Semantics and FA
Feb 4th, 2010 by heidi
Very frank discussion of the emotions triggered in me by the word “dieting” – may be triggering to others as well.
Over on Silentbeep’s ‘Dieting is Dieting’ post, there’s an interesting discussion in comments, which I’ve seen elsewhere on what the word “dieting” actually means. My husband, and Atchka, both claim that the word “dieting” is not, by necessity, “calorie restriction” but can just mean healthier eating habits. I know my husband also has tried to convince me that even if it IS about calorie restriction, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad.
Now, I have to point out that my husband has been a great supporter in my FA journey, or rather, in my self-acceptance journey. He’s always thought I was beautiful and brings great joy to my life. So, don’t pick on him ;p
However, I think he and Shannon/Atchka are wrong about the idea that dieting, at least in American culture, doesn’t have to be about calorie restriction. Perhaps some of this has to do with being male – men still are, to a greater extent than women (in my experience, anyway), insulated from diet culture. I know that instances of eating disorders among young boys are up and that men are flocking more and more to the weight loss banner but I don’t think that dieting-as-calorie-restriction has become endemic among men. I could be wrong.
All that aside, my point is this: in American society, when you are a woman, dieting is about calorie restriction. Dieting never, ever means that you are eating healthily because of an existing health condition OTHER than something you perceive as being weight-related. If you reduce sugar because you have PCOS, you are not “dieting.” You’re just eating less sugar. If you reduce sugar so that you are eating fewer calories and losing weight because you think it will help your PCOS, then you are dieting, because that weight loss effort requires calorie restriction.
I can tell you what dieting means to me, as a semi-typical, if eating-disorder-recovering American woman and I think my experience is pretty universal. Dieting means that now, in this moment, you are no longer eating all the foods that scream your name the loudest, because if you do, you are a failure and no one will love you. Yesterday, if you knew you were starting your diet today, you probably ate a LOT of these foods, because today you would diet. (Remember that delightful sentiment trumpeted by so many country kitsch magnets and pillows: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow YOU WILL DIET!).
Yes, dieting is a mini-death, because suddenly your world gets a little tasty and a lot more restrictive. You swear to yourself that chocolate, potato chips, and Cheetos will no longer inhabit your kitchen shelves. You dust off the diet scale (you already have one in your cupboard from the last diet) and put it up on the counter. You pull out your measuring cups, which instead of being exciting tools to create delicious meals become fixed, immovable sentinels guarding your food intake. You hunt down your flat-backed butter knife and tell yourself that the one with the curved back, that doesn’t level that measuring cup exactly right is still okay, because it’s only a couple calories extra. When you empty ingredients into the bowl, you scrape every last morsel of food from the cup, desperate not to cheat yourself of even one tiny calorie of goodness.
You will probably already have gone through your cookbook and meticulously converted from cups to ounces to get point/calorie values on your favorite recipes. You may round off slightly…2.4 points isn’t QUITE 3 points, so count it as two! Or, if you’re feeling virtuous, you will count it as three and realize that you can only have one two-inch cookie, but surely that will be enough. And, if you walk for an hour, maybe you can have TWO cookies!
And you will feel in control. You will be powerful, successful, and lose weight! You will be sexy, beautiful, and no one will be able to keep their eyes off you! You will walk into a room and people will listen to you because you are gorgeous and have fantastic clothing sense, the sort of clothing sense with which one is magically endowed as a thin person.
All this because you weigh and measure every bit of food that you eat and meticulously track it in a little food journal that you carry around everywhere. When you lose that first pound or two, you will feel like a superwoman. When you start dipping your fork into salad dressing before taking a bite of bare lettuce, to cut back on calories consumed from dressing, or just eliminate salad dressing altogether and dump vinegar all over your lettuce, you will feel virtuous, beautiful, light, and clean.
Dieting sucks you in and takes over your entire world. You can no longer enter a restaurant without craving soda, because you know you can’t have it. You can no longer ever have soup as your starter instead of salad, especially if it’s a creamy soup, because it has too many calories. Everything has to be “on the side, please” or “vegetables steamed, no butter, please” because no food choice goes unwatched. If you succumb to temptation (or to a friend’s “sabotage”) and have dessert at your ladies’ lunch, you will hate yourself for your weakness as you eat 0-point vegetable soup (without even 1-point low-fat turkey kielbasa to give it flavor) for the rest of the day.
