Diet Culture Vs. Flexible Nutrition
If you’re new here, you may not know that I found food freedom by tracking macros. I began to understand how much fuel (aka FOOD) my body needed to achieve my goals and that it wouldn’t immediately store my fear foods as fat. This is how I made peace with donuts again! I plugged it into my macros and stayed within my numbers so that I was properly fueled without going overboard. I was satisfied, I felt at peace, and I was inspired to help others with their nutrition journies.
Today I’m going to start dismantling some diet culture lies and fill it in with some truths that I learned about through my nutrition certification course and general research. Let’s get started, shall we?
Diet culture equates a certain body type to being “healthy”. As a woman who has been many sizes, I’ve been considered healthy in all of them but my lowest weight was my least healthy version of myself. Diet culture typically equates a “skinny” body type to being healthy and others as unhealthy. This is not entirely true. Sometimes being healthy means gaining muscle but maybe your weight doesn’t change. You can also become healthier by gaining weight or simply learning to relax around certain foods. Being healthy cannot be described by body type alone. This is why I like to focus on whole health: physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional.
Diet culture labels food as “good” or “bad”. THERE. IS. NO. SUCH. THING. AS. FOOD. MORALITY. Food is not inherently good or bad. If you overeat anything, your body will regard excess calories as that and store it for later use. Aka, you will gain weight. However, your body will not clock the donut you ate as automatically bad and store it as fat just like it won’t turn the salad you ate into abs. Being mindful of your choices according to your nutrition goals is the best way to achieve a long-term, healthy relationship with all foods.
Diet culture restricts certain foods. I bet you $10 that if you restricted every single food that is deemed as “bad”, you’d be left eating ice cubes. I firmly believe that the only time you should be restricting something is in the case of an allergy or substance addiction. Fad diets come and go but the one consistent way to get healthy and achieve your nutrition goals is to stick to the basics: eat mostly natural foods, get plenty of protein, hydrate adequately, get 7-9 hours of sleep, and move your body.
All calories are created equal. Not true! If you’ve made it this far, you know I’m not talking about donuts versus apples. I’m talking about the calories from macronutrients (carbs, fats, and proteins). Your body needs enough of each to function properly, and those amounts vary from person to person based on activity level, age, goals, dietary preference, and more. My job as a nutrition coach is to help you figure out the right ratio of carbs, fats, and proteins to help you achieve your goals while maintaining a flexible outlook on all foods.