Episode 27: What’s So Bad About Dieting? with Kayla Bechman, RD, LD
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Episode Transcription
Emily:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast.
Hannah:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the pod. Today we are joined by another very special guest. We have Kayla Bechman with us, a registered dietitian and a fellow Purdue grad. So cheers to that. And we have a very awesome episode plan today. So we're going to go over with Kayla all about dieting, diet culture, which you guys know. Emily and I are very passionate about as well. So it'll be so good to also get another RDS perspective on all of that. So that's what we got planned for today. Kayla, thank you for being on the Pod.
Kayla:
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I love you guys' podcast. I've listened to every episode.
Hannah:
We love that. So to kind of get us started, we always like letting you guys talk about kind of what you do and what your job looks like from the day to day, as well as if you want to touch on any of your background in education as well as any fun hobbies that you like to do in your free time.
Kayla:
Yeah. So I went to Purdue with Emily and Hannah and went through the coordinated program with Hannah. So that was a lot of fun. And after I graduated, I became a dietitian and then got a job at a nursing home and rehabilitation facility. And so I'm still with the same company. But I actually just changed buildings. So I'm in a new building now and loving it. So I work with a lot of different people. I work with a lot of different ages, mostly the geriatric population, but definitely we see some younger people come in and being a dietitian at a nursing home, you kind of wear a lot of hats. I think a lot of my family and friends still don't really understand what I do. It's not making diet plans and telling old people to eat vegetables. I get that a lot. I assess every new resident. I'm assessing their nutritional status. Weight loss is a really big problem in that population, and weight loss can lead to malnutrition, which can lead to a lot of poor outcomes, especially when a lot of these people come in and they have a ton of different disease States. And so malnutrition can kind of just add on to that and make their outcome worse. So I assess for that. I assess what diet they should be on if they need any nutrition supplements. And then I'm also responsible for any tube feeding residents we have. So my old building, I was managing, like, ten tube feeds. It was a lot at this one. I only have one. So it's not quite as hectic. So I'm responsible for that. I'm responsible for ordering all of our feed supplies and all of the nutrition supplements. And then I also work hand in hand with the culinary manager of the building, overseeing the kitchen and everything that goes on there. So it's a lot and I wear a lot of different hats, but I love it. And I love my residence. There's never a dull day in a nursing home. It's always crazy, always something new. You're always meeting new people with just really cool life stories. And so that's awesome. So that's what I do during the day. And that's a lot of craziness in my spare time. I like to bake. I actually decorate cakes. So I do like wedding cakes and birthday cakes. That was actually a career path of mine for a little bit. I took a couple of years off Purdue and pursued that for a little bit until I realized I wanted to be a dietitian and then went back to Purdue. But I still do that on the side, mostly for family and friends. And if I'm not doing that, I am hanging out with my dog Bentley or probably obsessing over something about Sharks. I love Sharks. I actually just cage dived with some Sharks at the Georgia Aquarium. It was the coolest thing ever.
Hannah
That is awesome.
Kayla:
Yes, it was awesome. It was so cool. I highly recommend going to the Georgia Graham if you're ever in Atlanta.
Hannah:
Okay, well, let's jump right in. This is going to be such a good episode. I'm so excited, but our first question for you, Kayla, is to kind of kick us off. How would you define dieting? And how would you define diet culture? How they kind of, like, intermingle.
