Category: Diet Culture
A friend recently asked me if I had a list of websites that I liked to get recipes from and I had no response. Literally my mind was blank and I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head. But, as I’ve been cooking a lot more the past couple weeks with quarantine and restaurants […]
It’s a special year this year (not because of all the craziness in the world right now) but because cinco de mayo falls on Tuesday…Taco Tuesday. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have known this except a Mexican restaurant that my family likes sent me an email pointing out how significant this was. And while I like […]
Eating and not hungry? It can still be intuitive eating. (Just diet culture says otherwise.)
April 28th, 2020 by Sara Upson
During quarantine for COVID-19 I’ve been posting frequently about eating consistently to support eating disorder recovery, healing your relationship with food, and self care in general. While most people have found these posts supportive, some people have decided instead to tell me about how I’m incorrect and that they’re eating “intuitively,” listening to their body, not […]
Food Is So Much More Than Fuel.
April 20th, 2020 by Sara Upson
“I want to eat to live, not live to eat” is a statement I hear so often from new clients. And while on the surface that might seem like a good thing- it’s 100% diet culture. Food is so much more than just fuel for your body. Yes, food provides sustenance and nourishment, but food is also joy, pleasure, […]
4 Common Eating Disorder Thoughts To Challenge Right Now. (Yes, In a Pandemic.)
April 6th, 2020 by Sara Upson
There’s a common theme of struggling amidst quarantine, anxiety, fear of the unknown, and significant unexpected shifts to life that I’ve noticed meeting with clients (virtually of course) through COVID-19. With everything going on it makes sense. Eating disorder recovery is hard. Healing your relationship with food is hard. Doing so during a pandemic is so much […]
Your desire to focus on weight and eating during stress is normal thanks to diet culture…
March 30th, 2020 by Sara Upson
We are in unprecedented times. The coronavirus, COVID-19, is spreading all over the world, millions of people are quarantined at home, people are sick and dying, hospitals are overloaded, jobs have been lost, there’s financial stress, food shortages, and just so much going on. Even with all this, people are more focused on diet culture: not gaining […]
11 Tips to Support Consistent Eating (for eating disorder recovery) During COVID-19 (or another stressful event)…
March 23rd, 2020 by Sara Upson
Eating disorder recovery is hard. There’s no way around it. IT just is. It’s hard enough to recover during “normal” times. And now here we are in unprecedented times and there are still so many brave ones continuing to work on their recovery. I see you. A recent post I shared on Social media discussed ED recovery tips for […]
It’s national nutrition month and I’ve had blogs planned (even written) about various nutrition related topics but with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) taking over the world and our country it seems insignificant to write about nutrition- or really much of anything. On the other hand, I also know that the eating disorder and diet culture don’t stop, […]
Skip the Nutrition Label for Peace With Food.
March 9th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Have you ever been at a restaurant or considered purchasing a food only to see the calories posted or the nutrition label and change your mind? For some people reading that statement might seem like a good thing. When you’re struggling with an eating disorder, disordered eating, a lifetime of chronic dieting and/or trying to heal […]
Did you know that many countries include enjoying food in their official dietary guidelines? Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Lebanon, Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Barbados, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay all promote enjoying food as part of healthy living. The United States is one of the few countries that doesn’t! The United States takes […]
Every year the last week of February is national eating disorder awareness week. Somehow, I’m often giving a presentation during this week (but not this year). When I ask the audience if they know that it’s national eating disorder awareness week most people don’t- and sometimes it’s even at eating disorder specific events. Everything has a week these […]
“You don’t look sick… “You look fine… “You haven’t lost weight…. “Your weight’s not low enough… …you don’t have an eating disorder.” All some of the most harmful comments that you can tell someone struggling with their eating. The truth is- weight cannot tell you whether or not someone has an eating disorder. Weight cannot tell you […]
What is disordered eating?
February 10th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Whenever I talk about diet culture I almost always talk about disordered eating. Why? Because diet culture is disordered eating so whenever I’m talking about diet culture, I’m also talking about disordered eating. Disordered eating has become so normalized; it’s sometimes hard to distinguish what it is. While it might be easy to imagine what disordered eating is, […]
Elementary Nutrition education lays the ground work for disordered eating.
February 3rd, 2020 by Sara Upson
I’ve been dreading the month of February since September, when my 5 year old started kindergarten. At her school, February is the month where the curriculum centers around food and nutrition education. Last year’s nutrition curriculum was awful. One day, when my daughter was in the pre-k class, I just happened to take her to class […]
It’s not you. It’s not the food. It’s diet culture. And you can unlearn diet culture.
January 27th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Diet culture is a monster. And to be clear- diet culture is more than just dieting. It’s getting caught up in the culture that values body weight, shape, size and “wellness” or dogmatic approaches to heath over true wellbeing. Diet culture has strict rules around which foods are good or bad, healthy or unhealthy and even rules on […]
Feeling anxious about quitting diet culture? That’s normal. (It’s worth it.)
January 20th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Imagine if there was a product or industry that failed 95-98% of the time and then you were blamed for the product failing…It’d be unbelievable, right?! For example, imagine getting into an elevator where the cable broke 95-98% of the time- and then you survive but the elevator technician blames you for breaking the elevator- when all you […]
Intuitive eating isn’t giving up. It’s letting go and there’s a big difference.
January 13th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Imagine you’re standing at the edge of canyon and on the other side of the canyon is diet culture, your eating disorder, or your history of dieting/disordered eating (aka a monster). Between the two of you is a long rope that you’re each holding in your hands in an ongoing game of tug of war. […]
If Not Dieting, Then What? 4 New Years Resolutions That Aren’t About Weight.
December 23rd, 2019 by Sara Upson
With 2020 just over a week away it’s the time of year where everyone starts thinking about how next year will be different. About what they’ll do differently and how it will be an all new year and an even an all new you. Diet culture really reinforces this belief by saying that you should recreate […]
Imagine if it was your funeral and you got to watch or listen in…what would you want people to say about you? Take a second and think about it. How would you want to be remembered? If you have a minute- jot your answer down. I highly doubt that being thin, your body size, 6 pack abs or […]
Do These 3 Things To Have More Treats And Less Tricks This Halloween.
October 26th, 2019 by Sara Upson
“The thing I hate most about this time of year is walking into every store and the first thing that you see is a huge display of Halloween candy,”said my client. It’s a common theme that I hear from clients. On one hand- you really want to be able to enjoy candy, to eat it without […]