And the whole time you’re doing it, the whole time you’re counting and cutting candy bars in half, and weighing every bit of food you consume, you will feel like you are a star. When you fail, backslide, or give in to your hunger and actually eat something that tastes good but goes beyond your calorie limit, you will loathe yourself and know that you are the ugliest, fattest failure ever to set foot on this planet.
So why, why, why would I ever use the term “dieting” to refer to what I do now, intuitive eating and HAES? When I listen to my body’s hunger signals and understand that I was probably craving red meat all last week (and the better part of this week) not because I’m a fat slob but because I’m recovering from a pretty nasty cold and my body must need more nutrients, I love my body. I respect its wisdom.
Do I necessarily always love myself in the mirror? No. But I do know, deeply and fundamentally, that a woman my age who developed anorexia when I developed compulsive overeating would probably be far unhealthier than I am. She might even be dead. My weight may have some implications for my health, although my still-sedentary lifestyle is a far greater factor, but my overeating means that my body has done its best to sustain me in times when food was the only answer.
Why would I ever call the loving process of listening to my body and recognizing that I feel better when I have more protein and less carbohydrate, thanks to PCOS, dieting when that word means the ultimate rejection of my bodily signals?
Most American women, I hope, have healthier attitudes toward food than I have had. I don’t claim that my kneejerk reaction to the word “dieting” is the same for everyone…but I think most women do recognize the mingled beauty and despair of that word. And, I suspect, the vast majority of us would never think of “dieting” as anything other than calorie restriction, whether or not we would consider that calorie restriction to be healthy in some way (I do not).
Don’t play the semantics card. Understand that dieting, for many of us who are fat, is a word with baggage. It is not a neutral, accepting word. Use it yourself if you will…but understand that those of us who have suffered thanks to calorie-restriction will not see it from your perspective, because for us there is nothing positive in the word.
I would respond on LJ but I can’t log in at work.
You are so right, at this point, i’m trying to lose some body fat (not weight necessarily) to get back into a more reasonable percentage. Anyway, when anyone asks me about how my time at the gym is going, or anything related to that aspect of life, I do not and will not use the word dieting. I refuse to have anyone go “ohh” in that tone, since I do believe as you, we all associate calorie restriction with dieting.
It’s as if I am ashamed to talk to anyone about exercise and “dieting” because I don’t want to hear their opinions or judgments on the subject. (Or their new secret to instant weight loss, pshh, please.)
I refuse to count calories now. I am with you on this, on my own path to figure out intuitive eating. I know it’s the only way that makes sense for me.
Ahh, to summarize, I agree with you and I cringe when people mention the word diet, and have therefore stripped it from my vocabulary, because yes, it does bring back bad memories of eating everything in sight before starting the epic diet. (Your vivid description definitely got my emotional attention.)
Your post is PERFECT. Particularly…
“[...] dieting when that word means the ultimate rejection of my bodily signals?”
Totally agree with you on definitions. A generation or two ago, you COULD say that ‘diet’ was a neutral word. Not today.
A diet, then, was a prescribed way of eating to achieve a result. It COULD be caloric restriction, but it could equally be a therapeutic diet recommended because a person had some kind of condition. Thus the ‘bland diet’ for those who had ulcers, a ‘low salt’ diet for hypertensives, and so on down the line. These were perfectly defined, and were created to address, really, symptoms of a disease. Calorie count was incidental. Today we have a lot of medications replacing some of these diets and, in my point of view, the universe of ‘diet’ has shrunk to that one meaning: caloric restriction — the fewer calories the better.
–Andy Jo–
Do you feel differently about “dieting” vs. “diet” in terms of meaning? I agree with you about the verb form. I’m more with your husband for the noun.
“You will probably already have gone through your cookbook and meticulously converted from cups to ounces to get point/calorie values on your favorite recipes. You may round off slightly…2.4 points isn’t QUITE 3 points, so count it as two! Or, if you’re feeling virtuous, you will count it as three and realize that you can only have one two-inch cookie, but surely that will be enough. And, if you walk for an hour, maybe you can have TWO cookies!”
