As humans, we are inundated with nutritional information and how we should live – what we should eat, how we should exercise, how we should clean our house, what we should feed our kids, what beauty products to use – that we get stressed simply taking in all that information. We consume more media than ever before. But the thing is, we can only take in so much. And the amount of information we are presented with every day isn’t decreasing anytime soon.
I have this conversation quite often with clients and with friends and also recently was asked this question from a few readers. When it feels like every food has been demonized, how do you know what is healthy? And when you know something is “bad” about a food, how do you enjoy that food? In essence, how do you go on with intuitive eating without getting overly focused on nutrient composition and ingredients in food.
The short answer is….nutritional minutiae doesn’t really matter as much as we think it does. And there are far, far more important things that impact our health besides the ingredients in your ketchup. Like stress. This is simply my own clinical experience and not evidence based research, but I have never come across a client or patient who has become overall healthier by micromanaging every food that went into their mouth and living in fear of what ingredients might be in their food. Because living that way causes so much psychological distress that ultimately impacts your physical health (gastrointestinal symptoms being some of the most common..) that it doesn’t matter how “healthy” you eat…you might not be healthy at all.
So I think to answer this question we have to address this in three parts and recognize that…
- Diet culture wants us to believe that food has far more impact on our health than it actually does and that we can control our health and body size if we just eat the perfect diet.
- Our health is so much more than the food on our plates – we have to take a step back, look at the big picture, and recognize what really matters.
- You are not a sponge and I am not a sponge. The media loves to fear monger by taking research and manipulating what the research actually says in order to convince people to purchase certain things, eat a certain way, live a certain way etc…or make claims based on zero research.
Let’s look at these three points together. Sure, food plays a role in our health and we want to honor our health with our food choices. But if your food choices are causing you more stress, isolating you from social situations, disconnecting you emotionally, not satisfying your tastebuds and cravings, or leaving you feeling chaotic and out of control around certain foods…your food choices are not healthy at all. To put if very simply, stress causes your body to release cortisol. And when your body is constantly producing cortisol, it can lead to negative effects on your physical health. Effects that include higher blood sugar and insulin resistance, appetite dysregulation, suppression of the immune system, gastrointestinal issues, damage to your vasculature and plaque buildup, fertility issues and problems with your thyroid hormones.
We put so much emphasis on food and hyper focus on nutritional minutiae that we do more harm than good to our physical health. I’ve worked with countless of clients and patients whose physical health actually improved when they became more flexible with food and worked on their emotional and mental health. The health and wellness industry makes a lot of money when they convince us we need to buy certain foods, follow xyz way of eating, partake in a certain fitness routine, and take particular supplements because that will lead to “optimal health.” But what actually happens is we end up disappointed because it’s either not sustainable or the promise we were made didn’t hold true.
I say this all the time, but I think it’s worth repeating as much as humanly possible…our health is so much more than the food on our plates or how many minutes we’ve exercised that day. I go into this concept with great detail and research in a course I’m creating, but we neglect the other really important (and I’ll argue even more important) aspects of our health because it’s easier to follow a set of food rules and an exercise plan. If we do that, we can ignore all the mental/emotional work. Investing in your mental and emotional wellbeing takes time and it’s hard and it’s painful at times and we don’t like to feel hard things. And we surely aren’t naturally drawn to things that don’t give us instant gratification. Self esteem, self efficacy, genetics, socioeconomic status, oppression and your overall psychological health have far more impact on our physical health than the farm to table dinner we ate and the spin class we took that day. If eating or not eating a particular food is causing you more psychological distress than the health benefits of eating or not eating that particular food, than that food choice is no longer healthy. I say all this with so much empathy, because I’ve 100% been there. Neglecting my emotional and mental wellbeing in pursuit of the perfect diet that would protect me from disease and micromanage my body size. And I’ve been there professionally, putting so much emphasis on diet that I neglected the importance of all these all aspects of health.
You are not a sponge and I am not a sponge. Think of yourself as a brick and not a sponge. A sponge absorbs pretty much anything at a pretty rapid pace. And when a sponge becomes saturated, you just ring it out and absorb some more. A brick, not so much. It can only absorb so much paint or so much water before it needs a break and then be ready to absorb again. I don’t know if that’s the greatest analogy, but I hope it helps. The media loves to fear monger around food because that’s how industries and people make money. Of course you want to work with a certain nutritionist or personal trainer or doctor or health coach if they claim the solution to your gut problems or your thyroid issues or your autoimmune disease lies in simply eating the right foods, avoiding the wrong foods and taking this perfectly formulated supplement. I’ve been enticed by that too, both personally and professionally.
