Tag: food stress

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F*** Diet Culture

 If you are here you are probably feeling overwhelmed and confused with food in some capacity. First off I want you to know that, that is completely okay. There is SO much information out there about how we are SUPPOSED to be eating that it can be exhausting and confusing to navigate. Each person claims that this is the way we SHOULD be eating to benefit our health and wellbeing and body the most. But is that true?

Before we even begin I want to let everyone in on a little secret. There is no one right way to eat. That doesn’t exist. However this is the exact opposite message that is being portrayed in our society today. Instead there is this idea of “diet culture” that is pervasive and glorified. Diet culture perpetuates this idea that if we eat exactly what someone tells us we are going to be doing it right – meaning that we are going to feel good, look amazing and be loved and cherished by the people around us. 

The truth is that we are all different and something that works for one person, such as a particular diet, is not going to work for everyone. The same way we are all unique in our personalities we are all unique in our bodies and our physiological functioning and our overall ability to be nourished. Some of us feel better eating one way and some of us feel better eating another. One is not better than the other. Food is NOURISHMENT for us. This fundamental truth is lost in our “diet culture”.

Diet culture is essentially a system of beliefs that has been created in society that define our worth based on our appearance and the food that we eat.

Christy Harrison, a nutritionist and public figure, defines this phenomenon as a system of beliefs that is based on four key concepts.

  • The worship of thinness and equating it to health and moral virtue (basically it correlates how thin you are to how good of a person you are – ???!?!?)
  • Promotion of weight loss as a means of attaining a higher status (the idea that if you look a certain way it gives you more value in society – ?!?!??)
  • Demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others (if you eat this way you are a good person and if you eat this way you aren’t as good – – this makes no sense and completely negates the nutritional value of food)
  • Oppresses people who don’t match up with its supposed picture of “health” (if you don’t follow the previous three criteria you are seen as less than others – ?!??!?)

The problem is that diet culture is based on a series of beliefs that aren’t true. This way of eating does not give your body what it needs. In fact it is based on this idea of trying to control all of the things that are going into your body. It is about reducing each of the foods that we eat into a number that is going to influence our weight. It takes away all of the essential nutrients and vitamins and minerals found in these foods. It forgets to mention the ways in which these foods nourish our bodies and supports the functioning of our internal systems. It makes the act of fuelling our bodies, not about fuelling our bodies. This can leave us feeling exhausted, frustrated and confused.

This is because diets are based on what we think we should be doing instead of listening to what our bodies need and doing that. Diet culture is not about what we need – it is about what we THINK we need to conform to this system of beliefs.

Basically what this way of thinking and eating tells us is that – if we aren’t thin we are wrong, if we aren’t losing weight or trying to we are wrong, if we are eating this instead of that we are wrong and it we don’t look a certain way we are wrong.

This is NOT TRUE. Our mental and physical health ARE NOT quantified by our weight or by trying to make our bodies and food choices fit into a certain mould. Who we are as people and our self worth is not defined by the way that we look or the food that we put in our body. It is a lie to try and make us believe this, but that is EXACTLY what diet culture makes us believe.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

There is a way to change our perspective of what food is. There is a way to see it for the nutrition – the vitamins, minerals, nutrients and internal systems fuelling thing that it really is. It is possible to see food for the nourishment that it is. It is possible to eat without depriving yourself or feeling guilty or without following 100000 different rules.

Life is exhausting enough as it is. Food does not need to be taking this much of your energy. Food does not need to be that hard.

Click here to learn more about how we can support you to find freedom and nourishment in your relationship with food.

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Food Stress?!?!

Is it an eating disorder or just normal food stress? That is the question. Many people have a preoccupation with food, but would never consider it an eating disorder. Maybe because it doesn’t fit the diagnostic criteria of an eating disorder. Maybe because it doesn’t seem severe enough. Maybe because this preoccupation or focus on food is just “normal” food stress.

The truth is there is no normal food stress.

Food is not supposed to be complicated or hard or stressful. It is not supposed to be something that fills our days and our thoughts. It is not supposed to make us feel emotionally bad EVER.

Yes there are foods that impact our bodies in certain ways that can give rise to physical symptoms, BUT those are very different from the emotional guilt and stress that surrounds eating certain foods for many people.

Food is our sustenance, nourishment and social connection. It is to be eaten and enjoyed so that we have energy to live; energy to make it through the day; energy to survive.

Along the way, as we have evolved as humans, this fundamental value of what food is has gotten lost. Instead it has been replaced by diet culture. The obsession with thinness and fitness and health and the “right” diet has led to food becoming something that we should scrutinize, avoid, manipulate. It has become something that we use to avoid emotional pain. Over eating, under eating, obsessive healthy eating, eating junk food, thinking about food all of the time; these are all ways that food has become a tool in our lives instead of sustenance.  

Food is no longer seen as the fundamental nourishment that it is.

Instead it has become acceptable to use food as a coping mechanism, a distraction, a place to direct our stress and overwhelm. That can manifest in different obsessions and actions depending on the person.

While it may not be an overt eating disorder – many of us are using food as a tool to help us cope with our lives and what is happening in this. This is creating an entire society with an extremely complicated relationship with food. 

It does not have to be this way.

Part of understanding this complex and emotional relationship we have with food is for each of us to understand what is going on with ourselves. What underneath our day-to-day actions makes us need to use food in the ways that we are. What is safe about thinking about food versus thinking about other things? What does engaging with food offer us amidst the complexity of the world and of our emotions? This is something that all of use can take time to reflect on.

Underneath the preoccupation with food there might be something that we need help and support navigating. You don’t have to have an overt eating disorder to have thoughts, obsessions, guilt, dysfunctions, stress, or just an overall complicated relationship with food. It is the norm these days. But it doesn’t have to be.

Food is not meant to be hard. Remember that when you find food taking over your thoughts. Food is supposed to give you energy instead of taking it away. If you are finding that thinking about or engaging with food is taking more energy than it should – there is always support to help navigate it. Never hesitate to reach out – eating disorder or not. I am here to help you look beyond the food and figure out how to best support and nourish your body both emotionally and physically.