Episode 54: Is Intuitive Eating Appropriate for Athletes? w/ Cara Harbstreet
Watch on YouTube
Episode Transcription
Intro: I'm Emily. And I'm Hannah. We are best friends and dietitians. We have a goal of challenging nutrition, misinformation and fitness trends with an evidence-based approach. Each episode, we will dish up our thoughts about the latest facts on a popular health related topic. We are the Up-Beet Dietitians!
Hello, everyone. Today we are joined by Cara Harbstreet. Cara is based out of Kansas City and she works in private practice and nutrition communications. She's a former athlete and still enjoys running, lifting and outdoor activities whenever she gets the chance. Perhaps work focuses on non diet messaging, which you guys know Emily and I love, and it is often featured in national media outlets and through brand partnerships. She also works one on one with clients for Intuitive Eating, Eating Disorder Recovery, and Sports Nutrition. Hope you guys enjoy this episode. All right. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Up-Beet Dietitians Podcast. Hello, everyone. Today we are joined by a very special guest, Cara Hartstreet. So we are going to talk about a little bit about what Cara does. But Cara, we would love to hear from you kind of what a day in the life looks like, what your hobbies are, what your previous education is, and then anything else really you want to share about yourself to get us started.
C: Yeah, well, that's a big question because I have to say, every day is totally different. I split my time between the private practice world and then the work I do with nutrition communication. So in my bio, you probably heard a range of different examples, but I can use today as an example. So this was a day that I kind of bounced around between a lot of different things. I had a couple of client sessions that were follow up. I had an initial session with a brand new client. We just started working together, and then in between, there's kind of little gaps and pockets of time. That's where I'll go back and do a round of edits for a nutrition partner that I'm working with. Or I'll try to draft a couple of posts that I can share to my own channels. I'll go back and edit a blog post that I've been working on and then at the same time, my inbox is overflowing. So I might bang out a couple of emails if I'm feeling like it. So it's really different day to day. Later this week, I've got a day in the kitchen because a lot of the work I do has to do with recipe development. And that's always really fun because I make sure that we eat as much of what I make as we can. I really try not to waste food. So those days in the kitchen might feature a couple of different recipes. I'll do my shopping in the morning, so everything is nice and fresh. Run through the photos or video or whatever that looks like and wake up, clean it all up do it all again. But outside of that, that really kind of covers the professional work. But a lot of it has overlapped with what we do for fun. My partner and I love to cook. We're both kind of foodies in that sense. And then, yes, with the weather warming up, we're trying to spend more time outside if possible. We are fortunate with kind of a unique living situation. But one of the downsides is that it has hardly any windows. And so now that the days are getting longer and the weather is warming up, we're like really itching to get outside and we like to go for walks together. I'm running a lot more than I used to in the last couple of years. And yeah, that might be a good segway, I guess, into the sports conversation because the running feature has kind of been honest up and down since my retirement from my track career.
We love a good segue. We love a good segue. Well, thank you for sharing all that. Our listeners love to kind of hear where you come from, what you're all about. So that was wonderful. But yeah, good segway. Let's talk about what we're going to get into today. So we really want to have Cara share with you guys about intuitive eating. And she really loves talking about that sort of thing. And then also how that can kind of be incorporated into athletics. It can sometimes seem like those two don't really mesh, so we really want to go over how they actually can. So I guess our first question, Cara, would be how can athletes incorporate intuitive eating into their life?