The above explains perfectly why it’s bunk when the fatosphere claims that self reported caloric intake is accurate and that “we don’t lie about what we eat!”
Thanks for proving the point so succinctly.
Shana – I know for some even the word “diet” can be a trigger. Not so much for me but I have to be very, very clear about the fact that I don’t associate “diet” with “dieting” if I choose to use the word.
Tom – I think it’s more about the games that we play when we become food-obsessed, which is what happens when we diet. I absolutely lost weight on those diets, regardless of whether it really was 2.4, 2, or 3 points…but the mindset that it created and the eating disorder that it spawned did incalculable harm to me in the long run.
You do realize, of course, that the difference between 2.4 points and 3 points is approximately 25 calories and that’s it? When the rest of the day’s eating is meticulously calculated and weighed, 25 calories will not make a difference. It’s a measure of my level of food obsession that I thought it would.
OMG yes. This. This! Love this!
[...] update II: for a much bigger, more fleshed out explanation of the working definition of what “dieting” especially the definition I’m working with please go to Heidi’s place [...]
Another gorgeous post, Heidi. You have me in tears (the good kind–empathy and relief that “I’m not the only one” who has some of these experiences).
Nice to see Tom is still around, deliberately mis-reading our posts. Seriously, dude, don’t you have anything better to do?
That was a wonderful post. The word “diet” is a disaster for all the reasons you describe. It is also both too broad and too narrow to be used to communicate anymore. You have nutritionists and people like your husband using it to refer to the entire process of food intake, and you have the “lifestyle change” proponents using it to mean only crash, temporary, grapefruit-and-a-laxative weight-loss strategies. Just chuck it. The big concept can be called “eating,” as in your doctor asking “are you eating well?” All eating changes that are designed to result in weight loss should be called “crap,” as in “I just joined Weight Watchers — it’s the best crap program out there!”
And I strongly urge every FA site to just ban tombrokaw. He does not have anyone’s best interest at heart.
About the meanings I agree with your key point, even in UK and even with a (slightly) male perspective. Dieting means trying to lose weight – never anything else.
However, ‘a diet’, even ‘on a diet’ might refer to a specific diet for other purposes. (Somebody fat says they’re on a diet, you probably do assume it means lose weight; somebody old or in hospital says it, you’ll assume it means avoiding certain foods unhealthy for medical reasons; both these are percentage-chance assumptions.) For example, my dad is supposed to be on a healthier diet that reduces the chance he’ll have another heart attack. But it isn’t intended to make him lose weight, and nor is he ‘dieting’ (even if he actually followed it, I mean).
Just thought it’d be nice to post a comment here that actually agrees with you for once..!
Thank you for this. I think you’re spot on in identifying where male privilege makes the experience of both fatness and dieting very different for men and women.
lol. How did it get through??? How!!!
As long as it’s not too trollish, Tom, I don’t mind dissenting comments. I don’t trust you not to become trollish, mind you, having seen you post elsewhere, but you’re entitled to an opinion. I just don’t always have to let it through.
What I fail to understand, really, is why you care what a bunch of people you must consider to be tremendously misled numbskulls think. Surely the amusement factor must be getting old by now. I tend to find that when I’m content with my own life I don’t give a crap what people I disagree with think.
Interesting. . . . Person? This Tombrokaw.
Obviously we should be using micrometer calipers and nanoscale weights to measuring out those, Oh-so-Holy points because anything over .00005 Pts/Oz is a dirty, dirty, lie.
“The above explains perfectly why it’s bunk when the fatosphere claims that self reported caloric intake is accurate and that “we don’t lie about what we eat!”
The above explains perfectly why it’s bunk when fatophobes claim that their concerned for your health. Truth is; nothing short of death by starvation or at least serious systemic injury will EVER be satisfactory as far as calorie restriction weight loss is concerned. (aka; You can never be too thin, unless your dead. And maybe not even then.)
I thought this was beautifully written and very poignant. And a lot resonated with me very personally.
It’s actually an area I’d like to see get some more attention. Because sure, dieting is kind of a hell, but it’s not all bad. I’ve never felt more powerful, more capable of anything than when I’m doing well on a diet. And I know that’s a little sad. Especially since I’m not even loving myself. At best, I’m loving my potential- but in those moments, my potential is limitless.
