Oprah Winfrey regrets being a ‘major contributor’ to diet culture

Oprah Winfrey apologized for her contribution to diet culture in WeightWatchers’ “Making the Switch: A New Way to Think About Weightlivestream on Thursday evening.

At the beginning of the livestream, Winfrey spoke candidly about her experiences influencing diet culture over the years.

“I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture for 25 years through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show,” Winfrey said. “I have made a major contribution to it. I can’t tell you how many slimming shows and makeovers I’ve done and they’ve been a staple since I started working in television.

Winfrey recalled a moment from 1988’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show” when she rolled a cart of grease onto the stage, saying it was “one of my biggest regrets.”

“It sent a message that starving yourself on a liquid diet set a standard for people watching that neither I nor anyone else could uphold,” she said. “The next day I started gaining weight again. Maya Angelou always said, ‘When you know better, you do better,’ so these conversations are an attempt for me to do better.”

Winfrey continued, “I own what I did, and now I want to do it better.”

Winfrey announced earlier this year that she would be leaving the WeightWatchers board after serving as director since 2015. In April, Winfrey said in a statement about the live-streamed event with WeightWatchers: “As we reconcile the stories of shame we have, I am on a mission to keep this conversation going and help us better understand the complexities of weight health and how we can use science and what we know now to improve our lives.