Kayla:
Yeah, definitely. So dieting, I would say, is when you're regulating your consumption of foods and beverages with the intention of weight loss. So it's kind of managing what you're eating and what you're drinking because you have a goal of weight loss. And then diet culture kind of a definition that I like. Official definition. Diet culture refers to a set of beliefs that values thinness appearance and shape above health and wellbeing. And so I think when I say that some people might be, well, I lose weight to get healthy. And so I think it's important to understand that with diet culture, it kind of equates thinness and dieting and weight loss with health and morals and values and someone's worth. And that's not the same thing. Those aren't the same things. And so that's kind of where diet culture comes in. And when someone is dieting, I guess that's kind of a tricky thing. I guess I wouldn't necessarily say they're automatically in diet culture, but it's probably a really fine line. So diet culture also, it demonizes foods, particular foods or food groups or types of food like organic versus non organic. That kind of thing and then particular ways of eating. And it assumes that those who don't meet the thin idea or the picture of health, that they're unhealthy and that they're not promoting in any or participating in any health promoting behaviors because they don't meet that picture of what diet culture says House looks like. And so there's also kind of this new thing that I think our generation is kind of jumping into the wellness culture, which is a part of diet culture. It just disguises itself. So it doesn't seem like it is wellness culture kind of trying to say that they aren't focused on weight or weight loss, but they're still demonizing certain foods or producing fear over certain foods and guilt over eating certain foods. I think a popular one with that would be clean eating. I hear that all the time. It's so annoyed. Like my first response when I hear that, well, what is clean eating? What does that mean to you? Because that means nothing to me other than I wash my fruits and vegetables. That's such a popular term, and it always makes my blood boil. What does that even mean? It's so frustrating.
Hannah:
Yes. And I feel with wellness culture, too, along with demonizing foods, they also glorify foods that shouldn't be glorified, like the whole lemon water thing, for example, clean eating. Like you just said, I don't know. I can give another example, but they demonize foods that are apparently bad. And then they glorify foods that are good. And both of those are just flawed. Neither of those should be occurring.
Kayla:
An example is super foods.
Hannah:
Oh, yeah. Or like, one food can do all these amazing things, exactly. Like with the lemon water, for example, they claim that it can help with weight loss. It can help with your PH, even though you shouldn't want to move your PH. But whatever it can help with boosting your metabolism, like all these things, whether those are true or not, I guess I'm simply going to say they're not true. But you can't glorify a food for doing those things because no one food can magically be a cure all.
Kayla:
Especially like Apple cider vinegar. Oh, it's another good one.
Hannah:
They started to make it into gummies. And I'm like, why I have so many patients that take those. It's insane. The amount of times I would say you don't have to take those unless you want to. They're basically just expensive kind of gross candy.
Emily:
So we've already discussed kind of what diet culture is, what dieting is. But people are maybe wondering, like, why are these all bad things? So, Kayla, would you be able to go over maybe, like a couple of the most popular or most frequently seen negative effects of dieting and diet culture in kind of everyday life?
Kayla:
Definitely. So I think the first one I'm going to say is kind of a shocking one. And most people when they hear it they're like, what are you talking about? So dieting is the number one predictor of weight gain. So two thirds of people will regain the weight that they lost. And I think somewhere there might be a time frame with that. But I think that can be shocking for people to hear, because dieting is for weight loss. But dieting is the number one predictor of weight gain. And it all kind of for a variety of reasons. So dieting can lead to increased binge eating. It can decrease your metabolic rate, and it can increase your preoccupation with foods. It can increase your feelings of deprivation, increase your sense of failure and decrease your sense of willpower. I think all of those kind of go into the weight regain process. And I think one of the biggest examples of this is with The Biggest Loser show. And I'm sure you guys have heard of this. But they did a study on some of the contestants of The Biggest Loser and found that after they had lost a significant amounts of weight and somewhat short time period, they had decreased leptin levels, which leptin is the hormone that kind of tells you when you're full. So when it's lower, you're going to feel hungry and when it's higher, you're going to feel full. And they also have slower metabolism. So all of these contestants regained all of the weight they lost. And it's because they had these decreased leptin levels and this lower metabolism. But the thing is, even after they regained all their weight, their hormone levels and their metabolism didn't return to what it was prior to when they lost weight. So that's