Diet culture vs positive eating for health
The non diet resolution ☺️
With the new year coming up, we see SO many advertisements for health programmes
Yet sadly this tends to mean crash diets, restrictions, guilt, and eventually failure
Fortunately, its totally possible to improve your diet - without actually dieting!!
And its backed by science - huge international studies such as the global lancet study, show that its actually lack of nutritious food in our diets that cause the most harm (along with excess salt from ultra processed foods), rather than focusing on calories or food groups
Ie you don't need to cut out multiple foods to be healthy..
✔️Diet vs health is something we talk about a lot with our patients.
It sounds simplistic but it's SUCH an important distinction
Diet culture tells us :
✔️ food is the enemy
✔️ we are bad if we eat the wrong foods
✔️ we have to calorie count, cut out multiple foods, and always be hungry to succeed
✔️our bodies are shameful if they aren't perfect, and the scales rule
✔️we must reach a 'goal' weight to be happy and healthy
This is harmful, sometimes dangerous, and simply doesn't work - ask any expert on weight loss, the research is clear
Instead, why not try change the focus this year, to health being the priority
This means :
✔️ including as many whole plant foods as possible in your meals (inclusion rather than exclusion), as well as fermented foods, fibre, and prebiotics (#eat the rainbow)
✔️swapping out ultraproccesed foods for whole food alternatives
-thinking of food as a way to nourish your body (inclusion vs exclusion)
✔️ focusing on feeling well and healthy rather than being a specific weight
✔️ paying attention to what you do well, rather than what you aren't doing
✔️ finding ways to be healthy that you enjoy, instead of what you've been told to do
✔️thinking of it as a lifelong pattern rather than a goal on the scales
✔️making small specific daily choices and turning these into longterm habits
✔️writing down what's important to you in your health and life, why it's important, and how changes will help (your vision)
✔️doing it because YOU want to, not because someone else has told you to
Here's to a healthy happy 2023!!