C: Yeah, I think on the surface level, it probably does seem like you described where there's not much mixing of the two. They might be like oil and water, but in reality and speaking purely from my experience as an athlete and now just having an active lifestyle, it's like, yeah, a lot of the principles of intuitive eating can fit, and maybe some of them have more of a time and a place than others, depending on where you are in your athletic career or how competitive or intense your training is. But my background as a track athlete, I feel it could have been much different had I known about intuitive eating and a gentler approach to nutrition at the time, because I think in working with athletes now, the most common thing that I see for the most part is not an issue of over fueling or eating too much. It's actually the opposite. I'm really struggling a lot of times to encourage eating enough, eating enough to support adequate intakes, optimal recovery, the timing of meals between training or competition. And it starts to get a little dicey, especially when you get into some of the sports that have a big focus on aesthetics or those weight class sports and athletes are facing a lot of pressure from coaches and teammates and sometimes more than anything from themselves. So these lessons from the intuitive eating framework, I think are similar to a menu of options, right? It's like when you go into a restaurant and you've got your pick of what sounds good or what could meet your needs in that moment. And I've started to think of those intuitive eating principles and other weight inclusive frameworks as similar to that. It's a menu of options where athletes at the end of the day still have the body autonomy to say either yes, this is something I want to pursue here's how it works within my sport at this time, or no, that might be something that I table for the time being and maybe revisit after I've made that transition away from my sport. I really liked everything you said. I feel like the world sports nutrition isn't really talked about as much online. I feel like I feel like it's grown a lot over the past 510 years and especially just in general. Sports nutrition has grown a lot over the past like 1520 years, especially kind of discussing how it might have changed your experience with your tracker and what specially. And I really am glad that you talked about the aesthetics component of it because I feel like that adds a lot of challenges and obstacles around nutrition in general. And then when you add on intuitive eating and incorporating that, a lot of people don't really know how to yes. And I think it really runs counter to the expectations of I'm doing air quotes, but it's like, you know, what an athlete should look like or what an athlete looks like. And again, that pressure can come from the outside, but it can also come from within a lot of sports, even beyond those weight class sports or others that have a more heavy emphasis on appearances. It's like across the gamut of team sports, individual sports, all of it. There's sort of this stereotypical frame or size or appearance. And what I've learned time and time again, both are just observation as well as working with athletes. It's like that really is not the best predictor for performance, for longevity in that sport over the span of many years, or really how that impacts everything that comes after I've seen an athlete exit their sport and be totally fine. I've seen others who maybe were fine in the moment while they were at their peak for competition, but then really struggle with that exit from sport. And that's where some of those eating behaviors start to manifest in ways that aren't really helpful for what they're doing at that point in their lives. So, yeah, it's a really interesting area. As you can tell, I'm excited about this, but that's one of my favorite populations to work with because just being able to more closely relate to them, having kind of been through it myself, there's always kind of that limit of, okay, how much do I share how much is too personal? Our clients are always at the center of our work, but being able to read between the lines of what they're saying and not saying, I think is really helpful insight at a lot of times. Yeah. I think that's what kind of can attract your perfect client, someone who has maybe similar struggles to what you can relate to and helps you be a really good dietitian too, if you're able to, again, the right way. Of course, finding that fine line of not over sharing but being able to kind of share your experience makes them feel more heard, more understood, and that just leads to a really good client RD relationship. So I think that's awesome. Yeah. I think there's still a ton of confusion to your comment earlier about sports nutrition sort of being on the rise. I think even now there's still a ton of confusion about even what a dietitian does in general, much less that very niche, highly specialized area of Dietetic practice. And if the public reception is that we're in the cafeteria or it's just training table and we're dishing out smoothies, that's pretty different from a lot of the work that the sports dietitians that I know are doing. And then in my world, in private practice, the things that we're covering. But I think breaking down some of those myths about what to expect when you're working with a dietitian could hopefully ease some of those barriers to say, okay, I feel like I'm struggling, maybe help would be beneficial. I should reach out while at the same time moving beyond that individual responsibility and saying, hey, how do we create a system that makes it easier to access? Because at smaller universities or programs that don't have as much funding thinking at the high school and collegiate level, it's like how do you even get a hold of a sports dietitian, much less one that has the training and awareness of weight inclusive approaches to do more benefit than harm? And I think that's one of the other issues that's facing really the field as a whole. But speaking specifically to the sports nutrition area.