important because you have these people that lost a tremendous amount of weight and then gained it back. And so they're at this large size. But their body is still only needing the amount of calories and energy that they needed at the smaller size. So staying at that weight and losing weight is even harder than it was before. And that's why they gained the weight back, even though they were eating less food than they were before. And so the Biggest Loser show, that's not necessarily everyone on a daily basis. Not everyone goes on a show and loses that much weight. But those things still show. And people that do lose large amounts of weight with dieting. So that's one of the examples why it causes weight gain. Also, with the increased binge eating, so 49% of people that go on a diet will have a post diet, binge or binges. So you go on a diet and you lose the weight and you're happy you met your goal, whatever. And so now what do you do? Well, most people stop the diet because a lot of times people go on fad diets that aren't sustainable. So they stopped the diet and they start introducing the foods that they cut out, and they had cut them out for so long that their body is craving them, and they're craving them. And so they binge on these foods and they go on binges of these foods that they didn't let themselves have for such a long time. And so they regain weight. And all of this comes with the preoccupation with food and like those feelings of deprivation. And I think that one is easy to understand, because when someone goes on a diet and maybe they're cutting out carbs or cutting out sugar or whatever they're doing that first week, that's all they want. I know I can't have this. So all I want is this a lot of times that causes someone to maybe fail a diet. Well, I don't want to say fail a diet. They start having these things in their diet again, and they feel like they've failed. And so they quit or something binge or something like that. And so that it really takes a toll on someone's mental health. You feel like a failure because, well, this person lost weight on this diet or this is supposed to work for me, and it's not. I must be a failure. No, you're not. It's the diet that is failing you. And all of this can really kind of lead to the diet cycle or Yoyo dieting, which can cause weight cycling, which I feel like is really where we see a lot of the health problems associated with dieting is with this white weight cycling. So the diet cycle is kind of the first step. Someone wants to lose weight, to be thin or to get healthy, and then they go on a diet, and then they have increased cravings and urges for those foods that they're not letting themselves have and feel like they have reduced self control around those foods. And then they lose the self control that they have tried to have with these foods given to cravings. They start overeating and binging a lot of times. I think it starts as cheat days, which I hate. And then you regain the weight that you lost. And I think a lot of times when I try to explain this to someone, it can be hard to understand because I think people are thinking that all of this happens in a short time frame. And the thing is, this can happen for, like, over a span of years, so you can lose the amount of weight you want in six months and you can keep it off for a year or two or three years. But then these things start to come back and you regain that weight. And maybe it's four or five years later, but you still regain the weight and maybe even more. And so you go on another diet and then it starts all over again. So it may not be like a constant month to month thing for some people, it is. But for a lot of people, it's not. It happens over a span of years, and it's a little bit harder to understand because of that, because they don't see it immediately like, oh, you're crazy. No, I'm not going to regain this weight. You probably will. It'll probably be in, like, three or four years, and then you're going to start all over again. And that's where a lot of the health problems come in is with that weight, cycling on another spectrum of that dieting can increase the risk of developing an eating disorder. So 35% of dieters will develop disorder eating, which is not an eating disorder. It's behaviors that are unhealthy. And that might be similar to an eating disorder, but it's not an actual diagnosable eating disorder. It's not quite on that spectrum. And then 30% to 45% of those people will go on to develop an eating disorder, which is definitely not what we want. Yeah, I think you did a really great job of covering almost every single basis. I think of what route you can go with the negative side effects of dieting. And I'm really glad you talked about how that Yoyo dieting or dieting cycle isn't within just a month. I think the time frame is the two thirds gained the way back in two years. I'm not 100% confident on that. But I believe that. Is it because, yeah, some people become chronic dieters throughout their entire life where they look back and they're like, oh, the last 20 years has been really hard to lose weight. And that's kind of such a huge part of their life where their relationship with food is distorted, their relationship with their body and dining is not a one fix. Well, I don't know the phrase you fix this one thing and then everything else kind of falls into place. You'll most likely fall back into that cycle. We hope you don't. Perfect world. You wouldn't. But unfortunately, that is a common side effect.
