What is 'girl dinner'?

'Girl dinner' has taken TikTok by storm this summer with views totaling over 700 million. 

The premise of 'girl dinner' began as a fun way for people to share their plated random assortment of food. Instead of spending hours in the kitchen cooking a meal, you eat various ready-to-eat food from your pantry or fridge until you are full. This blog is more of an opinion piece today. As always, you have permission to eat and enjoy foods however you please. As a non-diet dietitian, I want to shed some light on the pros and cons of 'girl dinner' to help you make more of an informed choice for yourself. If you'd like to share your opinion and chat with me, please DM me on IG @fork.diet.culture. 

Pros of 'girl dinner'

• Cost effective: ready-to-eat foods (frozen, canned, packaged) are typically less expensive and keep longer than fresh produce or meats.
• Saves time: just throw foods on your plate that sound tasty and satisfying! 
• Normalizes convenient foods: convenient foods are a great staple to your diet! They're easy to prepare, offer a wide variety, saves money, time, and energy. Plus, canned/ frozen foods are fortified with nutrients and have the same amount of nutrients as fresh foods. 
• Division of labor: another social media trend of 'ingredient only' foods enforces societal expectations that we "should" bear the weight of making meals from scratch. This can be a lot of added labor for someone, especially when we consider other factors like working 40 hours week, caring for a family and/ or pets, household chores, lack of food accessibility and affordability, etc.

Cons of 'girl dinner'

• "Ingredient only": this trend has been around for a bit now on social media, and my feelings are mixed. Some 'girl dinners' are also 'ingredient only'. The only qualms I have with this is when people say, "eating only ingredient foods is healthier than convenient food". We know this simply is not true. The idea of the trend is having flour, chocolate chips, baking soda, salt, etc. to make cookies is 'ingredient only', rather than having Oreos. This is a lot of added stress and demonizes other, more accessible, forms of nutrition.
• Glamorizing small plates: while some 'girl dinners' are sufficient calories for a meal, others simply are not. The idea that femininity and "eating like a bird" is not a new one. This is harmful as guilt and shame are difficult emotions and may be felt when one is hungry for more food or wants to eat a larger meal. 
• Feeling like, "this is how I'm supposed to eat":  the target audience on TikTok (where this trend really lives) are adolescent girls who might not understand what normal eating is. Many 'girl dinners' are smaller and may send the message of "restriction is a normal way of eating". 
• Plate comparison: similar to What I Eat In A Day videos, comparison becomes easy when people are sharing a small snippet of their diets.
• The term in itself: girl in 'girl dinner' can be problematic in its emphasis on gender and very rooted in how girls 'should be eating less'. 

What are your thoughts on 'girl dinner'?

Your dietitian bff,

Abbey Roberts, MS, RD

CEO of Fork Diet Culture