There is a gap in the help available for food and body related struggles...
and when you enter this corner of the world you are unknowingly met with two opposite and conflicting approaches.
Food Addiction
You are called a food addict and told that you are addicted to sugar and that food is your drug of choice. This feels relieving to hear. It's not your fault that you can't control food, and you feel hope for the first time that you can do something about it.
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You are treated with a food plan that eliminates sugar and any food that can't be controlled or triggers overeating. Although you don't love the idea of this, you chose to trust it since it seems like it has worked for others and it is advised by professionals.
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You begin your food plan and start doing better and that feels even more relieving to you. Then one day you start to wonder what it would be like to eat with just a little more freedom and you consider allowing yourself to stray off your food plan here and there.
But you are told that it’s not possible and that you must remain on your food plan in order to remain abstinent from binging. You decide to listen to the experts and stay on your food plan despite a nagging feeling of uncertainty.
It will never change, they say, and it requires a daily re-commitment of “one day at a time” for the rest of your life. You feel frustrated by that but insist that you have to keep trying.
Then one day you reach your breaking point and say "F*** it" and you binge into the abyss. Naturally you blame yourself because they told you “it works if you work it” and you hate yourself for not listening.
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You feel lost, ashamed, and hopeless...but eventually you become willing to try again because anything is better than how you feel now. You start by first re-surrendering to the idea that you are powerless over food and that the only chance you have is to follow your food plan…and the cycle begins again.
This is the ideology of Overeater's Anonymous and it is used by many treatment programs and disordered eating professionals.
It's based on the idea that you heal through restriction.
Anti-Diet
You are called a victim of diet-culture and told there is nothing wrong with you. You are told that the reason you binge is simply because you restrict and that as soon as you stop restricting your relationship with food will change and you will be able to eat intuitively. This feels relieving and exciting to you.
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You are treated with no food rules. You are taught that food has no moral value and that no food is off limits. You are told to eat whatever you want whenever you want and that your body has a set-point weight that it will naturally find when you do this. You are told your weight doesn't matter and if you eat this way you will be healthy. As long as you eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full, you’ll be fine.
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This is music to your ears...although a part of you thinks it seems a bit “too good to be true”...but you’re still on board. I mean hey, it’s prescribed by registered dietitians and therapists so it has to work. Who am I to question it?
I should be trusting the people who know more than me.
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You start this approach and feel completely liberated. Life feels so much better without food rules and you wish you had found this approach sooner. Unfortunately the honeymoon period is brief and before you know it, you’re back to feeling out of control again.
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The problem is that there are some foods you can’t get enough of, and you end up overeating them or eating them too frequently and feeling sick. You begin to feel irritated and ashamed. Why can’t I do this? Why can’t I just eat a normal amount of (insert favorite binge foods here)? It works for other people so it should work for me too. Naturally, you're upset by this thought and you binge over it.
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But the anti-diet experts tell you it’s all just part of the process and that it takes time to figure out how to eat intuitively. They say that learning what does and doesn’t make you feel good is the only way to do it. Keep going!
You reluctantly pull yourself together and decide to give it another shot...yet... you can’t help but notice the subtle irony of the fact that intuitively, you sense that something is off about this approach. ​You dismiss your intuition and you try again...and the cycle repeats itself. ​
This is the ideology of a distorted and commercialized intuitive eating approach known as Anti-Diet and it is used by many professionals who claim to specialize in intuitive eating.
It’s based on the idea that you heal through unconditional consent.
The approach is the problem–not you.
I’m here to confirm your intuition...
both of these approaches are flawed, and in my experience, can contribute to causing harm.
The food addiction approach convinced me that I was a life-long addict which has proven to be untrue. The anti-diet approach convinced me that I should be able to eat the Standard American Diet intuitively and achieve good physical and mental health, which has also proven to be untrue for me.
Although both of these approaches do contain useful tools and helpful elements, neither are “the solution” they are packaged and sold to you as.
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The reality is that your relationship with food and body is unique and complex. It requires much more attention to nuance than any one-size-fits-all approach allows for.
This is the gap that exists in the help that is available for food and body related struggles, and it’s time for it to be acknowledged.
Instead we need...
more conversations that acknowledge the reality that food and body related struggles require a personalized and nuanced approach​
more professionals that are aware of the limitations and potential harm of the most common approaches​
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more professionals that utilize insight from their own disordered eating and healing experiences​