

What’s on my naughty list? This trashy Christmas tradition.

It’s probably my eye strain, but I keep looking over my shoulder to check the ghost of Jenny Craig isn’t hovering. It is all just diet culture-speak dressed up as turkey.

I know it’s well-intended – and a well-trodden path. Our obsession with weight and bodies has been brewing since at least the Paleolithic era. The most famous early image of a human, carved from limestone in Austria around 28,000 BCE, was mockingly named “Venus” because she was overweight.

The Venus of Willendorf, according to one description, is a sculpture with a “large stomach that overhangs” her pubic area: “A roll of fat extends around her middle, joining with large but flat buttocks. Her thighs are also large and pressed together down on the knees.”

How to treat “the evils of corpulence” also has a long history.

The first international diet bestseller, Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public, was published in 1863 by British casket maker William Banting.

Banting could have stuck with his day job following the release of the 1911 book The Fasting Cure.

That is because The Fasting Cure could treat obesity, asthma, syphilis … and even life.

One newspaper article described what happened to one man who followed the advice of the book: “A Seattle man fasted 40 days for stomach trouble. His stomach is troubling him no longer. He is dead.”

So I get it. We are all victims of this deranged culture. Inevitably it gets a Christmas makeover and is presented wreath-style as a gift of help to contain our sad stomachs.

But can we please stop it now?

If the thought of indulging on an occasion like Christmas is cause for anxiety, then I’d suggest there is a more profound issue at play. One that needs addressing, and not just during the holiday season.

The bigger question is: Why are we focusing on Christmas weight at all? The tacit rider is that indulgence is “bad” and the only way to avoid shame about eating is to starve in the lead-up to the main event, or to only eat “good” foods.

I asked Ivanka Prichard, a professor of Body Image and Health at Flinders University, what she thinks about it all.

“There is no need to be focusing on weight [gain] during this period,” she says. “Such a focus is problematic and symptomatic of diet culture.”

Hallelujah.

Sarah Cox, a clinical psychologist at the Butterfly Foundation, echoes the sentiment: “This time of year, we continue to battle diet culture – messages that shame us for eating and encourage disordered eating behaviours.”

She adds that insensitive comments about a person’s food intake or changes to their body and appearance can be “incredibly triggering”. That includes comments like ‘You look so healthy now!’ or ‘Wow, you’ve lost so much weight’.

“We really should avoid commenting on someone’s weight or appearance, even if the comment is positive, because it reinforces harmful beliefs that the appearance of our body is important,” Cox says.

The antidote is such a schmaltzy concept, I squirm to write it.

But an effective counter to the diet trash talk we’ve become accustomed to is to practise kindness and self-compassion towards ourselves and to enjoy time with people we love, including the joy of sharing meals and moments together.

Instead of how our bodies look or whether we eat a little more or move a little less than usual, we can try focusing on foods that nourish our bodies and appreciating what our bodies do for us. A focus on nourishing ourselves and what our bodies are capable of is a good rule of thumb for the silly season – and the whole year round.

Prichard has this advice: “Christmas is a time for connection, joy and celebration. While it’s good to balance things and do things in moderation, people should feel free to indulge a little if they wish, without feeling guilty.”

I mean, imagine a truly guilt-free festive season. It would be a Christmas miracle.

Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) or visit www.butterfly.org.au to chat online or email, 7 days a week, 8am-midnight (AEDT).

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