#girldinner - freedom from cooking or dangerous trend?
Girl dinner - a meal typically consisting of snacks, side dishes, and small portions of (often randomly assembled) foods. Regardless of its components, girl dinner is typically characterized by its small portions.
Dictionary.com
Something that has recently been trending heavily on social media and even has its own hashtag now, is the concept of “girl dinner”. This trend was started by micro-creator Olivia Maher. When chatting with a girlfriend about their dinner plans, Maher shared that when her boyfriend isn’t home, she tends to eat what she calls girl dinner, basically a plate of random snacks assembled from the contents of one’s cupboard and fridge. Think bread or crackers paired with cheese, fruit, olives, pickles, dips and cured meats, etc. Most importantly, these are foods that don’t require cooking.
When I first heard about this concept, I thought sure, that makes perfect sense to me. As someone who has (gladly) spent countless hours in the kitchen preparing wholesome meals for my family, I appreciate a day off from cooking. I relish my “girl dinners”, and I never thought that the concept could become a trend on Twitter, much less a hotly debated controversy.
So, what is so controversial about girl dinners, you might ask? Apparently, a lot. In recent weeks the trend started to blow up on TikTok, with thousands of women posting versions of their girl dinners, which in some cases consisted of things like popcorn, melted cheese on chips, a can of corn or -more extreme- just a can of Coke Zero. It went from interesting insights into fun and quirky food combinations women love, to women showing off their almost non-existent meals.
I think everyone deserves a break from cooking every day, and if that means indulging in a fun and yummy meal of favorite snack foods, have at it. And by the way, those girl dinners don’t have to be unhealthy. It just depends on what’s on the plate. But then there are the aforementioned extremes. And that’s what has experts concerned, namely that promoting limited-calorie or nutrient-deficient meal choices might lead some women/girls down a path of disordered eating.
Talia Follador, RDN, LDN, thinks there is potential for the ‘girl dinner’ trend to lead to disordered eating because the term ‘girl’ may imply to some people that portion sizes should be small, or ‘girl’ sized.
Caroline Young, MS, RD, LD, RYT, who specializes in eating disorders, recommends asking yourself the following three questions to determine whether your girl dinner is nourishing and meeting your needs:
Are there carbs, fat and protein present?
Is this meal satisfying and pleasurable?
Is this dinner giving me enough energy and filling me up?
According to Young, if you answer no to any of those questions, your girl dinner could be harmful. On the other hand, if it consists of grains like bread and crackers, fats like cheeses and olives and proteins like cured meats and nuts, and maybe a few fruits and veggies sprinkled in, your girl dinner checks all the boxes.
Bottom Line: The girl dinner trend can be part of a healthy diet if there is enough food on the plate and it includes all your food groups. However, there is some potential to trigger disordered eating if your girl dinner doesn’t have adequate amounts of calories and variety. And BTW, this isn’t just true for girls.
It was inevitable that TikTok would answer the trend with ‘boy dinner’. TikToker Catherine Ann Chiang contrasts her cute and delicious-looking girl dinner with her boyfriend’s boy dinner (a steak, and only a steak), adding that “girl dinner is like, a curated little experience, you got different little vibes going on, and then boy dinner is like, how can I get the requisite amount of calories into my body in as simple a form as possible.”
Men are also posting their versions of #boydinner on social media, and here, too, there is no lack of extremes, some of them really gross, like instant noodles in a dirty sink. No mention of portion sizes or nutritional content, though. In fact, a quick online search for concerned experts talking about the health risks of boy dinners yielded zero results.
I think I will ponder that question over a NOT girl-sized plate of yummy, random stuff from my fridge.
Sources: Dictionary.com, Talia Follador, RD, LDN, Caroline L. Young, MS, RD, LD, RYT