When I tell people I'm a dietitian they naturally assume I'm going to be the food police and tell them what they're eating is bad and what they should be doing instead. But... I actually don't care that much about what you eat. I care about why you eat and how you eat. I care about your thoughts around food, how you see yourself in the mirror and if you are well nourished inside and out. Weight loss is not the answer. The medical world claims it is the answer to the problems that they see but in reality weight loss diets is one of the most harmful things we can do and has one of the least success rates of current prescribed medical interventions. Instead, I practise the non diet approach, which is evidence based and the most helpful way dietitians can help their clients.
I believe in body positivity
One of the worst effects of dieting is that it goes hand in hand with the desire to lose weight or change your body in some way. It is saying to yourself, 'I'm not enough' or 'I need to change this in order to be that'. Think about how often those thoughts pop up. I still get those thoughts frequently regardless of the effort I put in trying to fight against them. They are strong, pervasive and damaging. We live in a society that prizes one body type, which is mostly unattainable and is unrealistic. We think that we can't be beautiful if we do not look like the women portrayed in the media. Can I just stop there for a minute and say this is wrong and I'm sorry because not one of us is immune to this. But we each possess our own individual unique beauty. And how wonderful this is! Short legs, muscly arms, lean torso, large chest, rounded hips, narrow shoulders, long face.
We all have a beauty of our own. We need to start embracing this in ourselves and others. Whenever we act on the thoughts that we need to change we are automatically starting the diet cycle leading to deprivation and then ultimately beinging or overeating. One of the best things we can do to prevent this is being ok with our bodies right now. This will take time and some good support but nothing will change for the better until you start appreciating your body for what it is and at the same time know that bodies are not the most important thing in this life! I love the way Taryn Brumfitt of 'Embrace' documentary puts it: 'my body is not an ornament, its a vehicle to my dreams.'
I believe food is for enjoyment, not a tool to manipulate our body
Food is a wonderful thing. What else is delicious, built into the days schedule and required for life?! The fact that our social lives are intertwined with food tells us that it is not just fuel but an integral part of community and our psychological health. We have some our best moments over a lovely meal and have fond memories from just a smell of our grandmothers cooking. All these parts of food is what makes it good and what makes dieting almost impossible. Dieting dictates everything about what and how we eat leaving very little enjoyable experience - and don't count your 90% dark chocolate treat scheduled in at 9pm every night because clean eating rules say thats allowed.
No, we need free choice with what to eat at every meal because we are guaranteed to want variety. This is normal and good. Our brains naturally seek out different textures and tastes. A study showed that women who ate over 16 different foods reduced their risk of dying from any cause by 42 percent when compared to women who ate less than 9 different foods. It is also known that populations such as the Japanese and Greek have long lifespans and have a common feature of eating a wide variety of foods. All this is to say, enjoying a range of foods is very beneficial and there is no need to cut out food groups or forgo traditional staples such as wine, cheese and bread.
I believe we can get more out of life when we're not consumed by food/body thoughts
Those of us that restrict/deprive ourselves have way more food thoughts than those who don't. Why is there such a link between the mind and our eating? Its a survival mechanism. When we are not getting enough food or even just knowing that our favourite foods are off limits can trigger the brain to seek out food at every opportunity, which is why dieters are thinking about dinner before they even have breakfast. Do we really want our thoughts constantly going towards this?
Or could we take up a new hobby, invest in our relationships, enjoy choosing whatever food sounds good for now without worrying about it. Dieting is all about worrying about food! It makes us weigh food out, count calories, meal plan like we're crazy, keep little baggies of chopped raw veg that we never feel like eating, get on the scales, obsess about the number on the scale, look at menus of restaurant days in advance to find the most diet friendly option. This is all exhausting, soul sucking and joy less! And at the end of the day this mental and physical energy is not going towards anything worthwhile. Just to let you know: your appearance and what you ate today are not the most interesting parts about you.
I believe we can be our healthiest selves when we can eat all foods without guilt
When we are just as much enjoying a slice of cake as we are a bowl of fruit salad and we are not thinking of the nutrition content, that is normal eating. It is choosing what you eat based on how hungry you are, what feels good now and what will satisfy you. In this way, we are likely to choose a whole range of foods and take in all the nutrients we need because we can trust that our body wants to maintain a comfortable weight. There is nothing more healthy than going out to eat and choosing the thing that sounds most delicious on the menu and enjoying it with company. Saying no to a social invitation because of food is one of the detrimental effects of dieting and only leaves us feeling miserable and reaching for ice-cream.
Healthy does not need to be in a box defined by a label (paleo, no sugar, low fat, raw etc). In fact this type of restriction is not healthy at all. Perfection has no place for 'normal' eaters. They are able to think about a meal as being one of many in the week so that no single food matters much by itself. Overeating and underrating happen and thats just part of life. So is eating foods simply for the taste of it even if you're not hungry. Not caring too much about what we eat so that we can go after life is very very healthy indeed.
I believe we are able to regulate our appetite and maintain our weight quite effortlessly
Thinking we have to lose weight and going on a diet puts a lot of trust on external influences (the clock, food rules, meal plan, calorie target) and very little trust on internal influences (hunger, fullness, satisfaction, moods, cravings). Many of my clients after having dieted for a long while really struggle to know what hunger and fullness feel like. Yet we are born with these signals to direct how much food our body needs. And listening to them and responding makes a whole lot of sense when our aim is to feel healthy and eat what is right for us.
From the 'Endocrine Review' Journal: the complexities of the neurochemical regulation of food intake are not surprising when one considers the varied inputs involved in the determination of feeding behavior. With depletion of an organism's energy stores, a series of signals arise which force the animal to hunt for food.' When we start messing with lowering our food intake, we will eventually seek out food any way we can, and ultimately overeat. On the other hand, when our food intake is appetite driven our weight settles where it wants to be. And we can't easily trick our bodies! A simple way we can get back to eating based on internal influences is asking ourself, how hungry am I? before eating and 'what food do I feel like?'. We can trust that our bodies will tell us what is too much by signalling fullness. Eating to our appetite eliminates the need to obsess over food, weight and shape and gives you the freedom to enjoy all kinds of foods.