H: Yeah, definitely. Emily and I went to Purdue University and we dabbled a little bit in the sports nutrition program there, just like as little student interns. And those athletes had a lot of access to a lot of things that were Purdue humongous school. And I guess I just can't really imagine, like since I went to a big school, it's hard to kind of see how people who go to a much smaller school wouldn't be able to have those things. It's really eye opening to kind of consider how different athletes have different things they can kind of get used to. I guess that's a good thing to kind of bring up. Yeah. I think for the smaller programs, it's not to say that there aren't any resources.
C: Right. There's a really saturated space online and especially with social media and some of the self paced courses, there's a lot of opportunity to still learn. But we can't forget that takes time. It takes resources like finances and flexibility with your schedule. And a lot of times as student athletes, you just don't have the capacity for that. You're kind of getting hit from all angles with other demands for your time and energy. And at the same time, you're really in this interesting power dynamic between yourself, your teammates, your coaches, your athletic trainers, strength and conditioning. It's really difficult at that really young age. We're still really young at that point. You've got kids who are 17, 18, 19 years old trying to weed through some well intentioned information that may or may not actually be beneficial or based on the evidence of what we know about sports nutrition and sports science. So I feel like, yeah, it's kind of an uphill battle. But the upside is I think there's some really great sports dieticians who are specializing in that area, making that information more widely available, easier to find, and hopefully at a more affordable cost. Because again, thinking about some of the demands on sport, it's like between equipment and private coaching and lessons and travel and all the rest, it's like what is there left over for adequate nutrition from a food access standpoint? Is that something that's also a barrier? But then also thinking, what are the limitations on what's left over to seek out support from a dietitian? So, yeah, just a whole mess of things. Like I said in hindsight, looking back, I feel like my personal athletic career could have been much different. But now knowing what the outcome can be, it's like, hey, if we can expose young athletes and their families and their support networks this stuff early on, I think that's a more proactive way to try to get ahead of some of the issues that could come up later.
E: Really glad to talk about the accessibility standpoint of it, especially from like, there's so much information. I feel like, especially with social media that like middle school to high school, you're exposed to a lot and there aren't really sports dieticians or even dietitians around to kind of educate. And that's a big tier of when you are getting a lot of information. I know from my experience, I know Hannah and I have talked about before, we received a lot of very extreme nutrition advice in high school from our coaches and whatnot. And looking back on it, it was very harmful essentially. And then kind of if you even have access to a sports dietitian, the collegiate level, then that would be a really new experience. But then sometimes people don't always do have experiences to that or access to that. So taking into account that side of it as well is very important, which actually kind of is a nice little segue into our next question. I feel like you already kind of answered it. But in case anyone was wondering, can athletes incorporate intuitive eating when they're on different skill levels and intensity levels? And this is like collegiate versus professional all the way up to like the Olympics?
C: I think so there's always going to be nuance. And so my default answer is, well, it depends, it depends on, I think, the goals of the athlete, what they're really aiming to get out of it. I've worked with a handful of athletes who said, I have a limited time in this career. There are some sports that you tend to age out of relatively young age compared to what we may or may not consider old again in air quotes by outside standards, but they kind of look at it as, hey, I've got a handful of really good years. I'm going to do whatever it takes to hit that peak while tempering that with the fact that they kind of know a lot of what they're doing might actually not be for their health benefit for the long term. And that's a trade off that every athlete has the right to contend with on their own terms. But then thinking about that menu, going back to that analogy, I think there are principles where we can always turn to you and it's like, yeah, from the outside looking in, some of those eating behaviors might actually look a little diet-y. From the outside looking in, it might look a little rigid, a little structured, a little whatever. But if we do fall back to say, okay, well, we also have principles of respecting your body. We also have principles of gentle nutrition. We have principles around honoring your fullness and hunger. And if those eating behaviors are serving those principles, then I really think regardless of competition level, there's a room or there's an ability to squeeze those in. I'm thinking about meal timing might be a perfect example. If you're training at that elite or pro level, we can maybe safely assume that the bulk of your day is spent around the planning, training, and recovery aspect of your sport. You might be working, you might have hobbies, you might have some downtime. But by and large, that training schedule might be dictating your eating pattern. And if we're looking at things like respecting your hunger and fullness, maybe the rigidity or the structure in your eating windows has to do with the fact that, you know, if you eat or overhydrate too close to an intense training session, you're going to pay the price, or if you wait too long after an intense training