I wonder what causes it. Whether that feeling of well-being from sudden calorie deprivation and increased activity is due purely to psychological factors- a placebo effect as we anticipate how thin we’ll be, or if there are a lot of hormonal and physical factors at work too. Because of course the feeling is fleeting. Like a wild night drinking on the town, with the sure-to-follow, not-worth-it-once-you’re-no-longer-young-and-dumb, hangover.
Sometimes I’ve even considering dieting just for that surge of self-confidence and productivity. It’d be nice if something less destructive could make me feel that way more regularly.
Words have different meanings to different people. While you are correct – common parlance US American – “dieting” means “I am restricting some kind of food in order to lose weight” – “diet” can mean many things “I’m on a low-salt diet” can mean I am trying to lower my chances of having a heart attack. “I’m on a gluten free diet” – could mean allergies to gluten, OR, could mean “I am restricting all products with gluten because I think that’s a way to cut calories and lose weight.”
To me, my “diet” is just the food I eat. And “dieting” just means I might eat less of some of it if I want to get back down to my preferred weight range.
I do not have the associations you do with it, it does not conjure up horror for me… but that doesn’t make either of us wrong, we just have different experiences.
No Celery – I respect that point of view but I think that for most American women, at least, dieting is a very loaded word (the word “diet” in terms of “low-sodium diet” is less so for me but I know that’s also not true for everyone) and I think that people who get upset when “dieting’ is seen as a negative word are ignoring the powerful hurtfulness that the term carries for many of us in the FA movement.
HAES is not “dieting” and I don’t see a “preferred weight range” as my goal. If you can do dieting without having it trigger anything else, that’s fantastic. I, however, cannot – and I think that everyone associated with the FA movement needs to be aware of the fact that many of us *are* severely triggered by the term, regardless of how one individual is using it.
Howdy Heidi,
I would just like to point out that I never have promoted weight loss dieting. Just to be clear. I was referring to caloric restriction. And, based on what I read in Dr. Bacon’s book, if I were to change my lifestyle to practice HAES, then I would most likely be undertaking caloric restriction.
Now, as far as what diet means. You said that dieting for a health condition, such as going on a reduced-salt diet, is not the same as dieting to most American women. But when my wife had to go on a gestational diabetes diet, she thought of it as dieting. And she felt this way: “Dieting means that now, in this moment, you are no longer eating all the foods that scream your name the loudest, because if you do, you are a failure and no one will love you”
She was restricted in her food choices. The only difference was that if she failed, then it could endanger the baby’s health.
But STILL, she considered it dieting. And I would too.
I would probably refer to HAES as dieting, though I would stipulate that it’s not weight-loss dieting. Currently, I enjoy eating what I want, when I want, as much as I want. If I were to practice intuitive eating (and I have taken baby steps toward that), then I would have to actively discourage my hedonistic shoulder devil who wants me to have that third cookie even though I’m full. Dr. Bacon makes it clear that occasional over-indulgence is okay, but that shoulder devil doesn’t do “occasional.”
Maybe once I went full-on HAES, that shoulder devil would disappear, but until that point, I would feel like I was dieting. I would feel like I was restricting my caloric intake for my overall health. To me, that is dieting.
And I have no problem arguing about what is and isn’t dieting. What is and isn’t caloric intake.
But what really steams my clams is this idea that if I believe caloric intake (regardless of weight loss) can improve my health that I am “FA Lite.” That’s just so, so, so patronizing and, to be quite honest, paternalistic. This is part of what I’ve noticed lately… the whole Good Fat Activist/Bad Fat Activist. As though there’s no room for diversity or nuance in a social movement.
If that’s the case, then we will NEVER persuade the average person who is steeped in misinformation and cultural messaging. Yeah, we’ll peel off a few people here and there, but to say that Group A is real Fat Acceptance and Group B is fake… well, that is unnecessarily divisive and counter-productive.
My beliefs now may change. I may come across evidence that caloric restriction is just as futile as weight loss. Only then will I welcome into the Fat Acceptance fold? Are we back to the old canard that people new to Fat Acceptance must hold their tongue until they have read X number of blog entries and accept with X number of FA opinions?
