Are you stuck in diet culture examining your relationship with food?
Do you reflect on the rules of diet culture that were placed upon you and the choices you made around food & eating?
These are similar experiences of so many people, whether simply acknowledging the unrealistic expectations of diet culture or questioning its impact in your own life. These experiences are commonplace because the rules that diet culture tries to impose on us are so pervasive in advertising, messaging, conversations, and more.
Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch are two registered dietitians who developed intuitive eating decades ago. Since then, over 170+ research studies have been published on the topic. Intuitive eating is a self-care framework of eating that helps you re-establish your understanding of your body’s cues and grows the respect you hold for food, your mind, and your body. You can learn more about intuitive eating by reading the official website.
Using intuitive eating as a framework of thinking, let’s dive into some food rules that you may hear your friends implementing or in social media messaging…
Counting Macros
Counting calories and counting macronutrients go hand-in-hand. Counting macronutrients—carbohydrates, protein, and fat—resembles counting calories, except you are counting how the calories (aka, energy) you are eating are broken down into the different macronutrient categories, giving you insight on your carb, protein, and fat intake. If this is something you currently do, try reflecting on the following:
If you could guess, how much time each day do you spend in MyFitnessPal or another food tracking app logging the foods you eat? Is this really how you want to spend this time? How will you reflect on how you spent this time when you are elderly?
Do you make meals based on looking at a multitude of different food nutrition labels to make sure they “fit”? Again, is this really how you want to spend your time? Try to make a list of all the non-food or non-eating related things you could do instead. Could you take your dog for a walk, read another chapter in your favorite book, visit your parents, find more time for school work, see a friend you haven’t seen in a while…
The list goes on and on. But, the point is, if you are spending your time counting calories or macronutrients, you are missing out on precious time doing other, more fulfilling and joyful activities. I challenge you to try deleting your food tracking app for a day and reflect on the difference it made in your actions and emotions at the end of the day. Would this be something beneficial to continue doing? If not, what makes you believe counting calories/ macronutrients is the solution for you personally? Do you have research stating positive benefits? Read this article to get a better understanding of the different factors that make counting calories, and counting macronutrients, a poor choice to make in the name of “health,” not to say we’re advocating for the methods they suggest to try instead.
Avoiding “Bad” Foods
Diet culture may have given you the impression that carbs or fats are “bad,” among other food groups/ foods. An unhealthy obsession with only eating “good” foods is much more detrimental on your health than what you deem to be “bad” for your body. Your body is strong enough to appropriately digest and utilize all foods. Consider how you are able to make peace with foods diet culture has encouraged you to identify as “bad” but reading our blog post on Principle #3: Make Peace With Food.
Only Eating at Certain Times
Only eating at certain times of the day, usually what diet culture has labeled as appropriate, may make you think of eating at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If the chains of diet culture weren’t too heavy, you may have had one or two times for snacks throughout the day. But, our bodies do not live according to an external clock. Only eating at certain times throughout the day diminishes our interoceptive awareness with our body and its hunger & fullness. At certain moments in one day, you may be hungry for more food than you were hungry for the day before. This is not indicative of you as an individual, it is simply indicative of the energy your body is asking for to thrive through the day.
Working Off “Bad” Foods
A common effect of diet culture is the need to pay penance for eating “bad” foods. Again, this food rule can immediately be busted because there are no “bad” foods. This penance can come in the form of exercising more intensely the next day, skipping a meal or a snack, restricting your intake, or promising to be “good” tomorrow. Initiating a consistent cycle of shame & guilt for eating “bad” foods is reminiscent of the restrict-binge cycle.
The restrict-binge cycle begins by eliminating a certain food or food group from your diet. And, by diet, I mean the foods you eat, not a diet like the keto diet, intermittent fasting, or another pseudoscience-based fad diet. After the restriction has begun, a subconscious urge will grow until it comes to the forefront of your mind. Then, the urge will become so strong you will eat the food again. And, your brain will be so sure it will never be able to eat the food again, it leads you to eat the food to a point past comfortable fullness. This is your body’s natural biological response to what it believes to be some form of starvation, whether from such an intense calorie restriction or starvation from a certain food group (for example, carbs). After bingeing, feelings of shame and guilt can arise. But remember, your body is responding in a totally normal, biologically-based manner. And, this is a common experience among many people on their journey to find food freedom. You are not alone. If you feel so inclined, you can learn about a similar analogy by tuning into our podcast “Binge Eating on the Weekend.”
Restricting Food
Again, this ties into the restrict-binge cycle. Certain triggers may lead you to feel as though you need to restrict food, such as an upcoming celebration with photos or not feeling comfortable in your clothing. Choosing to restrict the amount of food you eat may even be a subconscious decision you make. For a general rule of thumb, try to eat every two to three hours to keep your body and blood glucose level balanced.
→ Limiting Carbohydrates
Restricting carbs from your diet does not accurately represent research supporting the notion that the brain’s main source of fuel is glucose, or sugar. Read this article to better understand the brain’s glucose requirements for prime functioning. The next time you feel compelled to restrict your carbohydrate consumption, consider what is truly driving this thought. Is it realistic and based on scientific evidence? Most likely, no.