session, you jeopardize recovery. So again, I think we have to apply that lens of remembering what are the goals at the end of the day, and how is this athlete practicing in a way that serves their well being while saying, hey, here's the framework. How do we respect and trust the individual to apply it in a way that makes the most sense for them in a supportive way that doesn't undermine any of those goals. Yeah, that was really well put. People often think that intuitive eating is just eat whatever you want diet. But while there's no rules, there are still guidelines and principles and things that still can help you feel your best, perform your best for an athlete, that sort of thing. So that's a really great misconception to bring up and really debunk. I like that. Yeah. I have a couple of examples that I always pull out because like I said, from the outside looking in, it could look super diet-y. And you might read that as, oh, this is disordered. And it very well could be. The caveat on that is that I think more robust screening for disordered eating, more support and resources, things like that. But again, from the outside, looking in, something like meal planning or meal prep could very well be super dietary and create a lot of distress if you deviate or go, quote, unquote off plan. Whereas for some athletes, it might be like, hey, my time is so limited and there is so much unknown in my schedule. I'm better off being prepared and have something I can lean on, prepped and ready to go ahead of time versus, oh, at the end of the day, here I am starving. Anything goes. Talking about access and resources, too. As an athlete, it can get really expensive to meet those energy needs if you're constantly resorting to take out or restaurant meals or other things that could stretch your budget further than you want it to.
E: I love everything you said. I don't have anything much to add on top of that. I think you explained it really well, which is great. I think people take a lot away from that, which is good to keep in mind. Our next question for you is something we always click to add. We like to add a little space for kind of if this might not be for someone. So we would love to ask your opinion on if there are any situations that you'd recommend an athlete doesn't incorporate intuitively into their life.
C: Yeah, that's a tough one, because I feel like the athletic population as a whole is fairly representative in some aspects to just the greater population. And I kind of apply the same approach, I guess, for lack of a better word, where it's like, hey, if someone is truly in the depth of an intense, active eating disorder, we probably don't start with intuitive eating. Introducing that idea or the concept of weight neutrality, weight inclusivity, body liberation, all of that may certainly be well founded. And when introduced at that point in time, it might say, hey, this might be a goal that you imagine for yourself in the future. But again, when someone's really in the trenches of an eating disorder, intuitive eating as a framework was never intended to manage or treat eating disorders. And I think that's one of the biggest myths, too, because a lot of people sometimes enter into it without first going through the recovery process from where that disorder originated from or the things that they need to really heal from that first before then revisiting or introducing those principles of intuitive eating. So I think the same can apply for athletes where. Yeah, without that screening or awareness of where that disordered eating is showing up, maybe we don't jump straight into the principles like ditching food rules and kind of like giving this upheaval in a sense of some of the structure and control they can feel safe in that sense. Yeah, that's a good point. That's something I don't always think about. That's really good. To hear our final general question. I feel like I kind of already touched on. But do you feel like there's any other I guess I'll say, any other misconceptions around intuitive eating and sports nutrition that we kind of haven't really touched on already? Yeah, I feel like we have covered quite a bit. And really the biggest misconceptions that I see with intuitive eating actually don't have as much to do with the sports nutrition side. It's kind of just the misconceptions in general, which I know both of you have talked about in the past. There's certainly nothing new. But, yeah, I think back to some of the weight class sports or athletes in the arts who may look to intuitive eating as, hey, could this be something I use to manipulate body size or meet those weight requirements or meet the aesthetic demands of what people want to see in the sport? And just like, with the greater population, it's kind of like, yeah, that's not what intuitive eating was ever designed for. It's like running through that list of potential outcomes where it's like, yeah, you might implement these principles and follow this non diet approach. And weight might stay the same. It might go up, it might go down, but we just don't have that Crystal ball to accurately predict in any way what would happen for your body should you choose to do this. So, yeah, I think being really transparent and upfront about that is doing a better service for the clients that we're working with and saying, oh, maybe like kind of being wishy washy about it. I think the more honest and clear I can be about some of those potential outcomes at least provides enough information for someone to decide either. Yeah. This approach is for me, and I want to go down that path with you or I'm not sure yet. I'm still on the fence. I need to hear more before I make up my mind. So again, I think kind of like with the world at large, there's a lot of myths that are popping up, especially as social media becomes more and more active around the sprays or intuitive eating and non diet approaches in general, it adds a lot of confusion. So probably more myth busting to come in the future as it continues to kind of get hijacked for purposes that aren't authentic to its origins.