And the media also loves to take published research and cherry pick information without taking into account the validity and biases of the research. We see this all. the. time. It’s completely unrealistic to think the average consumer is going to spend time sifting through research or know how to properly read research. And it sucks that you can’t rely on every health professional to deliver ethical and evidence based information. Given this reality, if it sounds extreme, unsustainable or too good to be true…that is very likely the case. In this post I wrote on sugar a few months ago, I walk you through how the media and people sharing information on social media often inaccurately share research and instead end up sharing pseudoscience. It’s inaccurate to say drinking an amount of pure glucose syrup has the same metabolic effect on the body as eating a cookie that also has fat and protein in addition to sugar in it. Just like you can’t claim that gluten is the cause of a particular disease. It’s just not true.
There is a whole lot of pseudoscience out there. Your body has amazing metabolic capacity and can tolerate a whole lot. That’s why you have been gifted with kidneys and a liver which allow your body to get rid of toxins and waste that your body doesn’t need. I think every health professional can agree that basic nutrition is good for our overall health – whole grains, fruits and vegetables, legumes, high quality animal protein, and healthy fats – and regular physical activity (for example 30 minutes of walking a day) is healthy too. But we often overcomplicate this. Eating some trans fat in a box of crackers, high fructose corn syrup in ketchup or preservatives in a jarred sauce or granola bar is not going to kill us. Our entire diet is not made up of those ingredients. The develop of chronic disease is a result of multiple factors, repeated again and again over a long period of time.
We have to remember the big picture. Absolutely, I believe in the therapeutic effect of food and recognize there are health conditions that indicate certain evidence based dietary recommendations and supplements. There is a time and place for all of that. But for those of use who have been blessed with good health in our lives so far, I think we’d benefit from investing a lot more time and energy into our mental and emotional wellbeing than the nutritional minutiae of food.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
This post is incredible and I want to make everyone I know read it!
I was going to say the same thing! Thanks Robyn!
This is a great post. Something I can identify with whole-heartedly. It’s one of those concepts that I struggled with accepting, but one day it just clicked. One day, I realized living at the beck and call of my specific macro count for the week was not living at all. I literally, like the article mentions, would stress about the high fructose corn syrup in my ketchup – so silly thinking back on that!
One day, I truly asked myself, WHY am I trying to lose these last 10 pounds; how will my life be so much better? It truly was like a light switch experience and I’m still VERY early in my intuitive eating journey so the diet talk and mentality is still something I’m working through, but the subject you cover in this post is one I have so much experience with. Thank you for sharing and sending the friendly reminder about keeping things bigger picture.
So glad this resonated and way helpful for you Lauren!! And thank you for sharing your journey. Rooting for you!
Excellent post, Robyn. I love the phrase “It’s just simply not true”. I so badly want patients to understand that …. when they put all their hope into a random person on you tube who cured his cancer by eating only oranges … or that person in the magazine who cut out dairy and cured their acne… “it’s just simply not true!” If it was that easy, we wouldn’t have disease. You do such a great job with your posts at reducing FEAR and having a balanced approach to eating.
Glad that resonated with you – it’s so compelling and like you said, if it were that easy RDs wouldn’t have as much job opportunity!
THANK YOU for this post! Was just having this conversation w/ a group of friends and moms who have demonized so many foods and removed them from their families intakes based on chemicals/ingredients/organic or not, etc. As an RD they expect validation from me in their “healthy” choices but I worry so much more about the psychological effect for them, and especially their kids as their kids develop their relationship with food! I want to make everyone I know read it as well! 😁
So thankful that they have you with a realistic approach – the media can be so compelling that I can totally see how a consumer could be swayed (I was at one point too!)
So happy to have read this and I wish everyone would. I’m reading this post after reading one about IIFYM and read comments on that post saying “so this is what I need to eat to be skinny?” It’s so frustrating. So frustrating. Keep on sharing the truth! I love reading your blog! – Kaitlyn | http://www.poweredbysass.com
Glad you found it helpful!
Oh my goodness, this article is so relevant for me right now, thank you for writing! I’ve recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and I’m feeling so distracted and torn about food choices….. are certain foods really going to cause me more “inflammation” and make me sicker?? Deep down I know that if I eat what my body asks for and take care of my mental health, I will be less likely to send my body into an autoimmune flare. There is so much yelling about diet and sugar and saturated fat and processed foods and I try to ignore it, but it’s SO hard to ignore. I tried cutting out foods last year and it just made me sicker, so I have my proof that it’s not the answer. It’s definitely crazy-making for someone with a history of eating disorders. You and other IE and HAES blogs and podcasts are saving me. thank you.
Also, if there are any articles, books, resources on this topic, I would love to know!
That is so hard Abbi. I have so so so much empathy for you – it’s a tough world to navigate. But I applaud you for filtering out the info. I’ll be launching a talk on this exact topic (IE/HAES in the presence of medical diagnoses) that I hope you find helpful!