That’s what I find most troubling. The rest of the discussion is just fine in my book.
Peace,
Shannon
Shannon – I wasn’t saying that you had promoted weight loss dieting. Just that you mentioned that “dieting” could mean any type of eating and, for those of us for whom that is a triggering word, it absolutely means caloric restriction.
Now, as someone who is learning how to eat intuitively, intuitive eating never means ignoring the “shoulder devil” because there *is* no shoulder devil. If I crave coconut cream pie, I eat coconut cream pie. BUT, there are many, many days when I crave salads and eat those salads with as much joy and enjoyment as the coconut cream pie. There is no shoulder devil because cravings are not the devil. In responding to your cravings, whatever they are, and taking any feelings of guilt/restriction/shame out of eating a food, your brain can start to let go of the glittery foods and be more true to what it physically needs rather than what your brain thinks it cannot have and therefore desires even more.
I think you are missing the piece of the puzzle where you accept that every food IS equal and, as a result, that you can have carrot cake or the carrot with no guilt, if that’s what your body is craving. Sometimes it takes eating a LOT of carrot cake to take the “forbidden” quality out of it and make it equal for your subconscious. Although it is targeted at a more female audience, you might pick up a copy of “Overcoming Overeating” as a really positive way to get rid of those forbidden food associations.
If I’m completely honest with you, I never thought your post that got you kicked off the list was deserving of that decision. I think you responded to it in a way that was extremely inappropriate (thank goodness I read your post after the syphilitic dick picture disappeared) and sealed your fate, so to speak, but I think there *should* be room in FA for discussion of what happens if intuitive eating leads to weight loss, or what a person should do if they have health concerns. I do not think that discussing calorie restriction, on the other hand, is appropriate for FA, or at least not for Notes, because for those of us who come to FA as people recovering from eating disorders, discussions of “should” when it comes to food are intensely and devastatingly triggering.
Heidi,
I understand that calorie restriction and dieting are loaded words. I also understand the emphasis in HAES on no good or bad foods.
But for someone just starting out in HAES, there is still a shoulder devil who says, “Man, that’s delicious and you’re not painfully full, so have some more.” Not that there are off limit foods, but that I should ignore my satiety signals because of the taste reward I get.
I know my response was extreme, but my blog was getting threatened with expulsion for a while and I was really trying to walk on eggshells to appease Bri. So, when I got booted for something that seemed to be appropriate, I lost my cool and I stomped that crap out of the eggshells. It’s how I deal with people who really piss me off. I burn bridges. It’s my nature.
That being said, my real issue with silentbeep’s post isn’t her opinion on calorie restriction or diet or any of that stuff. I’m open to interpretation. What pissed me off was that she was saying that people with opinions like mine are FA Lite, which is just plain insulting.
Peace,
Shannon
I get that frustration regarding FA-Lite – just remember that I never said anything of the sort
As for just starting out on HAES, I think you’d be better off focusing less on food and more on activity. If you struggle with cravings, a no-holds-barred-stocking-up-on-forbidden-foods method strikes me as far more useful, initially, than turning it into the HAES-diet where you’re doing calorie-restriction rather than understanding where your cravings are coming from.
Heidi,
Oh, I know you didn’t say anything about FA Lite. Hence my non-angry post.
Both the food and activity aspects are difficult for me. Activity because I just don’t have the time. I’ve tried doing what Dr. Bacon suggests (living actively). So after dinner, I pick up both girls and dance vigorously (for about two minutes) and then crash. Then they wait for the next song to start and we do it again. I’m trying small things.
Also, I wasn’t saying HAES is a calorie restricted diet. I just meant that if you did what she suggested (listening to your satiety signals and eating more whole foods), then you will likely be restricting your caloric intake whether you’re aware of it or not.
Peace,
Shannon
“Also, I wasn’t saying HAES is a calorie restricted diet. I just meant that if you did what she suggested (listening to your satiety signals and eating more whole foods), then you will likely be restricting your caloric intake whether you’re aware of it or not.”
I think my point is, though, that there’s no need at all to think about the calories. You may eat fewer calories. Then again, you may not. Thinking about calories turns it into a diet, with the mixed bag that “dieting” represents for many of us.
