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Women’s Weekly – The dark side of clean eating

1st April, 2021
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zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat

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zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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May 20


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And it’d not just kids of course, but a story yesterday on ABC radio about rising rates in kids and an initiative to get more kids walking to school, prompted my to post this. Kids are not stupid, when kids hear stories about "ob*se" kids, they hear “my body is wrong”  or “there’s something wrong with me” or “I’m not loveable in this body” Most kids in bigger bodies are very aware they are bigger than their peers. Do we really think that highlighting weight issues will motivate kids to want to walk to school??? I have client who shared a story about being a bigger kid and she was made to exercise at lunchtime - she felt like she was “put on display” for others to laugh at. She grew to hate exercise. Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian Text in image We must stop using the word obese without considering the stigma attached Kids are listening, when kids hear reports about "ob*se" kids, they hear “my body is wrong”  and “there’s something wrong with me” #obesityawareness #weightstigma #lovewhatyoueat #moderationmovement #children #childhood #childrenhealth #kidshealth

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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May 3


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It seems that everything is “low carb” these days, from meal delivery services, to advice from many doctors, to wine (which is already almost zero carb).

Given carbohydrate (broken down into glucose) is our bodies (especially our brains) key fuel source, this seems a little crazy. Why would we want to eat food that contains less of the fuel to keep us going and our brain sharp?

Well the answers is easy - the promise of weight loss. Eat less of what your body needs good amounts of and chances are you will lose weight, at least initially. But when you don’t eat enough carbohydrates, these things can happen:
 - You have strong cravings for carbohydrates or sweets/sugar
 - You get over-hungry and find yourself feeling out of control around food, especially carbohydrates or sugar

- You struggle to think as clearly and get irritable and upset more easily

- Exercise is harder, your body feels heavy and sore and you don’t enjoy it as much (or at all)

- You end up with disordered eating or an eating disorder At some point it becomes too difficult to maintain and your biology drives you to eat more and you regain any lost weight - often plus some We acknowledgment the very real desire to lose weight in a world that treats fat bodies very badly. We don’t judge people for trying, or judge those who feel eating low carb does work for them. But if you experience any of the listed points, cutting carbs may not be the best thing for you. Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian Text in image You don’t need to eat low carb to be healthy!! #carbsaregood #carbsarenottheenemy #lovewhatyoueat #foodfreedom #healthyeating #intuitiveeating #carbohydrates

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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May 1


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Too often I hear stories of how people have stopped eating bread and dairy (or cut carbohydrates completely) because they’ve been led to believe they aren’t nutritious or are somehow bad for us.

I had one client who would end up ravenous and eating Monte-Carlo biscuits for lunch because she thought the sandwiches from the sandwich bar in her work place weren’t a good choice. As it turned out, had she ordered a sandwich, she would have gone with one that also had salad and on grainy bread, but she has been told she must “cut carbs” to achieve her fitness goals. In avoiding these foods, as per the above example, people find their choices limited and unsure of what to eat. They either don’t eat enough or what they do eat doesn’t provide enough energy and they end up over-hungry and eating larger amounts of the very foods were trying to avoid. Usually this comes with a truck load of shame and a dysfunctional relationship with food. But when people learn that these foods are indeed nutritious and they bring them back into their diet, the change can be so liberating and empowering! Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian Text in image We live in a world that emphasises nutrition to the detriment of nutrition Not every meal needs vegetables and a bowl of cereal & milk or a ham & cheese toastie are nutritious choices #carbsaregood #carbsarenottheenemy #lovewhatyoueat #foodfreedom #healthyeating #cheesetoastie #nutrition #goodnutrition #cerealandmilk #intuitiveeatingofficial

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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Apr 15


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For the first half of my career I did believe we needed to be aware of how many calories we were eating, this is how I was trained at Uni and this was how the world has conditioned people.

I did track all my calories for a period in high school and was verging on an eating disorder. I certainly had disordered eating behaviours, for which I was generally praised due to my slim body. Even after having this experience, I didn’t understand the danger and/or futility of focusing on calories until I was introduced to a different approach (the non-diet approach) by another dietitian, and then my eyes were opened. It now made sense why almost everyone regained weight. So why don’t you need to track calories in food to manage your eating? First up, we now know not all calories are created equal. It is not just a calories in vs calories out equation and food labels often have a 20-30% error margin, so we don’t even know the true calorie value. Instead, the type of food, the way in which food is eaten and our awareness of our bodies need for food is much more important than our total calorie intake.

If, for the most part, you are eating to your appetite cues and eating in a way that feels satisfying in the moment and overall, you will be eating the amount of food that is right for you. This is what intuitive eating teacher people to do. If you have been dieting or following others advice on how to eat, you may have lost touch with your appetite and what satisfies YOU and feel utterly confused about what or how much eat. The good news is, no matter how confused you have become, you can relearn how to eat intuitively. I say relearn, as we are all born eating intuitively - after all, no one needs to know how much milk to give a baby or how much food to feed a toddler/child, they just instinctively know. Note: Intuitive eating is a privilege and not everyone has the means to eat when they are hungry or eat what they would prefer to eat. *This lemon tart was some of my lockdown baking in 2020 #caloriecounting #caloriesincaloriesout #lemontart #homebaking #healthylifestyle #lovewhatyoueat #moderationmovement #intuitiveeating #intuitiveeatingofficial #foodfreedom

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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Apr 3


