We’ve been sold the message that our body can be easily manipulated for a long while now, that if it’s not this or that weight or size, it must be our fault. Certainly if I follow the same eating patterns and exercise routines as the thin-bodied person on social media, surely I should be able to achieve the same?

Folks come to see me at varying stages of readiness for recovery. Some are still quite committed to keeping their ED as a way to survive and cope. Others may have grown tired of the cost of ED and moving towards taking actions exploring recovery. Many of course have witnessed the benefits of renourishment and are keeping strides in actively challenging their ED. 

This sounds like another obvious realization, but we’d all be surprised at the journey it would take for someone to arrive at this conclusion. Because at the end of the day we are driven by our own relationship with ourselves.

Let’s take a moment to examine this person’s experience with their medical team. Putting ourselves in their shoes, what would this comment evoke emotionally for you if you heard this from your care team? 

I think we can all believe that those who love and care for us have good intentions. However, when all of us grow up with a narrow perspective of what health looks like, being “healthy” can feel like a cage. The dominant view on health seems to be fixated more and more on a thin body, a meticulously curated diet, a rigid exercise routine, and a denial of existence in authenticity. 

One of the biggest reasons I love my work is because I get to witness the incredible capacity of courage, strength, and love through my clients.

Many businesses started the initiative of putting caloric information likely with the best of intentions to help consumers make informed decisions in a weight stigmatized world. However, diet culture has turned this tool into an omnipresent food police, a moral compass. High calorie bad, low calorie good- regardless of individual needs or preferences. The shame it can create often perpetuates more self-harming behaviors.

With so many conflicting messages out there about nutrition, how can we filter out misinformation? How can we decipher which tidbit is true and which is not? Obviously most of us do not have the time or capacity to go through scientific journals or clinical practices ourselves (that’s what healthcare professionals are there for!). So here are the steps to help us to think a bit more critically next time someone presents a new nutrition recommendation.

You know what else is also an estimate? Your daily caloric needs from a random online calculator. Heck, even the fancy equations that dietitians use to calculate daily energy needs or protein needs are ultimately estimates. Estimates are guesses which means if I somehow designed a meal plan for a client using tools that offer a best guess for their needs, and if this client noticed they remain hungry or dissatisfied on the meal plan- this means the estimates are wrong, not their body. 

I invite you to take a moment and think about a loved one or a close friend. Picture their faces and think of all the reasons you love them.

This person had just been accepted into law school. They possess many qualities- intelligence, perseverance, discipline, creativity, and kindness just to name a few… qualities and values that led them to such an achievement. Yet, they have often overlooked these qualities and values because of their ED.

How can we protect ourselves from false nutrition information? How do we filter out the irrelevant anecdotal nutrition advice, and focus on the facts rooted in robust evidence and get a useful perspective on the big picture ?

This article discusses some popular nutrition ‘advice’ that has been splashed all over the internet, and in part 2, we will provide some tips on how to filter nutrition messages so you can make the most informed decision for you.

Our world doesn’t talk about weight gain and its positive effects enough. I want you to know that weight gain is okay. It is more than okay, and it can be the necessary step for gaining back your health, your joy, your confidence, your social life, your relationships, your passions, your hobbies, your strength, and your mental wellbeing.

There are a vast number of reasons as to why you chose to challenge your ED. So when you can, gently remind yourself of your reasons for embarking on this journey.

Acknowledging and confronting the fear of letting your body change is extremely difficult. It’s a gentle process that cannot be rushed.

It can be so easy to get caught up in comparing ourselves to other bodies we see on social media. In fact, algorithms make it their mission that you do.

This was a quote from their caregiver, who was baffled at the change in personality ED brought to the client.

A common sentiment I hear from clients once they’ve spent some time in treatment is they start to notice how much diet culture exists in their daily lives. Lunchroom chats at work, family gatherings, parties with friends, or even interactions with strangers can have you run into diet talk.

It’s hard to believe in recovery, to believe in the notion that we don’t have to micromanage food and control our bodies this way when it is modeled by our environment and culture.

If incessant diet talk is unsettling for you, there are ways to navigate these conversations so that you can support yourself and the people around you.