Instead of concerning myself with calories (I never bother to look at the nutrition box and actively resent that restaurants are supposed to put nutrition information next to menu options), I eat what I feel like eating. Sometimes I stop when I’m full. Sometimes I don’t. Eating for reasons other than hunger (i.e. comfort, taste, etc.) is a part of normal eating behavior too and not inherently unhealthy. It’s finding a happy medium between binging and starvation/restriction that I work toward.
Heidi,
Oh, I’m with you on counting calories. I guess my opinion is more based on the theory that eating less calories has health benefits. So, even if you aren’t aware of how many less calories you’re eating, *if* (and it’s still an if) calorie reduction (regardless of weight loss) does have a beneficial health impact, then that’s not something we should ignore.
Everyone in FA is sure to repeat the mantra that losing weight does not improve health. Well, what about other aspects that do improve health? I mean, being physically active improves your health and it’s also a cornerstone of most weight loss programs. The fact that activity and weight loss are often joined at the hip does not mean that activity is bad.
Likewise, just because caloric restriction and dieting are joined at the hip doesn’t meant that caloric restriction in and of itself is a bad thing. Even if you’re not counting. Even if you don’t care. I’m just interested in the science of it. Does caloric restriction have positive health benefits? If so, then it’s not something we should discount simply because of the negative connotations it has with dieting.
Peace,
Shannon
My point is, however, that an emphasis on caloric restriction IS dieting. That’s what dieting is. May one eat less if they’re intuitively eating? Of course…but one may also eat *more* and gain weight while doing so. HAES is not a promise that one will lose weight and neither is intuitive eating.
Personally, I don’t think caloric restriction IS a good thing. I think it’s a good thing if you’re learning to eat when you’re hungry, eat what you’re hungry for (i.e., what your body is craving), and eat until you’re full. That may or may not mean eating less than you previously ate and even if it does mean that, it’s entirely irrelevant. Not listening to your body’s signals is the problem, not the actual quantity of food eaten.
I think the problem is that discussing caloric restriction absolutely does equal diet for most women out there. Even the choice of words you’re making in using the term “restriction” implies a lack of freedom, a lack of choice, and a lack of free will. For me, that is triggering. It is far more peaceful to set it within a frame of “eating what my body tells me that I should eat”. If I want one of the two doughnuts sitting on my desk (one for me, one for my mom & son when they get here), I’ll eat it. But, as it is right now, I smell the sweetness and think “ugh, SO not what I want! Give me a salad or a Chipotle fajita burrito with lots of veggies!” My body is sending me very clear signals.
The burrito may or may not be fewer calories than the doughnut – I neither know nor care. What I do know is that one will be meeting a nutritional need because my body is telling me so. Because I don’t see the doughnut as forbidden, my body is free to let me know what I need, regardless of how many calories are in a given food.
No Celery Please – Know what’s funny? Since I have a wheat allergy, I’ve unintentionally benefited from both the no-gluten craze and the low glycemic craze.
Until they recently changed their fry recipie, Carly Jr was my favorite thing in the word, becasue I could get a “lettuce wrap.”
I’ve spent the last 15 years getting rolled eyes from waiters who seem to think I’m being picky with my special orders. It’s been kinda nice to not feel like I’m making a fuss every time I go out to eat.
(formerly freakykitten, but elsewhere on Shapely Prose, Fat Nutritionist, etc, I post as Lisablue, so I thought I’d make them all the same)
I am of the same opinion as you – the word “dieting” means restriction to me, “diet” means “what you eat” – although I almost always feel I need to define the word “Diet” when I use it so no-one is hurt/questions it.
I have a few problems with this:
semantics (s?-m?n’t?ks) n. Does not mean what you think it means.
and:
dieting (d?’?t?ng) v. Was never defined by me as anything even close to what you said it was.
Also, people using the term male privilege and actually expecting to be taken seriously. I’m looking at you, Miriam. Try coming up with a real excuse.
Excellent post Heidi, well observed and said.
I guess my opinion is more based on the theory that eating less calories has health benefits.
I suppose this answers my question about why people with this kind of opinion tend to want to obscure the meaning of WLD. It’s because they think the objection to WLD is that it is ‘unhealthy’. So if you believe it has health benefits, that’s going to jar with you.