Emily:
That was actually a perfect segway into. Our next talking point is we talk about how people become chronic diabetes. We can talk about how they can experience the diet cycle or, like, three or four years. What can they do to break that cycle? Dietitian approved tactics.
Kayla:
So I think number one for me, I'll let you guys chime in after because I know, actually, I know, Hannah, you probably have other things, but so intuitive eating definitely would be the number one thing. It's definitely what helped break me out of diet culture before I became a dietitian. So I know it works. And I think you guys had an episode on intuitive eating. Yes. So I didn't want to go into depth on intuitive eating because it could take, like, ten episodes. So the definition from the Intuitive Eating website, which is created by the creators of Intuitive Eating, which are two dietitians. Intuitive Eating is a self care eating framework which integrates instinct, emotion and rational thought and is a way inclusive, evidence based model with a validated assessment scale, which is probably just important for us. And then the definition from the Nida website, which is the National Eating Disorder Association. Intuitive eating is about trusting your inner body wisdom to make choices around food that feel good in your body, without judgment and without influence from diet culture. So there's ten principles to intuitive eating, and I'm not going to go into any of them, but the purpose of them are to help you normalize your relationship with food and with your body. Kind of one big thing I didn't touch on and negative things about dieting is the relationship you develop with your body and with body image and body dysmorphia. But I think that intuitive eating is growing, and I think a lot more people are hearing about it, which is good and awesome, but that also means that people can spin it and make it what they want it to be. I think some people are trying to make it into a diet or make it another weight loss tool, and that's not what it is. It's not meant for weight loss. It's not a diet. It really is to help you repair your relationship with food and with your mind and with your body. Another common thing I think it gets a route for is that it's just eating whatever the hell you want when you want. And that's really not what it is. You're not just giving up on nutrition and saying, screw nutrition. All the science is bullshit. Whatever. It's not just giving up or eating with reckless abandonment. It's giving unconditional permission to eat with curiosity and nonjudgment. So you're removing the stigma and the guilt and the fear around food that a lot of people develop when they go on diets. So they have these stigma about carbs or sugar or something else that's popular right now. Some diet has demonized it, so it really is kind of taking that away and helping you learn to eat from a place of curiosity and a place of nonjudgment. What do I want right now? What does my body want? What can I give my body and give myself that I know is going to satisfy it that I know is going to fill me up and that has nutrients in it that I need. And that's not always the case. You can eat foods that maybe don't have a lot of micronutrients, but you can eat them because you want them and you don't have to feel guilty about eating them. Yeah. So that's kind of intuitive eating in a very broad nutshell.
Hannah:
Yeah. I do feel like that's one of the biggest ways that it's spun intuitive eating is the whole you can eat whatever you want on this diet situation. And that's one of the biggest things I like to emphasize with intuitive eating is it is eating whatever you want, but that doesn't mean that you're going to always want to eat Donuts and brownies and cookies. The goal is to eventually heal your thoughts around foods that you. Actually, I know it sounds crazy, but you actually will crave those nutrient dense foods as well as those other foods that are more nourishing for, like, our soul than our actual body health, if that makes sense. Yes. Definitely. I was trying to explain this to someone a while ago, and they were kind of throwing that back at me. Well, if I let myself eat Donuts, then I'm going to eat it every single day. And it's hard to understand because that person is still stigmatizing that food. Is it a word stigmatizing? I think so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Close enough. So it's really hard to comprehend, especially if you're not someone who is ready to jump into it and ready to get on board with it. So, yeah, it can be hard to explain to people, but that's like if you are just starting it, you might have that period where you do overeat those foods that have been forbidden in your life for so long. That doesn't mean that once you are a full blown, intuitive eater, that's going to be your life forever. It's just going to be a learning curve, for sure, 100%. And if you're eating dense every day, I could bet you're not going to feel good. Exactly. That's what I said.