@Abbi: It seems like eating what our body asks us to eat is so hard in the presence of certain health conditions. You asked for more resources on this. I saw this article by Linda Bacon on diabetes which is great. Linda is a respected researcher in the size acceptance and Health at Every Size movement. I know you don’t have diabetes but it seems like a lot of the issues around eating would be the same: https://lindabacon.org/pdf/BaconMatz_Diabetes_EnjoyingFood.pdf Good luck to you.
Exactly what I needed to read/hear! Thank you!
INCREDIBLE post, Robyn! You freakin’ nailed it. I am going to have all of my clients read this. Thank you for putting nutrition into perspective — anyone can benefit from reading your post.
Thank you for sharing Edie!!
This post is so important! It was a huge lightbulb moment for me when I realized that 99% of the diet/nutrition/food industry is just trying to make money. There’s a bottom line, and it’s not your health, it’s $$$. That’s when I really started to drown out all of the information we’re inundated with every day. I’m so much happier for it, and less stressed about food.
I like to compare my journey to a pendulum. At first I swung SO far in one direction, going vegan, checking every single ingredient, putting so much thought into every morsel of food, restricting, restricting, restricting. And then I started this amazing intuitive eating journey and swung back in the other direction, and now I’m slowly settling into the middle. Slightly off topic, but I think the same thing is happening with social media. We were all hyper-connected for a while and now many of us are like “whoa, being connected is cool and all but I need a freaking break”. Our world is changing so quickly nowadays that we’re all having to learn to set boundaries and navigate new situations every single day, feels like.
Thanks for this post Robyn!
Mary, I can relate to the pendulum-like journey with food and social media, too! I love reading the comments on Robyn’s blog and seeing other women who have been through/are going through similar experiences as me. Thanks for sharing this!
unfortunately, the diet industry thrives off the consumer’s low self esteem and tries to convince us we have a problem that might in fact not actually be there
Thank you so much for writing this post!! It’s extremely hard to navigate through all of the “research” on the internet and to figure what is true and what is not. One article says eat XYZ it’s good for you and the next article says don’t eat XYZ it’s horrible for you and causes serious diseases. The fear behind foods drives me crazy! So thank you again for writing this post because this is exactly what I needed to read!
One thing that really stood out to me in Spain was the attitude that Spaniards had towards food. There is so much hype around the Mediterranean diet here in the US, and while the Spanish do eat a lot of legumes and fresh produce, they also regularly eat pork fat and full fat dairy and very little (if any!) whole grains. White bread, white rice, and white potatoes are staples. They don’t shy away from fat or carbs or sugar, but as a culture they enjoy food so much more and are so much less stressed in general and around food than we are. AND they are arguably overall healthier. It really helped show me that eating is meant to be pleasurable. God could have designed us to eat grass or he could have decided to not give us taste buds; he didn’t! And we will eat in heaven. A lot of things will be different, but we will still eat. That is pretty freaking cool! I HATE that phrase “Food is fuel.” Um, no! It is so much more.
I find the food culture in Europe so refreshing!
I absolutely love this post. Honestly, it’s only been hitting me very recently how much more important my sleep habits for instance are than my food and exercise habits. I feel so much more crummy when I’m sleep deprived, stressed, and exhausted than after a week off exercise or eating super indulgently for a few days. In fact, I would argue those two make my body feel GOOD, especially in the context of an otherwise active and veggie-filled lifestyle.
I love this discussion! I especially love that you pointed out how health is so much more than what we eat or how much we exercise. When I was more in my disordered brain, I definitely was stressing over how much I was eating and how much I thought I needed to exercise. I literally would spend my day at work DREADING work ending because I knew that meant I had to go run x amount of miles. Who does that?! Who literally DREADS the work day ending?! It definitely wasn’t healthy and definitely was causing me significant stress in my life. Great article!
Thanks for sharing Amber and I’m so glad you’ve found freedom from that!!
This post is amazing!! Sharing so everyone can read it! I’m a nutrition student, and people always want to pin point certain things to eat/not eat, I wish they could understand that’s not what’s most important!
Thanks for sharing!
I saw on your Instagram story that you were struggling to write today’s post… hard to believe because this was FIRE! I think the part that resonated with me the most was “we neglect the other really important (and I’ll argue even more important) aspects of our health because it’s easier to follow a set of food rules and an exercise plan. If we do that, we can ignore all the mental/emotional work. Investing in your mental and emotional wellbeing takes time and it’s hard and it’s painful at times and we don’t like to feel hard things. And we surely aren’t naturally drawn to things that don’t give us instant gratification.”