Point is it’s a bit like being fat, whether it’s intrinsically harmful or not is irrelevant to our capacity to become thin. Some conflate the two.
Whether WLD, or weight loss achieved through it has health benefits or not, is irrelevant, it doesn’t work.
It doesn’t work because it’s unhealthy-a thing can be healthy and not work or be unhealthy and work- the nature of it’s dysfunction is what produces health threatening effects.
What makes me sad is not that we disagree, but that you cannot properly grasp those disagreements. This is a shame because if you did grasp them you might actually be able to provide a cogent and intelligent critique.
I’d be prepared to keep trying to explain it to, but I think you just aren’t in any kind of frame of mind to understand things, as you are now.
So I’ll leave it at that as far as you’re concerned Shannon, because I’ve tried my best.
Coming late to the discussion, but: Changing your food intake ***for the purpose of losing weight**** is what HAES objects to. This behavior is called “dieting” by 99.99% of people in the US. Changing your food intake because you’re diabetic, your body needs less salt, more protein, etc…. etc….. is NOT a diet that HAES would object to. And it’s not a change that most people making that change would call “dieting”. People doing that tend to say things like “I’m on a low-salt diet” when they pass up the nachos, they don’t say “no thanks, I’m dieting” because then people would assume they are changing their food intake ***for the purpose of weight loss***.
In addition: if you start eating more intuitively, and consequently you consume less calories, that’s not “calorie restriction”. Calorie restriction is about deliberately limiting them. Like “salt restriction” is about deliberately limiting salts. If you start eating intuitively and start losing weight, the HAES response is: “that’s fine”. If you start eating intuitively and gain some weight, the HAES response is “that’s fine”. HAES is weight neutral. Dieting is not, since dieting is all about changing eating behaviors **for the purposes of weight loss***
When you keep the **for the purpose of weight loss** in mind, it’s really not that complicated.
On an interesting side note and in line with terminology / concepts and the Diet Industrial Complex (Yeah, I said it. ‘Cause that’s what they ARE)
Just saw a commercial on TeeVee for something called a ‘FullBar’ (I could look it up but have no interest in contributing to their hit count). The commercial hinted at the remarkably HAES-like properties of this wondrous food-stuff bar which, apparently, gives you a sense of what it’s like to feel ‘full’. One supposes that this allows you to eat ‘less’ and, assumedly, makes you lose weight. They inform us, rather sagely, that diets don’t work but FullBar[TM], obviously WILL (Seems I’ve heard this being parroted by some OTHER diet concern, somewhere). They then make sure to have a certified Bariatric Surgeon (Cause that’s what he tells us he is) reassure us that, in his Extensive Experience, (I think he uses both words rather convincingly) feeling full is THE BEST way to lose weight. So, buy FullBar (TM) today!. . . Buy LOTS!
/disgusted sarcasm.
With Diet Companies co-opting and appropriating the language / concepts of F/A, is it any wonder that the word ‘diet’ might mean several different things to several different people? Further, THIS is one of the reasons why a lot of people in F/A are so touchy about anything close to being diet RELATED. Because, well, here’s the Enemy; trying to SELL our own words and ideas to us, while using Stupid Sith Mind Tricks to try and persuade us back over to the dark side.
Frak diets and frak the Diet Industry. Sideways. With a rusty shovel. And no Bactine.
Atchka – you seem a little confused as to what intuitive eating is and what the word ‘restriction’ means. Restriction means;
–verb (used with object)
to confine or keep within limits, as of space, action, choice, intensity, or quantity.
There is not really any way intuitive eating and the word ‘restriction’ fit together in a sentence. If intuitive eating means you eat less than when you’re not practicing intuitive eating, it is by choice (of listening to and responding to your body’s cues) and not by some kind of limit you have set for yourself to eat less calories, or by limiting the kinds of foods that you allow yourself to eat.
Also, for someone with GD, restricting calories (and to eat less of certain kinds of food, more of others) helps keep blood sugars under control. If it feels like a diet it’s because it works like one, but to be clear the key is not to lose weight but to keep your blood sugar numbers within an acceptable range. In that instance your diet becomes a tool to keep yourself and the baby safe.
Targaff – I take Miriam seriously.