Participant #1:
But yeah, I want a vegetable. Yeah. I think a lot of people that is hard, like that first process of starting into a beating, you're letting yourself have all these foods and a lot of times you do overeat these foods, and that's okay. That doesn't make you unhealthy, like, a week's worth of your eating or even a month worth of your eating habits does not define your health. It doesn't. You think in years, and it's really the lifespan of your habits that are having an impact on your health. So true. So good. Also, another thing I would say is removing weight from the focus, which is hard to do, especially in diaculture, where attaining a certain weight and attaining a certain body shape and body size is what's seen as good and beautiful and attractive and all of those things. But if your goal is because I always hear when I ask someone why they want to lose weight or I want to get healthy. Well, what does healthy mean to you? So if your goal is to get healthy, then we're not going to focus on your weight. So take weight, take that number out of your focus, put it on a back burner or completely take it off the stove and really understand that health is an individual thing. Each of us needs different things. Each of us learn in different ways. Each of us eat in different ways. And that's okay. That's what makes food awesome. Like the fact that we all eat differently and, like different foods and have different taste buds and we grow up eating different foods. I think that's awesome. Why would you want to go on a diet and change the way you've eaten your whole life. Health is an individual thing, and eating is an individual thing. It's not a one size fits all. That's why I hate meal plans and diet plans. They're necessary in some cases, but for most people, I hate them. So what's healthy for someone may not be healthy for you? A diet that works for someone isn't going to work for you. It's not going to work for anyone and definitely understand that being thin does not necessarily equal being healthy. We're all meant to be at different weights. We're all meant to be different body sizes and body shapes. We're not all meant to look the same and be the same weight and have the same size. A healthy weight for me might be different for a healthy weight for someone else who is the same age and gender and height as me. And that's okay. We all kind of have a set point where our body feels good and it's functioning well, and it's healthy as in all of those things. Plus, our blood work looks great. We don't have any nutrient deficiencies. So everyone has this different weight where they feel good. And I think that's so important to understand and to kind of learn where that is for you, because some people for a lot of people, that weight isn't going to be maybe the way that you want to be at. And that's really important to understand, because going back to being thin doesn't always mean being healthy. Losing weight doesn't always mean getting healthy
Participant #1:
along with that.
Participant #1:
When people lose weight, it's not always because they're trying to lose weight. A lot of people might lose weight because they are sick because they've had a death of someone they love. Maybe they're struggling with a mental illness, maybe they have an eating disorder, and I always like to promote not commenting on someone's body or someone's weight loss or weight gain because you don't know the reason behind it. You don't know if it was intentional or not, and it could be a really serious thing that they have going on in their life. And that's why they lost weight. And now you're telling them that, oh, wow. You look great. You lost weight. Well, they didn't mean to lose weight, and they actually have this major thing happening in their life. But now you've told me that I look great, so I have to stay at this size or I don't look great. That's such an important thing to understand, too. Like we don't need to comment on other people's bodies for weight loss or waking. Just keep the tears off
Participant #1:
everything you just said. There are so many more interesting to talk about
Participant #1:
weight. Yes. Just keep it to yourself. So those are all amazing ways that people can kind of get out of this diet cycle. Additionally, you don't have to do it alone, which is another thing. There's a lot of awesome support groups online. You can follow so many anti diet culture dietitians on social media. It would be hard not to find one. Really try. Yeah. And also, if you need that personalized help, you can always seek out a dietitian, maybe Google dietitians near me. I'm not sure how to find us. I feel like there's some kind of website that shows, like, intuitive eating dietitians. Oh, yes, that too. We can link that below. Yeah, we're a mystery. I feel like most people find, like, in general, people like dietitians who do this, like online. It's like it's the biggest thing, like social media, like, you find someone you love on Instagram. They have a program. They offer one on one counseling, and people often just go through it that way. And even if they don't have any of that advertised, you can always message them, be like, do you know anyone that you can refer me to? And then there you go. So I'm kind of leading into eventually getting to the next talking point. My transitions are just never great. But,
Participant #1:
