Tag: support

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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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Beyond Food: Eating Disorder Awareness Week

Because in my mind I am not okay

Eating disorders are one of the most complex and challenging illnesses to both treat and experience. They can be close to invisible, hidden by a “healthy” looking exterior of perceived calm and collection or they can be as evident as an emaciated human being.

Types of eating disorders:

Anorexia nervosa: Anorexia is an eating disorder that is characterized by a refusal to maintain a normal body weight (usually less than 85% of expected body weight), intense fear of gaining weight, as well as a disturbance in experience of one’s body shape or weight. This can be either restrictive, which involves not eating or binge-eating and purging, which involves large amount of food and then purging it out of the body in some way. This also has an increased influence on one’s body image and self-evaluation.

Bulimia nervosa: Bulimia is an eating disorder that is characterized by recurrent binge eating over a specific period of time that feels as though there is a sense of lack of control. After this binge eating there is often a recurrent, inappropriate compensatory behaviour such as vomiting that gets rid of the food that has just been ingested. This also has an increased influence on one’s body image and self-evaluation.

Binge eating disorder: binge eating disorder is very similar to bulimia however without the purging or compensatory behaviour. It is characterized by episodes of eating large quantities of food in a short period of time with a sense of lack of control over this. It is often followed up an experience of shame, distress or guilt following the food eating episodes as well as the feeling of being uncomfortably full. This also has an increased influence on one’s body image and self-evaluation.

Orthorexia: A form of fixation with food that resolves around obsession for proper nutrition resulting in a restrictive diet, a focus on food preparation and ritualized patters of eating. This is often has an obsession with food quality or nutrition leading to much of their mental and physical energy going towards thinking about food so much so that it interferes with daily life.

February 1st marks the beginning of eating disorder awareness week.  While this is a week that specifically works to bring to attention to struggles of those with diagnosed eating disorders, it also asks each and every one of us to evaluate our own relationship with food and hunger. Food is something that is so tied with human emotion, and human experience that it can become a method that we use to cope without even realizing it. Whether it is emotionally eating, emotionally not eating, choosing junk food when we feel bad or refusing to touch unhealthy food when we feel bad, our ways of interacting with food are often based on how we feel emotionally instead of looking at what our body needs. In this sense each of us engage in disordered eating patterns at some point or another.

The truth about food is that it is our nourishment. It is what our body needs to survive each and every day. We MUST have food every day. This is what can make eating disorders so incredibly painful for the person who suffers from them. Unlike other addiction such as drug addiction or alcoholism, a person with an eating disorder cannot avoid the trigger of all of their mental and physical pain. They have to eat. No matter how much pain it causes them – they have to eat.

For most people if there is something that hurts them –they don’t’ do it. For example when you touch a hot element on a stove, it burns and causes pain in the area that touches the element. In order to avoid this pain you take caution when you are using the elements and try not to touch the element whenever possible. For someone with an eating disorder it is eating food that causes this similar sensation of mental, emotional and physical pain in their entire being. The thing is they can’t stop eating food. This makes it incredibly challenging to recover from an eating disorder. At the same time that you are trying to work through all of the things underlying the disorder such as anxiety, depression, OCD, past traumas etc. you are continuously being triggered.  Can you imagine trying to heal that burned hand if you are constantly being forced to place it back on the hot element? It takes incredibly hard work and time and strength to overcome this trigger and truly start to heal.

This is the type of resilience that characterizes people who are in recovery or who have recovered from an eating disorder.

This is what eating disorder awareness week is all about. It is about recognizing the complexity and the challenge that comes with trying to overcome an eating disorder. It is about recognizing that recovery does not stop when someone is at an appropriate weight – instead it is a constant struggle each and every day on the inside. It involves overcoming certain thought patterns and core beliefs that are so ingrained that they feel true. It involves going beyond food and learning about who you are beneath this disorder. It is about healing all of the parts of  the self that have been hurt, fragmented, broken. It is about looking at all of the parts of the self that are scared, anxious, depressed, traumatized, alone and working with them to create safety in this world. It is about finding a way that each and every person with an eating disorder can feel safe in the world so that they do not need to hold onto their eating disorder to feel okay.  It takes time. It takes strength. It takes patience. More than anything it takes support, no matter how long it has been, no matter how long it will take. There is no right way to recover from an eating disorder, no right treatment. It is about working with each individual, to support them the best way possible, no matter what that support looks like.

Naturopathic Medicine is one of the many tools that can support those who are trying to recover from an eating disorder. The many modalities that Naturopathic Medicine encompasses including mind-body counselling, acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, homeopathy, and nutrition are all tools that can support someone with an eating disorder. No matter what direction your recovery is going, never be afraid to reach out for support with me, Dr. Alexandra.

Remember that you are not alone in this. Support for eating disorders is available through Naturopathic Medicine and may other tools. I am always sending so much love and support. Hang in there.