Enrich's Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship with Food

Creating a positive and healthy relationship with food is on e of the most important things that you can do for your wellbeing. Nowadays, it is difficult to avoid hearing countless advice from our peers, family, and people online about what we should be eating and what is the best and quickest ways to get in shape. At Enrich, this is not our message. We encourage individuals to follow a diet full of nutrient dense foods that will contribute to our physical and mental wellbeing. We want you to build a strong healthy relationship with food and one way in which we can do this is to move away from dieting culture and that’s what this article is here to help you do!

So, what exactly is a diet?

A diet is any way of eating that involves restricting the amount or types of food you eat, sometimes with the goal of altering your body. This can include calorie counting, cutting out certain food groups, or joining local weight loss groups. Types of diets can include ones like:

Vegetarian = Plant based, meat-free

Vegan = Plant based

Pescatarian/Pollotarian = vegetarian diet with the addition of fish/chicken

A fad diet is one that follows eating plans that guarantee quick and easy weight loss or promise improved health with little to no research. It’s usually a diet that gets quite popular online but usually doesn’t stay popular for too long. These diets can work for some people but for majority of individuals, they don’t work as they often follow the characteristics of eliminating whole food groups or following rigid food rules with no proper research.

Atkins = Low carbohydrates

Paleo = Diet includes lean protein, eggs, fruit, non-starch veg, unsaturated fat – no wholegrains

Ketogenic = High fat, Low carbohydrates

What is the problem with dieting?

Simply put, diets are not sustainable, and research shows that for most people, they do not result in improved health outcomes over time. It is not a matter of willpower, but rather our bodies adapting. Bodies actively resist weight loss, so while we might lose weight in the short term, our metabolism begins to slow the longer we are in a calorie deficit. Overtime, repeated dieting and using external rules to determine what we eat can disconnect us from our bodies. We stop checking in with our hunger cues, or our likes and dislikes. We can start to experience behaviours such as binge eating, making us feel out of control around food. This can have a detrimental effect on our mental health, creating feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Dieting can also lead to overall weight gain, not weight loss, as prolonged restriction can contribute to behaviours such as binging, weight cycling and emotional eating. When we constantly feel that we are failing, it is difficult to treat our body with kindness and respect. Furthermore, diets label certain types of food as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad’. Eating ‘bad’ foods can bring us to experience feelings of guilt and shame. This demonising of certain foods can contribute to an unhealthy relationship with food, and in some cases lead to disordered eating or eating disorders.

What can I do to start creating a more positive and healthy relationship with food?

There are many things you can do but the first point of action is changing your mindset on dieting. Dieting is usually paired with the idea of a certain body shape and size. This is simply not true. Healthy bodies naturally occur in a range of shapes and sizes, and our size is not the determinant of our overall health. Promoting healthful behaviours (such as eating more fruits and vegetables, moving your body, or getting enough sleep) for their health benefits, not for their effect on our weight is how we begin creating a better relationship with our bodies. In today’s world, it can be challenging to not focus on numbers on the scale but changing this perspective can help us to create sustainable habits which can significantly improve our health in the long term. It helps us to reduce obsessive behaviours around food and exercise and move towards a more peaceful and nourishing relationship with food and our bodies.

We can also start to recognise the harm that dieting can cause and when we are aware of these things, we can begin to cultivate a lifestyle that nourishes body and mind. A healthy relationship with food rejects the idea that one food or meal is good or bad. It considers the overall patterns, focusing on the addition of healthy behaviours, rather than restriction. We start to connect with our bodies by making small changes and recognising the benefits, such as improved mood or energy. The motivation moves from ‘looking better’ to feeling better, utilising intrinsic motivation to build long-term healthy habits.  We can also embrace kindness and curiosity in our relationship to our body. There are no rules, so we cannot fail. Instead, we are learning to build habits around food and movement that make us feel peaceful and healthy, not deprived or constrained. We can actively enjoy taking care of our health, knowing that we are cultivating an environment for our bodies to feel nourished, respected and cared for.