The fact that the two largest diet trends right now are Keto and Plant-Based is very telling about our culture and the damage being done to our psyche and relationship with food. Both diets stand in complete and utter contradiction to the other. Both diets boast that they are the right way for all.

 

Even when we aren't actively dieting, we have disordered eating based off of well.... all the diets. It's time to UNDIET. Deeply ingrained beliefs cannot be dislodged simply by introducing an opposing idea. Being able to distinguish between beliefs and facts is an essential step in learning to change our beliefs and, therefore, our experience. Insert the journey to mindful eating.

 

“Combine the utter inefficiency of dieting with the lack of spiritual awareness and we have generations of mad, ravenous, self-loathing women.” - Women Food and God, Geneen Roth.

 

The diet industry is a 60 billion dollar PER YEAR industry. This system is designed to 1) not be sustainable long-term and 2) convince you that you failed because you did not try hard enough, follow all the rules, or have enough willpower. In other alarming numbers last year 43 million Americans went on a diet actively restricting food and groups of food while 41 million Americans suffered from food scarcity meaning they did not know where their last meal was coming from.

 

It's okay to get mad at this system - in fact, I hope you are mad at this system. That may be the only way to cut it off! 

 

The recurring problem that I see over and over again is that we make decisions and judgements in black or white when in reality we exist in all the colors - all that beautiful space in between. If we aren’t dieting we are eating with reckless abandon and “letting ourselves go” (cringe).

 

Brad Turnwald, PhD, a fellow in the department of psychology at Stanford University points this out in his research. “I think it’s really important to promote a greater sense of enjoying food in American culture, in other cultures that also have a lot less chronic disease than we do—France is kind of the canonical example—they eat for pleasure there, and they [generally] don’t have this labeling of certain foods as ‘good’ and certain ones as ‘bad.’ Food is meant to be enjoyed.”

 

Because food is so deeply linked to our health and because in the United States are health is greatly suffering we are living in the belief that we must stop indulging that we must not find enjoyment in our food. However, consider this mind-blowing idea: You can eat for pleasure and eat healthfully at the same time. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you’ll probably end up maintaining a healthier diet in the long run when you eat foods that make you happy.

 

The exact same way that eating for pleasure will vary from person to person so will eating healthfully. Every body has different needs and responds to food in different ways.

 

In 1965, Roger Williams, a famous biochemist, published Biochemical Individuality and revealed that there are variances in the size, shape, location and capacity of virtually all of our internal organs. He showed that there is a tremendous difference in metabolic rate from one person to the next. He found wide variations in water content and in oxygen carrying capacity of the blood from one person to the next. In short, just as we all look different on the outside, we also function differently on the inside and have different nutritional needs. It’s time to make amends with yourself. As you begin to unravel the diet mentality from your mind you’ll begin to understand yourself. As you get to know yourself you’ll find the greatest nutritionist you’ll ever find - hint: it’s you.

 

“It's never been true, not anywhere at any time, that the value of a soul, of a human spirit, is dependent on a number on a scale. We are unrepeatable beings of light and space and water who need these physical vehicles to get around. When we start defining ourselves by that which can be measured or weighed, something deep within us rebels. We don't want to EAT hot fudge sundaes as much as we want our lives to BE hot fudge sundaes. We want to come home to ourselves." - Geneen Roth

Here's to our hot sundae lives!

 

Melissa