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Not eating enough (e.g. due to following advice for weight loss) and finding yourself hungry, can make cooking a chore. A client told me how allowing herself to eat more, suddenly meant she wasn’t as exhausted (and starving) when she got home from work and she found she has the mental bandwidth to think about cooking dinner and the energy to prepare something nutritious that she really enjoyed. Previously, when she’s been not eating enough and hungry (aka dieting), she’d thought she disliked cooking and it felt like such a chore to organise a meal. She also said how having less “food noise” (rules about what one should and shouldn’t eat) meant she had more space to think about what she wanted to eat, and this actually led to making more nutritious choices. When she was starving, she’s just grab anything and this food was rarely satisfying. Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian #cooking #lovecooking #cookingforfamily #cookingathome #cookingforkids #cookingfortwo #foodfreedom #lovewhatyoueat #moderationmovement #intuitiveeating #dietcultureistoxic #dietculture

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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Mar 27


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Recently I had a client who validated why I struggle so much with this term. This client told me she had followed a clean eating regime a few years ago and how it really “messed with her head”, to the point she (in her words) “actually recoiled from jar sauces”. She felt immense pressure that she needed to know exactly what was in everything she ate which really limited her food choices and her ability to eat socially. This is not healthy; it’s also not uncommon with people who get caught up with the idea of “clean eating”. Since the term first came about, it has made me, and many other health professionals cringe. Often these are health professionals who work with people struggling with food and eating, disordered eating and eating disorders. Every so often I reflect on why “clean eating” makes me cringe so much. For many it may be a seemingly harmless, even helpful concept, but for many, such as my client, it can be the slippery slope to an unhealthy relationship with food and for some people, an eating disorder. Some of the reason why it makes us cringe: 1. Does that mean if it’s not considered “clean” it’s somehow dirty and makes us “unclean” if we eat it? 2. There’s a level of “elitism” with the style of eating, many people simply can’t afford to eat in the way it’s often portrayed and many people simply don’t have time to cook everything from scratch and avoid more highly processed foods. 3. Also, many of the foods not considered “clean” are actually perfectly fine to eat and enjoy as part of a healthy diet. 4. It’s a key factor in the development of the eating disorder Orthorexia (the unhealthy obsession with healthy eating) and often appears in other EDs If the term also makes you cringe, we’d love to hear from you in the comments! Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian Text in image “clean eating” Why do many health professionals dislike this term? #lovewhatyoueat #moderationmovement #orthorexia #cleaneating #cleaneatingdiet #eatingdisorderawareness #disorderedeatingawareness #disorderedeatingsupport #edrecoverywarrior

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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Mar 8


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I have had a number of clients tell me about their experiences using a particular weight loss app. While this app appears to use all the “right” language and has eliminated language associated with diets, it still has people monitoring and reducing their total energy intake to promote weight loss. It has people seeing food as “healthier” and “less healthier” and uses this external judgement over what a person may actually be hungry for, or feel like eating.

THIS IS STILL A DIET. My clients talked about how they found themselves starting to obsess over the tracking/monitoring (and weight) and feeling bad about themselevs for choosing the “less healthier” option or for not getting the expected “results”. This is (nearly always) exactly what happens with diets. As one of my new clients said, “it was like walking around with an eating disorder in my pocket” Text in image A new client was telling me about her most recent diet - a very popular app claiming not to be a diet She said... "It was like walking around with an eating disorder in my pocket..." #dietcultureistoxic #dietculture #dietplan #diet #dieting #weightloss #eatingdisorderawareness #eatingdisorder #disorderedeatingawareness #disorderedeatingsupport #edrecoverywarrior

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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Mar 5


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Because diet culture and the “wellness industry” is allowed to say whatever they want with little regulation, we have reached a point where educated and intelligent people now truly believe a toasted cheese sandwich is unhealthy. I am constantly surprising my clients when I explain that a toasted cheese sandwich can be a perfectly nutritious meal. In fact, if all you ate for an entire day was toasted cheese sandwiches (using white bread), you’d get most of your nutrition, only being low in Vitamin C and a little low Vitamin B6, Magnesium and Iron. Make the sandwich with grainy bread and then you’re only low in Vitamin C and Vitamin B6. Throw in half an orange and you have your vitamin C needs for the day… Just saying... Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian Text in image You don't need fancy "superfood" ingredients to eat well A toasted cheese sandwich is perfectly nutritious #cheesetoastie #cheesetoast #nutritiousmeals #healthyfood #lovewhatyoueat #moderationmovement #lovefood #eatwell #intuitiveeating #foodfreedom #cheeselover #sandwich #sandwichlover

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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Feb 22


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Healthy can be sharing any delicious food with friends with appreciation for the food and without any sense of guilt. This could be cake, pizza, a fruit platter, cheese platter or a block of chocolate! Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian Text in image Healthy does not need to be sugar free, gluten free, plant based or a "superfood" salad #foodfreedom #lovewhatyoueat #moderationmovement #intuitiveeating #intuitiveeatingofficial #plantbased #sugarfree #superfood #nondietapproach #antidietapproach

zoe.dietitian.lovewhatyoueat


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Feb 16


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If you prefer the taste of sugar free wine, knock yourself out! But if you don’t, or if you just want a much bigger selection and to be able to buy from your local bottle shop, then you can just choose regular wine* - red, white, rose or sparking. I glass has less than 1g of sugar If you’re worried about the calories - and there’s no need to be - they are in the alcohol (ethanol), NOT in the sugar. *regular dry table wine as opposed to sweet or dessert wine Zoe @themoderationmovement Kerrie @kerriehill_dietitian Text in image Sugar free wine is one of the biggest marketing hypes yet

Wine is basically already sugar free! #wine #winelover #winetime #sugarfree #sugarfreewine #winelovers #lovewhatyoueat #moderationmovement #marketing


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