“Eliminating” Hunger by Drinking
Trying to eliminate or extend hunger by drinking may be a common breakfast-time practice; however, it can happen anytime throughout the day. Have you ever waited to eat breakfast, even after noticing you were hungry, and chosen to drink a cup of coffee or tea instead? Choosing to address hunger by drinking coffee, water, soda, juice, etc., distracts you from your body’s hunger cues. Try to identify & honor moments when you feel hungry, address the food or foods that would offer you the most satisfaction, eat the food, and try to gauge your fullness throughout to find a place of comfortable fullness. If you find yourself eating past comfortable fullness, use those times as moments to learn more about your body through the experience. Use what you learn from the experience to try to determine the best steps to take the next time a similar moment arises.
Playing a “False Food” Character in Public
Have you ever found yourself only reaching for the “healthy” foods when with others? This is an example of performative eating. Just as many of these rules stem from external voices, this rule stems from external fears of how others are going to perceive you. You may worry what people think if you reach for a slice of the cake or grab a couple cookies. This fear can backfire and result in restriction. Even if the restriction only lasts for the time spent at the social gathering, it will still backfire with a binge. Just as all food restrictions do. Again, feel free to learn more about the restriction-binge cycle by reading this blog post.
Feeling Like You & Other Dieters are in Competition
Dieting can lead to feelings that comparing yourself with others is a marker of “success.” This can feel especially pervasive if friends, family, or your significant other is on a diet. Remember, your personality and what you offer is so much more interesting than your body and the presence you hold. If fears around your body size are a fear that you hold that drives comparing yourself with those around you, read this blog post on how to let go of those fears.
Questioning What You Want to Eat
Questioning what you want to eat can arise in many different forms. For example, you may think about what you’ve already eaten in the day and try to limit your intake for the remainder of the day. Or, you may have thought, “I’ve already had one plate of dinner, I don’t need a second plate, even though I want it.” In either of these cases, or similar ones, your body’s hunger cues are actively being ignored. This goes against the tenets of Principle #2: Honor Your Hunger. Follow us on Instagram and surround yourself with positive affirmations, humorous quotes, and educational content to help you break out of many of these different diet culture food rules.
Becoming Vegetarian/Vegan/Gluten Free with the Intention of Losing Weight
A lot of intuitive eating is based on your intention for your choices. Choosing to become vegetarian, vegan, or gluten free can be made with the intention of being more environmentally conscious, trying to improve your health, or to honor medically-based intolerances. But, if your intention is to lose weight, any of these eating patterns can simply transform into another fad diet. And, on a fad diet you eliminate your ability to discover the satisfaction factor and honor your hunger. If you follow any of these eating patterns, try to dissect the reason that led you to implement it in your life. Is it something that is warranted, sustainable, and healthy to maintain?
The Diet is A “Lifestyle”
If you view a diet as a “lifestyle,” it’s certain you are not alone. This is all thanks to marketing and how the diet is advertised to those vulnerable to diet culture messaging. Again, you are not alone. Many of us are vulnerable to the false promises of adopting a new “lifestyle.” Dieting is not a “lifestyle.” A lifestyle that is true to yourself does not pressure you or elicit negative emotions. Write down different values that make up a lifestyle that accurately represents you—in a way diet culture, branded for the masses, could never.
Rigidity & Intense Structure in the Name of “Health”
Do you create a strict list of foods to buy when grocery shopping? Do you look at restaurant menus before going to see if anything is “good” for you? Are you relieved if they list calories by each dish? Is exercise a daily activity, even if you are tired, sore, or want to rest? Has messaging led you to cut out food groups, like sugar, saturated fats, sodium, etc.? All of these efforts to eat in the name of “health” create a pattern of inflexible eating that is unsustainable and unenjoyable. A strong obsession with maintaining health through eating and exercise is also known as orthorexia. Although not defined in the DSM-5—the diagnostic manual of mental disorders that defines other eating disorders—is a concept not as commonly heard of as an eating disorder like anorexia. To read more into orthorexia and intense rigidity to eat only “good” and “healthy” foods, read this article from the National Eating Disorders Association.
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Reflecting on all the ideas from this blog post, there is a lot to consider. We broke down a whopping twelve (thirteen if you count breaking one down even further into a subset rule) food rules from diet culture. Many of us may have felt the pressure of these rules at one time or another. But, if you’ve made it through this blog, I am happy to share that you’ve already begun to learn more about intuitive eating Principle #1: Reject the Diet Mentality. I encourage you, if it feels like the right next step, to try to acknowledge diet culture’s rules in your life and uproot them. Starting your intuitive eating journey is not always easy, there will be ebbs and flows. Despite this, one thing our clients always emphasize is their desire to have started intuitive eating earlier in life. Create a note in the app on your phone or grab a journal to dedicate to reflecting on your emotions, thoughts, and reflections that arise on your journey. Try it out by writing your first entry on this blog post and how it made you feel about different food rules from diet culture and Principle #1: Reject the Diet Mentality!
If you are ready to start your journey to find food freedom, explore different ways that you can work with us. And, follow us on social media! You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and Pinterest!
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This blog was written with the assistance of Lauren Fletcher, Intern at Find Food Freedom®!
