Diet Culture

We live in diet culture. Like every where we look there's something telling us what we can do to look more like "her." Who the hell is her? Over the past year, I've done a lot of work to learn to love looking more like me. A happy, healthy, nourished me. And when you start loving being nourished, you start to hate diet culture and everything it does to prey on our insecurities.

A balanced lifestyle should never ask us to throw our lives out of balance which is often what a diet does. The most common type of diet restricts calories by excluding an entire food group from your diet and compensating by adding foods from a different food group to ensure that you still "feel full." Let's talk about science for a minute. Your body needs every single food group. You can google each food and learn what they all do for you, but you can't live without any single one of them. They all work together to make your body function at its best. When you exclude one of those food groups, one part of your body isn't able to be its best. For example, a common food myth is that carbs make you fat. Carbs are actually the main source of energy for the body. When you restrict carbs, you're restricting your body's energy resources. They also power your brain. So carbs don't make you fat - they make you smart and strong. Your body can't get the same energy and wits from a vegetable. 60% of your diet should actually come from carbohydrates. This doesn't meant that you have to eat pasta every single day (there are plenty of other sources of carbohydrates out there), but it does mean that restricting this food group altogether is a terrible idea!

It's called balance. The body needs everything. It needs fruits and vegetables just as badly as its needs fats and proteins. We should consume every food group, every day. And we should love our bodies regardless of what the media is telling us is beautiful. I've been overweight and I've been underweight and I've been a healthy weight. I can tell you that the first time I really began to nourish my body, I went to my therapist and said "if this is what being nourished feels like, then I've been starving for years." And I've met plenty of people who have had this same experience. Skinny isn't an indicator of health. And number on a scale is just that, a number. If you're nourishing your body appropriately, your body will respond and find its healthiest range. You'll feel good. And you won't be hungry.

If you have questions or need help or feel overwhelmed by nutrition, I encourage you to reach out to a dietitian. They don't just help people with eating disorders (: It's much safer than dieting. I don't know what I'd do without mine. She reminds me weekly that nourishment is vital to my well being and helps keep me on track with what an appropriate meal plan looks like for my body because every single body is different.