As strange as it is, my harmful habits (of strict exercise/dieting) were comfortable and familiar AND as you point out here, they were EASIER than actually tuning in to my mind and heart. It’s been a really painful and slow journey, but I’m starting to see shifts that encourage me to keep doing the hard work. Reminders like this post from you are so helpful… I especially love reading all the other comments from your readers. It gets me excited to see how many women are empowered by your message and are working on the same things as me and trying to detangle their personal truth from the health/wellness/dieting world. So much love and respect for you, Robyn!!
Haha well once I got going it kind of just spilled out 🙂 SUCH a good point. It’s easier to engage in our natural tendencies even if they are harmful. In the short term that’s more comfortable because we don’t have to face the emotional pain of finding other way to cope vs our harmful behaviors. Rooting for you Trista!
This is so helpful for myself and clients I see!! Stress and sleep are both so important in your overall health and are not discussed enough in an clinical/outpatient setting. It’s not as simple as “eat this, don’t eat that”…it’s about doing the difficult work of truly healing your relationship with food. Thanks for sharing!
Agreed!
I fully agree with you and this is something I struggled with throughout my graduate nutrition program. I’m more of a “big picture” kind of RD and I get frustrated when people get caught in the weeds with minutiae that just doesn’t matter in the scheme of overall health. Thank you for your post!
Thank you so much for doing what you do. I just started a blog to document my journey into life without subscribing to food rules- it seems whenever I am craving some feeling of control, I head into the unhelpful arms of another diet plan. I have spent so much time distracted from totally living my own life as I use food as a coping mechanism. ..but voices like yours give validity to my belief that there is a better way, and I can walk that path.
You have such wonderful insight Sarah! Thinking of you in your journey <3
It’s amazing how much the media does like to fear monger certain foods, and it makes us think that one sort of food will really mess up our bodies. I think I really fell into believing that especially around food like Cheez-its, chips, bagged popcorn, and I am so thankful that you remind us to look at the bigger picture. The bigger picture is so much more important than those little teeny details. It is incredible to think of how easy it is to soak up exactly what’s on the media/social media says, but the reminder of us not being sponges is so important.
This is exactly what I needed to read! As someone that struggles with this as well, I forget how much your emotional and mental well being has on your health. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the overwhelming information and pressure from social media and “research” out there! As a mother of 2 young girls, this worries me even more about their future. Thank you for the article…I will definitely be sharing this with others!
So glad it was helpful for you Angie!
SO MUCH THIS!!! ” they claim the solution to your gut problems or your thyroid issues or your autoimmune disease lies in simply eating the right foods, avoiding the wrong foods and taking this perfectly formulated supplement” I’ve been down this road too many times trying to heal my digestive issues for the past 5 years. I so badly wanted to believe that I could heal myself doing super strict regimens but I’ve only gotten my hopes up to have them later crushed when nothing worked. Definitely hasn’t been healthy and I’m ready to try some medications get this under control and have my life back!
I follow medically necessary diets that are very restrictive. I have to eat low fat, low carb, low fiber, etc. My diet is actually so restrictive that I have to supplement with GJ tube feeds. But my doctors also understand that you can’t ask someone to do that all the time and that quality is of greater value than quantity. So if it’s my birthday and I want cake and a vodka lemonade, go for it.
It is so hard when following these rules is required and I wish that society didn’t condition us to hate ourselves until we self impose them.
Awesomeness!!! We are all pushed in so many different directions on what is nutritional for our bodies. We are all different, and it doesnt matter!!! Being happy matters.
So much YES to this! <3
There was one comment that really hit me! Sometimes I feel I am not eating healthy because I consume five meals per day .”That it doesn’t matter how “healthy” you eat…you might not be healthy at all”(Robin).
This is exactly what I wanted to read because sometimes I forget about to look at the bigger picture!!!
I read the article to my mom because she feels very stress out every time we go out to eat, especially if there is a lot of people. She feels that people is going to judge her and she always tries to eat salads and look “healthy” with other people. This article and the way I explained it to her was that not because she is eating salads her health and self-confidence is going to get back to her. she has to love herself and some fats and carbs are good for her body.This article was very helpful!!!
I absolutely love this post! When I go out to eat with my friends they are always reading the nutritional labels and counting the calories. “they do not want to gain any pound” Well, this is not my problem I can eat whatever I want and I do not gain a single pound. One time one my professor told me that weight is not the only sign of a healthy person but, I have so much more energy than any of my other friends. I recently made a medical check and I am doing very good!!! I believe that people are going to be agree with me. when it comes to food, we can eat anything we want but, with moderation!!!!!
As a Latina, I have so many traditional food that is highly full of fats and sugars. I feel that all of that food is part of me and I cannot stop eating it. I also feel people need to realize that there are more things to worry about when it comes to health. portions is an example, eat a little bit of everything that’s the key!!
This is such a lovely post. I have been very stressed about this all, and am trying to find a way to eat as healthy as possible without it being detrimental to my health psychologically. This was a little wake up call to care of my mental health, THANK YOU 🙂