Kayla, how can everyone kind of is health care professionals, trainers, medical providers, anyone that might be working with someone who is struggling with diet culture. What do you think we can do? This is like to the health care professionals, not to the clients or patients. This is what you should be looking for, I guess in a good provider. What do you recommend? Yeah, definitely. First of all,
Participant #1:
I definitely recommend finding someone, like, if some of this stuff or all of this stuff kind of described you and you feel like you're a chronic Dieter and you feel like you've been trapped in this weight cycling your whole life. Definitely recommend finding a professional to help. Unfortunately, I think that it's not easy to do. Not that there's not enough of us out there, but I think it's not always easy to find or to do. And I think that sucks. And I feel like that needs to be improved and worked on. And I don't know how to do that, but it's definitely possible. It might just take a little bit of effort, but worth it. So I think when you're looking for a professional, whether it's a dietitian to help you with nutrition or personal trainer to kind of help you with exercise, which I haven't really talked about a lot or a medical provider of some sort doctor, nurse or something, definitely find someone that knows that dieting and diet culture is the problem, someone that promotes and teaches intuitive eating and also someone that aligns with Hayes. So Hayes is half of every size, and I think this is such an important thing, and I think it's something that is super misunderstood. I think a lot of people think of Hayes health and every size as them saying that you can be healthy at any weight is healthy, and that's not necessarily what they're saying. So kind of the definition from the Hayes website, and I think this is important to talk about. Hayes is a shift away from a weight centric approach to house and health care to one that highlights body diversity and behavior change to attain desired health outcomes, as opposed to focusing on manipulating weight and shape. So health at every size is not saying that all bodies are healthy, but that health promoting behavior changes can be made without focusing on a person's weight or shape. So understanding that a person should not be judged or discriminated against based on the size of their body. I think that's such a common thing that happens all of the time and it sucks. You see someone in a larger body and you automatically assume, wow, that person is really unhealthy. Wow, they must not care about themselves at all while they really need to lose weight and aligning yourself with. Haze is working to go against that and understanding that first of all, you don't know anything about that person. You don't know where they are in life or why they're at that body size. Maybe that's the body size they've been at their whole life and that's their body's happy weight. Maybe that's genetics. Maybe that's a condition or an illness like you have no idea. You don't know if they're engaging in health promoting behaviors or not. So to just automatically judge someone based on their size is not helpful. And not only does that happen like all the time, but it happens a lot in the medical field, and that sucks even more. I think there's a lot of stories and examples of people in larger bodies going to the doctor and everything gets blamed on their weight. Everything is oh, well, you need to lose weight, and then we can look at it. Symptoms go ignored and tests don't get done because doctors just assume that they're having these issues because they're overweight and that's not fair. And that's not true or accurate. And it's not okay. And that really goes for any medical professional or personal trainer. So I think that's definitely a super important thing to look for. When you're looking for help, go to someone who is going to practice with nonjudgment. So yes, find someone who is hazellined and then kind of talking more to the professionals. I think it's important to remove weight from the conversation, so really focus on their wanting to improve their health, not lose weight because those are not the same things. So taking weight out of the conversation as a dietitian, you can still know their weight, and you can use that as a tool for yourself. But you don't have to include it in the conversation with your client or your patient. It doesn't have to be the focus of everything. And definitely not like how you measure progress. So we're not going to weigh you every week, and that's how we're measuring your progress because that is like the opposite of all the points I'm trying to make. So definitely. That be mindful of the words you say.
Participant #1:
Don't talk about weight, don't talk about
Participant #1:
good and bad foods, those kind of things. Just be mindful. I feel like that's kind of common sense and then definitely stay in your Lane. This is such an important thing for health care professionals. And I think a lot of times some people don't stay in their Lane, and that can be really frustrating. So if you're a dietitian, refer them to a personal trainer for their exercise and movement. If you're a personal trainer, refer them to a dietitian, especially if you're seeing some really concerning behaviors around eating and movement like, don't give them nutrition advice, refer them to a dietitian. I would say the same for doctors, but doctors are kind of a whole different breed. A lot of opinions on doctors.
