Diet? Fuhgeddaboudit

"Forget about it" for all the non New York City speakers

*Before I begin I would like to make the following disclosure - this is not meant to provide individual medical advice or counseling. These are my thoughts only for educational purposes.*

I label myself as a “non diet” and an “all foods fit” dietitian for many reasons. One reason in particular is that I’m not a fan of restrictive, unnecessary ways of eating. I believe that food is meant to be enjoyed in addition to providing nutrients and I also believe that not everyone is meant to have a thin body and we should start accepting body diversity. Please note that I believe in body autonomy so I will never try to make someone feel bad about trying a restrictive eating plan in order to be smaller, however my hope is that we are aware of the weight stigma and bias in society as well as the realization of the effects on our bodies of such a restriction. 

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

The word diet has also taken a detour simply meaning how we eat.

Diet (noun) - food and drink regularly provided or consumed; habitual nourishment.

Whenever someone brings up their diet, it’s usually in the restrictive sense of trying to achieve weight loss. It’s such a normalized topic of discussion within society as well, I mean we have “water cooler discussions” about the new diet at work or during happy hour with friends. It’s something that is very ingrained within society so we talk about it nonchalantly. I would absolutely love it if we got back to discussing the foods and beverages we prefer to eat as our diet without the restrictive connotation attached. I personally am allergic to nuts, soy, avocado, and green peas so I don’t include them in my diet (way of eating).

Whether you want to call it a lifestyle or a health kick, I find that many of these diets have the opposite effect of the intent. Many of us at some point in time have partaken in them and many of us also know that they don’t work because we have tried more than one, repeatedly. That’s what the diet cycle is, we have interest in weight loss, choose a diet to partake in, have intense cravings during because of the restriction, and then “fall off the wagon” due to the restriction. Boom. Diet restarts again, like a cycle. We can then feel like failures because many of the mainstream diets have such great marketing, making them seem effortless with easy to achieve results. However, nothing is a easy as it seems because there are many factors to food consumption and the choices we make. In my opinion, the restrictive nature of these diets has a heavy psychological effect that is rarely discussed.