My Thoughts on Diet Culture - You May Be Surprised

 This is a opinion piece, comment with your thoughts below.

Most of you know I’m a proponent of whole foods plant based eating. I advocate eating all veggies or mostly all. I feel in today’s society people are often eating animal products with every meal. Dairy in coffee, eggs, often bacon, maybe some meat for lunch then more for dinner. Lots love cheese, which is super addicting due to casein, believed to be a carcinogen. Portions are huge and one isn’t even able to absorb that much progrein at one sitting. I digress…

WHEN I FIND DIETS HARMFUL

When you read diet, does your brain go to a temporary way of eating that restricts calorie intake? This isn’t healthy. We have become so impatient and want immediate results. Negative self talk and hating your body into loving it doesn’t work. I’ve worked with clients on a new diet each season, ones that have tried diet pills, restricting calories versus nourishing the body, disordered eating and eating disorders. To be honest, until I went into practice I didn’t know how common this is among females. Our society makes this easy to occur - looking at photoshopped models in magazines with fake breasts and Botox. Heck, I just learned yesterday people are editing their Instagram pictures on an app and it takes under two minutes. It would be interesting to dive into why some people don’t think much about it (I think everyone does to some extent) and some easily because obsessive. I know, gut health will play a role as we become anxious without that good bacteria. Growing up, I played tons of sports and aside from complaining to my mom about my belly, I was pretty confident. There was a time years ago I did debate breast implants as I have broad shoulders and thought I’d feel sexier. I didn’t go ahead because it just felt wrong. I’m happy I didn’t because breast implant syndrome and chances of mould forming are high. Typical vata, totally off track : )

My wish is to install confidence in children and teenagers. All the parents out there, please ensure you’re aware of your words and actions. One of my friend’s mom’s growing up always used to comment on her weight, likely due to her own complex. This led my friend to becoming addicted to exercise in a very unhealthy way. I try to compliment my friend’s kids on characteristics versus physical appearance, but it’s hard. Look at all Disney movies and how the female is always being rescued by a male. Are your kids watching this?

I hope that as a society we go back to mindful eating, being in tune with our body. Are you eating a certain way because of a trend? Or is it something that feels good to your body physically and emotionally? A podcast I was listening, Eat Capture Share found a study that 50% of people on Instagram met the criteria for orthorexia. Interesting, guest Christy Harrison on the Podcast suggests there is a difference between vegan for the animals and planet versus doing it for health or weight loss. Thoughts? It means stepping back and looking at why you are eating a certain way. What is going on with your relationship with food? What is causing these symptoms? Is it the food or is it your thought patterns? Stress? The goal is to enjoy your meal in a stress free environment, perhaps eating with others in a social setting.

WHEN I FIND “DIETS” HELPFUL

These are more protocols I recommend to clients than a diet. If someone is very ill then we must boost their immune system and this may mean cutting out certain foods that down cycle the immune system. Take sugar, lots of coffee and processed foods for example, I’m going to recommend a major reduction or elimination. If someone has Candida or parasites, I’m going to suggest food changes, along with supplements to support those negative symptoms. If we have a fungal overgrowth, we will feel tired, be low in nutrients, crave unhealthy foods and it will likely impact your mood too. This isn’t a long term lifestyle change, these are temporary.

The reason I felt inspired to discuss this topic, is sometimes people ‘hate’ or negatively talk about cleanses or protocols for certain health issues.

IN MY OPINION, THESE PROTOCOLS ARE A FORM OF SELF LOVE.

If you are living with a parasite and continue to eat the same foods to feed it or don’t seek help from a health professional even though you feel terrible, it worries me. I feel sometimes those people don’t feel they’re worth taking care of. Or the emotional connection to food is to big to change the way of eating for a few weeks or months. I’m here to inspire you to care if you feel shitty. To ask questions. To never ignore a symptom as your body is smart and it’s telling you something.

I just did a 1 month protocol myself. The majority were very supportive, but a few were surprised I didn’t want to drink alcohol or kombucha. I didn’t eat out for over two weeks, literally not one snack! I was on a diet because I love myself and want to get better.

Please note, I’m just talking about how sometimes protocols are needed. My goal is to just share sometimes eliminations are needed, especially for determining food sensitivities. The focus of this article isn’t on disordered eating as that is another topic all together and our thought patterns are so linked to behaviours. I only mentioned it because I feel our society can improve big time. I remember attending Katie Wilcox’s talk at Wanderlust and we literally named head to toe the ideal women. It’s insane that we all agreed, sad really. Let’s embrace everyone and their unique attributes and qualities. Let’s not give people a hard time when they are working on their health, let’s be supportive!

Full disclosure, I was going to read for a couple hours and relax, but I forgot my book. So I wrote an opinion piece on my phone. There may be grammatical errors.

XO Jordan - Bruce’s Roots

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