Participant #1:
I work in a weight loss clinic, and so a lot of our patients come from doctor referrals and like to what you're saying a few minutes ago where they'll come to the doctor's office because they have a cough and they'll end up being referred to our clinic because of their weight. They don't even get treated for the cough. They just come to see us to lose weight because that was evidently the problem for the cough. It's so frustrating. The amount of stories I've heard is just insane. It's so sad, too, and they always just feel so lost. They've been struggling their whole life and they never get answers. They just get told eat less, move more that whole thing. And again, I don't want to blame doctors because it's not we're doing today, but they are a big culprit of that oftentimes because they just don't learn how to treat it. And I Thankfully think that Hayes approach is becoming more of a thing in terms of the medical profession. At least I hope it is. But it definitely with the older population of positions is not always the approach they take. Well, that was a great summation of kind of what we can all do as practitioners and how people who are looking for providers can go about what they should be looking for, I suppose, kind of along with all of this. So in terms of, like, diet culture, dieting, do you have any personal experience? Excuse me. You've either had, like in your own life or that you've seen on social media or that maybe like patients or friends or peers or whoever that have experienced that you kind of want to share to kind of just keep on building the awareness about all of this. Definitely. I think that I kind of fall into the same boat as a lot of dietitians. Not all dietitians. I don't want to make that categorization, but I think a lot of dietitians struggled with eating, struggled with dieting, struggled with disordered eating. I think a lot of dietitians struggled with eating disorders, and then through all of their treatment or recovery, they want to help other people. And so they become a dietitian. And I was the same way. Definitely struggled with disordered eating for a large portion of my life since middle school, and not necessarily something that I learned from my parents or anything. But you can't escape it. It's literally everywhere, which is terrifying. And for young kids with impressionable vines, it's everywhere. It's out there, even if you're not seeing it in your home or from your parents, it's everywhere. So I struggled with a lot of disordered behaviors through middle school and high school and College, and they all kind of shifted from restriction to binging to kind of like the orthorexic behaviors of, oh, I'm just being healthy when really you're not eating enough and you're exercising way too much. And I kind of was called out on it by someone, and that's kind of when it really became apparent to me like, I have a problem. This isn't okay, and this isn't healthy
Participant #1:
with those being healthy, like macro counting and counting calories when it's still not healthy and you're still in a really restrictive place. But you're telling yourself that you're being healthy for me. Personally, I found intuitive eating dietitians on Instagram, and that's really what started kind of my recovery for me and what kind of pushed me into being a dietitian. So when I had that break from Purdue, that two year break when I was pursuing baking, that's when I kind of discovered all this and really tried to work on it and work on recovering and really learn what intuitive eating is and how much damage I had done to my body for the past ten years and how unhealthy all of it really was and that there's another way to live. You don't have to live that way your entire life, which was really amazing, and it didn't happen overnight. It took me a really long time to get to where I am today, which is kind of crazy to look back on myself or to look back at old pictures of myself and remember the thoughts that I had about myself at that time. And they were so just not good, just really body dysmorphic and negative body image. And so it's crazy to see where I am today and look back and see how far I've come. And I kind of did it on my own. But I don't recommend that because you don't have to. But I also started going to school for nutrition kind of during that process for me. So that kind of helped me along. If that doesn't happen for everyone, not everyone goes to school for nutrition to become a dietitian. So I definitely recommend going to someone for help because I think I could have saved a lot of time and stress for myself if I had reach out to someone. Thank you for sharing that with us. I hope it definitely resonated with me. I sure is going to resonate with a lot of our audience because the more personal experiences I think they hear, the more real and relatable it becomes, especially from dietitians, where people think that we have it all figured out. Like Kayla said, most of us start out having no clue what we're doing. We offer and are so trapped in diet culture because like Kayla said, too, there's no escaping it, which I love that you said that because it's like we don't even know the difference. We don't know. There is another side of it where you don't have to live like that. And so people often just feel like it's the only way. But what I was saying is it's so good to hear that perspective from dietitians because people think that we don't struggle with that. But we often do. It's usually how we became inspired to be dietitians, whether that's wrong or right can't really say that. But thankfully, most of us go through education and learn that style of eating and all of that is not beneficial for most people. So yes, thank you so much for sharing all that. That was very good. They'll really help a lot of people, I think. Yeah, definitely. This kind of wraps up the end of our episode. Kayla will kind of give you the floor. We like to do a lot of final verdict whenever you do like, fat diets or stuff like that. But diet culture and dieting is bigger than fat.