H: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we really appreciate you sharing this because we've had some other sports RDS on here, but we haven't ever really touched on intuitive eating with them. So it's been really cool to hear again how those two really intermingle because they can and do so often. And for a lot of cases, they probably should more so than they maybe are. So, again, thank you so much for sharing all that. And thanks to kind of wrap it all up. I like to always ask our guests. I always like, joke like, if you were to fast forward to the end of our episode and hear nothing else, what would you kind of say to put all this in a few sentences or thoughts?
C: That's a good question. Yeah. To sum it up, I don't know if I can actually keep it short and sweet, but I would say if you're an athlete or even if you don't identify as an athlete, kind of consider the demands that you're asking of your body could nourishing your body in a sustainable way that's authentic and true to you and your goals help with that. And if any part of you feels like the answer to that is yes, then there is something in that intuitive eating approach that could help you get there. Whether it's a handful of principles, whether it's just one ditching restrictive dieting and properly fueling even that in and of itself could bring a lot of benefit. And I think of a lot of my clients who don't identify as an athlete, but they're training for a marathon, they're taking multiple high intensity group classes every week, or they're trying to keep up with their teenage athletes and kind of getting involved at that point. And yeah, it's like if you break it down, you don't have to be signed up for a race or going to a tournament, competing in games to be an athlete who could benefit from better nutrition. So that's maybe the point I'd love to drive home is that, yeah, if you train like an athlete, you've got to eat for it, too.
E: I love that last phrase. Maybe like, yeah, no, I don't really have to explain.
H: That'll be an Instagram snippet, I'm sure. Yeah, absolutely. Very cool.
E: So thank you so much, Cara, for sharing all your thoughts about sports nutrition. I'm sure we can go so much more in depth about a lot of these different kinds. There are so many different sections of all these intuitive eating. And both sports nutrition is also growing a lot. So I'm sure there'll be many more questions and things to come up in the future revolving around both of them. But we always like to end our episode with a bonus question. This is kind of a little bit of a debate. It's more of us just sharing our opinions about something, and we always like to make it really fun and light hearted to take away from more of the serious conversation we have for the bulk of the episode. So today's bonus question we always let our guests start is what is the best way to eat spaghetti? To twirl it or to cut it?
C: I got a little preview of his questions, so I gave it some thought. But for me, it's hands down the swirling method. The reason being I love that chewy bouncy texture of really well cooked pasta, and I just can't fit as much of it in my mouth. If I cut it, I want to get that big swirl on the fork and just bite right into it. So for me, that's a no brainer. That's a super easy one.
H: Yeah, I have to agree. I'm definitely a twirler. I don't know if I have a good reason. Besides, I just feel like I'm doing it wrong if I cut it. Not that anyone should feel like they're doing a bad thing if they do, everyone gets to eat whatever they want, however they want to eat it. But I have to say, I'm a curler, too. It just feels right. It just feels right. And I like, love when you get that. Noodle, that slurps up. Yeah. Like the lady in Tramp. Exactly.
