Has gen Z really killed off dieting – or has it just changed its name? | Arwa Mahdawi

Body positivity is all the rage and soft drinks are being repackaged as zero sugar'. But is clean eating' just dieting in disguise?

Remember when the media were obsessed with murderous millennials? There was a period, some years back, when every other article was about how millennials were killing everything from the diamond industry to napkins to capitalism. (Alas, we didn't quite manage to top that last one.) Anyway, we had a good run, but we millennials are old now; we have kids and cricks in our necks. It is gen Z's turn to pick up the sword. And what do you know? It seems they already have. Their first victim? The word diet".

According to CNN, diet drinks are disappearing from supermarket shelves and being replaced with identical products labelled as zero sugar". Younger people just don't like the word diet'," it reported the chief marketing officer at PepsiCo Beverages North America saying at an industry conference last month. No gen Z wants to be on a diet these days."

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist