Recognizing Diet Culture-Part 2

What is disordered Eating?

When I hear "eating disorder" I think of the medically diagnosed eating disorders but disordered eating is more nuanced and includes, fasting, chronic restrained eating, restricting major food groups, and bulimic behaviours and bingeing, which many people do as a result of dieting/restrictive eating. People who obsessively think about and hold disordered beliefs about food, even if they don't always act on them, still have a problem in their relationship with food according to Christy Harrison, a registered dietitian and intuitive eating counsellor.

I started to view my eating habits through a different lens when I asked myself, “to what degree are fear and shame involved in your relationship with food?” When I sat with this and let myself be curious I realized that I had taken on fat phobic beliefs from my family and those beliefs became intensified when I started working in the fitness industry. Diet mentality for me, was a fear of gaining weight coupled with a desire for a certain physique, which fed shame and “not enoughness” because that physique was unattainable and unsustainable. Harrison would have said that I had a problematic relationship with food and she would have been right. I restricted my eating, I ate certain foods and not others because they were “bad” and I spent time, money and effort on food in ways that I never did in my teens and 20's.

Intuitive Eating, what does that mean?

Intuitive Eating (IE) is more than just "eating when you are hungry and stopping when you feel full." In this article Christy Harrison dispels some myths about what intuitive eating is and isn’t.

"I.E. is a set of principles—a paradigm, really—for eating, as well as for relating to food and your body. Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch developed it as a way to help people stuck in the cycle of dieting and disordered eating get back in touch with their innate instincts about food, where your choices about what and when to eat are based on your own hunger and satisfaction, not external rules about what and when to eat or not eat." Christy Harrison.

There are 10 principles to IE. The first principle is letting go of diet mentality. This was challenging for me, I had to ignore a lot of fat phobic talk in my head when I started to let myself eat intuitively.

The Impact of Restriction/Deprivation

Harrison explains "There are a number of good reasons why intuitive eating discourages dieting, but one is that diets drive what I call “rebound eating”—eating to make up for restriction—which is a nearly inevitable response to dieting. Rebound eating can feel out of control and the foods we tend to overeat when we are rebound eating can feel addictive but it is the restriction driving that behaviour and feeling." "Food isn’t addictive in the same way that substances are. While you can absolutely feel addicted to certain foods, those foods only create addiction-like eating in the context of restriction." I struggled with this, I believed that foods could be addictive but the more I think about it I now realize that the foods I craved were the foods I was restricting. I felt anxious giving myself permission to eat anything but ultimately what I have found is that I want food that nourishes me. When I do eat, what I would have previously thought of as "bad/junk" food, I do not feel well, I feel sick in my stomach. My body has a negative physiological response. I crave nourishment.

Eating a lot in response to deprivation is a survival mechanism—a way that your body takes care of you and makes sure you don't starve.

UPF is bad, isn't it?

I am in the very fortunate position to have never experienced food insecurity. I am able to eliminate ultra processed foods (UPF) from my life and I have encouraged others to do the same. Therefore I struggled to understand why Harrison and other disordered eating counsellors warn against an "anti UPF" view and discourage labelling any food as bad. I understand now, that in the context of food insecurity it is not helpful to demonize any food, if UPF is all you can afford financially or if you are too busy and cannot afford the time to spend on cooking and food preparation, then it is the best choice to make.

I think there is a fine line between awareness and preoccupation. We need to be mindful of our nutrition; eating protein, fats, fiber and carbs but I am skeptical of how much we benefit from stressing about getting the right macronutrient, in the right amount at the right time. Getting enough nourishment moves the needle of health and well being in a significant way but over analyzing our food choices, I would argue, does not move the needle enough to justify the stress and worry.

Intuitive Exercise?

We can think about exercise in a similar manner, going from not moving our bodies (spending most of our time sitting motionless) to moving our bodies regularly moves the needle of our health in a very big way. When we over analyze our exercise routine I think we start to sacrifice pleasure and our mental well being for one aspect of our physical well being. As I wrote in Part 1, physical health includes not only cardiovascular health and muscular strength but also mobility, agility, coordination, balance, flexibility, play, joyful movement and rest. And, physical health is only one part of health and true well being.

It is really hard to divorce exercise from diet culture. Exercise has been tied to calorie burning and weight loss for a long time. Diet culture has us connect exercise with weight loss but we need to break this connection because what research has shown us (outlined in Daniel Lieberman's book, Exercised and Herman Pontzer's book, Burn) is that lifestyle does not determine how many calories we burn in a day. We burn the same amount of calories each day no matter how much we move because over time our bodies adapt to increased activity to keep energy expenditure in check. We need to stop making exercise about weight loss. So, what is exercise outside of diet culture? Exercise is moving our bodies because the human body and brain thrives on and benefits from movement. "We are like sharks, we have to keep moving." Says Herman Pontzer.

All human movement comes from the foundational movement patterns of squat, lunge, bend, push, pull and twist. Modern life does not require us to move in these ways on a regular basis so we need to devote time and effort into putting these movements into our lives through exercise and/or play and joyful movement. Daniel Lieberman explains that a lot of people do not enjoy exercise so we need to make it fun. Principle 9 of Intuitive Eating is focusing on how movement feels, physical movement should feel good. If lifting weights feels good to you then do it but if it doesn't then don't force yourself to do it. There are many ways of building strength that do not require lifting weights and more importantly strength training is one aspect of physical health and it may not be doable or a priority for you at this time.

My workouts have changed since my 30's. I still lift weights, I still do cardiovascular workouts but I spend more time doing gentle stretching, dancing and playing. When author Elizabeth Gilbert turned 54 she was interviewed by Oldster magazine and she said "I have read, post-menopausal women call these years “second childhood." This resonated for me in a big way. I feel like I am reconnecting with my childhood. I spend a lot more time creating and playing like I did when I was a kid; crafting, colouring, hopscotching, doing head stands and hand stands, skipping rope, roller skating and dancing. Play is a big part of my exercise routine now.

Falling back in love with bread and baking

I have heard many at home bakers say that baking is an expression of love. Sharing food with someone is a great way of connecting. I loved coming home to my mom's baking. Even now when I visit her, I hope she offers me some of her fresh baked treats. Once I started working in the fitness industry and was exposed to diet culture, my relationship with food changed, not for the better. I gave up all wheat for a while. I also went through times when I would limit my sugar and I would stop baking. When I would bake I would try to make it "healthier" by using whole wheat flour and or reducing the amount of sweetener but the end result was always a compromise, it was not the baking I grew up with and loved and enjoyed. Diet culture demonizes baking and any foods high in sugar, salt or fat but if I make a cinnamon bun I want it too taste like a cinnamon bun, sweet, light and gooey! Joe started making sourdough five years ago and as a result bread has become a big part of our diet, I feel sad that there was a time when I thought bread, a staple food that I grew up with, was "bad".

We eat a vegan diet now-not because of diet culture, that decision was made from a concern for animal welfare and climate change so it does not feel like a restriction. On the contrary, eating a vegan diet has a positive impact on my emotional well being. I have discovered that vegan baking is not a compromise at all, the way that "making it healthier" was. I love having bread and baking in my life again. Diet culture steered me away from my intuitive needs and wants. When we can quiet the noise from diet culture we can tune into what brings us joy.