Food Psych #190: Why Intuitive Eating Is NOT a Diet with Caroline Dooner
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Fellow author and podcaster Caroline Dooner returns! We discuss her new book, The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy, why mental deprivation is just as much of a problem as physical deprivation, why people often treat intuitive eating as another diet (and why it’s not), the essential role of rest in healing our relationship with movement, why focusing on fullness can be problematic, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether a certain model of treatment for binge-eating disorder is actually making the problem worse.
Caroline is the creator of The F*ck It Diet, where she teaches chronic dieters how to heal their relationship with food and weight. Caroline recently released her first book, The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy. Find her online right here.
This episode is brought to you by Katie Dalebout’s let [a podcast] out course. If you’ve ever wanted to start a podcast, this workshop, which features interviews with over 100 podcasters (including Christy,) will help you learn the ins-and-outs of podcasting, so that you can focus on crafting your own unique content. To learn more and sign up, visit LetAPodcastOut.club, and use promo code FOODPSYCH for $25 off at checkout.
We Discuss:
What Caroline calls “F*ck It Diet 2.0”: her two-year commitment to resting and rejecting unrealistic societal pressures in other areas of her life, not just around food and body
Trust, and its role in recovering from diet culture
How Caroline initially interpreted intuitive eating as another diet, and how she stopped
Embodiment, and its importance in healing our relationship with food and body size
How various traumas, including diet culture, can disconnect us from our bodies
Recovery as a non-linear process, and how that can make it difficult
How yoga can be helpful and harmful in healing our relationship with food and our bodies
Our culture’s fear of feeling and honoring unpleasant feelings and emotions
Yoga nidra
Rest as a form of basic self-care
Over-exercising, and how it is reinforced by diet culture
Why it’s understandable for intuitive eating to feel “impossible”
The changes that Caroline has experienced in her relationship with food
Why focusing on fullness can be problematic
How quickly diet culture robs us of our innate ability to eat intuitively
Mental deprivation, and how it can affect our relationship with food in the same way as physical deprivation
Why intuitive eating is possible for anyone, and why it’s NOT another diet
Deprivation in people with larger bodies
Caroline’s book, The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy (TW: weight and calorie numbers, and "o-words")
The “nocebo” effect
Diet food, and its role as a tool of diet culture
Resources Mentioned
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Submit your questions for a chance to have them answered on the podcast!
My online course, Intuitive Eating Fundamentals
Help spread the anti-diet message by subscribing to the podcast
The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy (TW: weight and calorie numbers, and "o-words")
This episode is brought to you by Katie Dalebout’s let [a podcast] out course. If you’ve ever wanted to start a podcast, this workshop, which features interviews with over 100 podcasters (including Christy,) will help you learn the ins-and-outs of podcasting, so that you can focus on crafting your own unique content. To learn more and sign up, visit LetAPodcastOut.club, and use promo code FOODPSYCH for $25 off at checkout.
Listener Question of the Week
Should people be given the option to choose non-weight-inclusive treatment options for binge eating disorder? What is wrong with referring to intuitive eating as “healthy living”? How has diet culture twisted otherwise weight-inclusive therapies? What are the risks of intentional weight loss? How does offering intentional weight loss as a treatment option promote diet culture? Why doesn’t Christy debate folks who promote diet culture on the podcast? Why should eating-disorder treatment centers be free from diet-culture influences and messaging? What are some next steps for eating-disorder clinicians who want to move away from weight-centric messaging in their work?
(Resources Mentioned:
Health At Every Size® Resources for Health & Wellness Professionals
Christy’s slides from her debate at FNCE 2018 (TW: one weight number)
Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond, by Amy Pershing and Chevese Turner)