I find it interesting that when I post articles about how diets don’t work or the problems with diets that people immediately jump on me and assume that anyone not dieting is living on fast food and other junk and never puts a single vegetable in their mouth.
First, to take a page from the wonderful Ragen Chastain at Dances with Fat what another person puts in their mouth and into their body is really up to them. If they want to eat like that, they can. However, that’s not how I chose to eat when I don’t diet.
I like to get plenty of fruits in my diet because I like fruit. I do force a few extra vegetables because I know they’re good for my body. However, I don’t restrict my eating. I don’t eat much ice cream because I don’t like the way it makes me feel. If there’s cake, I’ll have a piece. If I don’t like the cake, I push it aside–that was a huge one to learn considering I learned never to waste food!
Health at Every Size is about making choices to help work on your health, not about restricting eating to lose weight. It’s also not something that assumes “perfect” health is fully within our control. Our bodies are complex. Some people eat ice cream and are just fine. Heck, they might eat it every day and not have a problem. I am not that person.
Some people restrict calories or carbs and lose weight. The more I restrict, the fatter I get. In fact, as I have learned to eat better, I have had to make sure I get a certain number of calories otherwise I start gaining weight. Which, while I work on body acceptance, I don’t really want to do. I’d like to have a weight that remains constant as in most studies that seems to be a key to being healthy.
I still wonder, though, why people think they’d eat unrestricted junk food if they weren’t listening to outside system of restriction. Maybe that’s their body telling them they need something other than what they are feeding it.
As someone who has practiced acupuncture for decades, I have a lot of thoughts about this so maybe it’s something I’ll come back to in another post.