E: Yeah. I am also Team Twirl. I like the aesthetic of it, and I think I always match the cartoons as I brought up north. Now, the Lady and the Tramp. They don't twirl because they are dogs, but anytime you see in a show or anything, they twirl up or like, it's all fancy. And then when I can do the same to my food, more fun. And I would say the one advantage to the cutting is more of, like, the breaking of the pasta or like, the short noodles, because not all of my pots are big enough to fit, like, full sized spaghetti noodles. And so, yes, you get like that and that kind of, like, sticks up. It's like not all the way down in the water as it's boiling, but, yeah, to me, from a pure satisfaction standpoint, I'm going for that really good bite. That's like part of eating spaghetti. If you're going to just cut it, just eat a shorter kind of noodle, like Dora Le or a swirly guy or whatever. If you're doing spaghetti, you have to eat the whole thing.
H: Emily, I'm very surprised about you with the twirl, because I feel like it's Messier. And I know how much you don't like being messy when you eat, but I'd still be using a fork. That's true. When my hands get weird, Emily hands. When her hands get dirty, it's the whole thing. Yeah. Cool. We all agreed. Three, four, three. That rarely happens. Consensus. I like it. Yeah. Cool.
E: So, Cara, we always like, to end the episode of giving the floor to you. Where can our listeners find you like, social media, any links you want to share? This is really just kind of your time to promote whatever you want.
C: Awesome. Well, I will gladly do that. I spend a lot of time online, so my website is www.Streetsmartnutrition.com, and I've got a newsletter that goes out every other week. So that's a great way to just see the archive of things that I've shared in the past. And then, of course, social media. I'm at StreetSmart RD on almost all of the platforms. And then, yeah, I think one of the most exciting projects that I'm working on that I'd love to share about is really close to launch. I mean, by the time this episode goes live, we might be really right at the beginning of it or just about. But we were talking earlier about the access issue for support from dietitians and how many barriers there are to getting more support if that's something you want for yourself. So this is an app called Way, and it's a really interesting complement to the work that I do in private practice because it's meant to just be a conversation starter. Right. No digital app could ever replace the one on one work that I would do in a session with a client. But this is a great introduction for someone who's maybe curious about intuitive eating or have ditched dieting and said, yeah, I know these diets don't work for me, but now I'm looking for something to fill that gap. Like, I do want some help in this area, but I'm not sure where to go. So you can find them online. They're on social media as well. Eat my way app. And I've been doing a lot of session content with them, just providing some input based on my experiences with counseling and applying behavior change through a non-diet lens. And yeah, it's been a couple of years in the making, so it's super exciting. The timing of this is, like I said, right about to launch. And so that's definitely something I recommend checking out any of your listeners who are curious about it. There's a good trial to get familiar with it and see if it's the right fit for you.
E: That's so awesome. We will be sure to share links to everything you mentioned, social media, the app, all of that in our descriptions. You guys can find it easier.
C: Awesome.
H: You got this.
E: Okay. Thank you, everyone, for listening today's episode. We hope you took something away from it. Thank you so much, Cara, for coming on and sharing all your wisdom and whatnot. This is a really awesome episode. I know a lot of people will be very interested to hear about it. Everyone always loves all things sports nutrition. I feel like, especially with our audience, but we will see you guys next week. Otherwise, a wonderful rest of your day yeah. Thanks for listening guys. See you next week.
H: Bye bye.
Outro: Thank you so much for tuning in on this episode of The Upbeat Dieticians with your host Emily Crowsey and Hannah Thompson. We appreciate you all so much for continuing to support us. In order to support us and sustain the success of this podcast, please subscribe and leave a rating and review. If you'd like to provide us feedback for future episodes and guest stars, follow us on Instagram at The Upbeat Dietitians. Lastly, you can show us support by providing a monthly donation using the link at the end of our bio. Once again, thank you so much for listening today and stay tuned next Wednesday for a new episode. Until then, we hope you have a wonderful rest of your week.