Participant #1:
Any final thoughts or comments that you just like to leave out there about dining or diet culture? Yeah. So I think just kind of touch on what Hannah said and kind of a good way to sum it all up. But we all basically essentially grow up in diet culture. We're presented to it at a young age, and it's pushing our face our entire lives. So when you hear about intuitive eating and when you hear about haze, it can kind of be shocking. Like, what are you talking about? I don't have to live this way. I don't have to lose weight to be healthy. It's shocking, and it seems not real. It seems not possible because you've lived like this your whole life, and it's everything you've ever known. It's everything that's ever been talked to you or shown to you. So it can be really easy to be defensive. I think that's something I see a lot is people are defensive of maybe the behaviors they have or the way they eat or their diets, and that's understandable. And that's okay, because it can be shocking to hear about this and to learn that there's a way out and that you don't have to live like this for the rest of your life. And I think understand that feel those feelings and it's okay to feel them. But lean into your curiosity of wanting to get out of dieting. And wanting to get out of diet culture and really try and learn about intuitive eating and about haze and really try and find a dietitian, whether that's on Instagram or a podcast or in person that can help you learn about it. Definitely also recommend the book Intuitive Eating. That's probably the best first step you can take. Okay, now that all the heavy stuff is done, we have a fun bonus question today, so Kayla will let you go first. We will have our guests go first with their answers. But the bonus question of the day is, does ketchup go on the fries or do you put it on the side to dip your fries into? What are your thoughts and why? I have very strong opinions on this. I have never in my entire life understood people who just scored their ketchup on top of their fries. Okay. What are you doing? That's not how you eat French fries. First of all, you're not getting ketchup on all of the fries, so you're going to have some fries with a whole lot of ketchup and some fries with not very much at all. And that's not an enjoyable eating experience. Second of all, unless you shove the fries in your mouth in, like, 20 seconds, the ketchup sitting on the fries is going to make them. Soggy why would you want that? Plus, then you either have to choose if you want ketchup on your hands while you're eating them, or if you eat fries with a fork and that seems kind of psychotic. So definitely on the side. Yeah, that's my biggest thing is, like, do you get your hands dirty and risk, like picking around or do you use a fork and look ridiculous, right? Yeah. I'm on the same page. I don't even need to say anything because you already got all the voice I was going to bring up. Now. I kind of like ask every person that we ever meet on the podcast. Like, which one is it? I feel like everyone agrees, but there's going to be some weirdos who don't. Obviously, this question wouldn't exist. Yeah, but I feel like this is one that if they put it on top. I don't know if I want to eat around. What other crazy things are you doing? Yeah, right. What other lengths will you go to kind of wrap this all up? Kayla, the audience wants to hear. I already know they're asking, where can they find you? Besides this one episode, I do have an Instagram page. The nutrition one is called Making Nutrition Simple. I don't say I'm great at posting, but I try to be it's a goal of mine, but I do have some stuff on there. Check it out, guys. We'll also link it if you don't want to put in your search engine,
Participant #1:
it's a really hard one to spell out, so I get it. All right. Kayla, thank you so much for being on the podcast. This is such a good perspective that you provided for us and for everyone listening. I think this will be such a good episode for people to hear and we just really appreciate you coming on.
