Back to Our Roots

Chances are you’ve been on a diet yourself or know someone who has been. Let’s clarify that we’re not talking about the diets that are used as therapy for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, or true celiac disease. We’re talking about the diets that are sought out in response to feelings of being unhealthy, overweight, or just unpleased with their perceived body image. These can include an array of popular diets including Weight Watchers, paleo, ketogenic (and other diets that deprive us of carbohydrates, your body’s favorite form of energy!), as well as diet systems that sell you products with the assurance that you’ll be fitting into those “skinny jeans” after you spend “X” amount of money on their products. For many, when one doesn't work, they move on to the next. With the diet industry bringing in over 60 billion dollars annually, one may expect a decline in the prevalence of disease, and “overweight” and “obese” individuals. However, after all the fasts, fad diets and weight fluctuations, we remain a society with growing waistlines, health conditions, and a dissatisfied self-image.

There is strong evidence suggesting that diets don’t work and that the long-term outcomes for a majority of those who diet with the goal of weight loss is weight gain with a side of disordered eating. A study published by Oxford University Press concluded that "recurring attempts to diet, by signaling to the body that the food supply is often insufficient, will lead to a greater fat storage than if food was always abundant".

A Complementary Approach

Intuitive Eating suggests that dieting in the form that Americans are accustomed to is unnatural and has far removed us from the innate mechanisms with which we can approach food. Human evolution can't keep up with the rapidly evolving technology and our health is suffering as a result. When talking about nutrition, as we move further from the ways of our grandparents and great-grandparents, we also lean closer to higher weights and increased risk for disease and mortality. Depending on your grandparents age, foods like hot dogs, chips and candy were a rarity, if they had access at all. Their exposure to genetically modified foods, preservatives, additives, pesticides and herbicides were all significantly less than what we're exposed to today. Food science helps us to feed the 7 billion people on this planet with large-scale production of a variety of safe and sanitary food processes but the impact these foods have on our health is obvious. It seems the further we get from our roots the less connection we have to ancestral traditions and inner wisdom, and at a time we need it most as we navigate the complicated food environment.

Uncovering Our Innate Wisdom

“ To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This might seem out there, I know. But I'll be clear, I'm proposing that we need more than science alone and believing in the intuitve power we carry as one of the most advanced species on the planet can't hurt. Countless people feel like they aren’t enough at some point in their lives. Do we need the added pressure of fitting in to those jeans? 45 million Americans go on diets each year suggesting that at least 45 million Americans feel like they aren’t enough. In regard to dieting, intuitive eating aims to take away the punishment-and-reward relationship with food that often comes with diets. It supports the idea that everything we need is within us if we only stop and listen.

In such a fast-paced world where we’re constantly turning to outside sources to let ourselves feel validated, this is a challenge, but remember slow and steady wins the race!

Here are some tips on how to resist the diet mentality:

Don’t punish yourself because of your food choices
Be patient and show kindness for yourself (and of course, others too)
Remind yourself that diets are not a successful way to find happiness within yourself
Make an effort towards shifting your mindset (this can be a short meditation or simply catching yourself when you notice old thought patterns coming up)

During my time in Hawaii I was exposed to the practices and lifestyle of some of the last formally trained Kahunas (Hawaiian Healers). They were raised with a respect for the land and were resourceful with the goods it offered. One kahuna would share stories of swimming with the dolphins who would guide them back towards shore when they drifted too far out. They picked opihi and fished and ate a diet high in vegetables and sweet potatoes and taro.

After the islands were colonized, introduced was a new way of living that not only didn’t align with the values of the people, but their culture was stripped away along with their identities. Who were they now? They were still a very rich culture filled with a knowledge that they’re fighting hard to preserve today, but they were treated like their principles and ways of life weren’t good enough because they were so vastly different than the culture that now ruled them.

Feeling like we don’t fit in might not be such a bad thing in such a big and unique world. Be yourself and learn to love that self is whatever form it comes in. I believe that will be the greatest shift in the health of our nation.

Connect with yourself and where you come from as often as you connect to wi-fi. Honor your individual path and the body necessary to walk that path. It isn’t easy, but who needs to keep score?

Join us tomorrow as we continue the discussion on how we can incorporate intuitive eating into our daily lives.