0:00

This episode of Food Psych is brought to you by

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from diet culture and reclaim the life it

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at christy harrison dot com slash course.

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That's christy harrison dot com slash

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course. Welcome to Food

0:17

Psych, a podcast dedicated to critiquing

0:19

diet and wellness culture and answering

0:22

your questions about intuitive eating and

0:24

the anti diet approach. I'm

0:26

your host, Christie Harrison, and I'm a registered

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certified intuitive eating counselor, journalist

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and author of the book's anti diet, which

0:33

is available now, and the wellness

0:36

trap which will be out in early twenty twenty

0:38

three. And by the way, on this

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show, I avoid saying diet culture

0:42

stuff like weight and calorie numbers, but

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we don't censor swear words or other adult

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language, so listener discretion is

0:49

advised. Hey

1:15

there. Welcome to this episode of Food Psych.

1:18

I'm your host, Christy Harrison, and today

1:20

I'm gonna be answering an audience question

1:22

about how processed foods and the

1:24

food environment interact with intuitive

1:26

eating. I answered this question

1:28

on the podcast before years ago,

1:30

but I wanted to circle back to it now

1:32

because diet season is upon

1:34

us. And I feel like a lot of questions

1:36

about processed food come up around this time

1:39

of year. Before I get into all

1:41

that, just a few quick announcements. This

1:43

episode of Food Psych is brought to you by my eating

1:46

Fundamentals online course, which

1:48

is a three month immersion in intuitive

1:50

eating with dozens of hours of content,

1:53

helping you learn this anti diet approach,

1:55

troubleshoot common sticking points, and

1:57

get to a place of greater peace with food.

2:00

It also has a huge library of q

2:02

and a's from me and my team to help answer

2:04

all the frequently and not so frequently

2:07

asked questions that come up for you

2:09

when you're learning or relearning intuitive

2:11

eating. If you're ready to break

2:13

free from diet culture and reclaim your

2:15

right to peaceful, easy relationship with

2:18

food. Learn more and sign up for

2:20

the course at christy harrison dot com

2:22

slash course. That's christy harrison

2:24

dot com slash course. This

2:27

episode is also brought to you by my first

2:29

book diet reclaim your

2:31

time, money, well-being, and happiness through

2:33

intuitive eating, which is available wherever

2:36

books are sold. It's a great companion

2:38

to this podcast because it goes into

2:40

depth about diet culture and the ways that

2:42

it harms us with hundreds of scientific

2:45

references and resources to help

2:47

you make the anti diet case to the people

2:49

in your life. It also

2:51

lays out the foundation of intuitive eating

2:53

and helps you start making peace with food

2:55

in your body. And if you get the audiobook,

2:57

you can hear me read it to you. Just

2:59

go to christy harrison dot combook to

3:02

order it now. That's christy harrison

3:04

dot combook. Now

3:06

without any further ado, let's get into this

3:08

week's question. It's from Laurie

3:10

who writes, hi, Christy. I'm a fellow

3:12

eating disorders dietitian, and I'll be

3:14

leading a discussion with my staff based on

3:16

your podcast number one twenty seven. First

3:19

I've listened to, which I very much enjoyed.

3:21

I had some thoughts that I didn't hear addressed

3:23

and suspect will be raised by my staff,

3:26

so I'm wondering if you can address them. Intuitive

3:29

Eating and the self regulation that should result

3:31

surely requires overcoming deprivation.

3:34

I'm with you two hundred percent. But

3:36

someone whose diet is almost exclusively fast

3:38

food for instance or largely

3:41

highly processed foods isn't intuitively

3:43

shifting choices when factors beyond deprivation

3:46

play a role. Think of Brian

3:48

Wansink's research and impact on

3:50

how foods are presented, sensory triggers,

3:52

etcetera. Why don't you as

3:54

a dietitian and health adviser direct

3:57

individuals to shift food selection

3:59

without a black and white approach, of course,

4:01

or shame regarding these choices.

4:04

It seems to me from the work I've done

4:06

that discussion of hunger awareness as

4:08

well as the role of other triggers to eating,

4:10

needs to be addressed to start the discussion

4:13

of internal versus external cues

4:15

to self regulation. Looking forward

4:17

to your thoughts. So thanks,

4:19

Laurie, for that great question. And before

4:21

I answer, I'll just give my standard disclaimer

4:23

that these answers and this podcast in general

4:26

are for informational and educational purposes

4:28

only, aren't a substitute for

4:30

individual medical or mental health advice,

4:32

and don't constitute a provider patient

4:34

relationship. Also, this is just

4:36

my take as one dietitian and journalist,

4:39

and I hope you'll seek out other perspectives

4:41

and consult your own inner compass as

4:43

well. So this is a great question

4:46

and I can definitely see why you or your

4:48

staff would wonder about it. First,

4:50

I want to discuss what the science

4:52

says about processed foods and our

4:54

ability to self regulate around them. And

4:56

then I want to talk about why we're so

4:58

quick to believe the worst about our food environment.

5:01

And why I as a dietician and journalist

5:04

reporting in this space don't tell

5:06

people how to shift how they eat,

5:08

even in a very non black and and

5:10

non shaming way. And why this

5:12

culture makes it really tough to have those kinds

5:14

of conversations without a voking

5:16

shame? So first,

5:18

we'll talk about the science. A

5:20

few years ago, there was a really interesting review

5:22

of the scientific research on how

5:24

restrained eating also known

5:26

as chronic dieting, affects

5:28

food consumption. And this review

5:30

found that not only do chronic dieters

5:32

tend to eat more in response to

5:34

food related advertisements and large

5:37

portion sizes, but they also

5:39

eat more of both high fat foods

5:41

and foods that are labeled as quote unquote

5:44

healthy or quote unquote low calorie

5:46

even if those labels are actually false.

5:49

So in other words, chronic dieters are

5:51

highly susceptible to both food industry

5:54

and diet industry marketing. Non

5:57

dieters or unrestrained eaters

5:59

in contrast aren't swayed

6:01

by food advertising or portion

6:03

sizes in that way. They tend to

6:05

eat similar amounts no matter the context

6:08

because they're driven by internal rather

6:10

than external cues. And

6:12

what's more when people are deprived of particular

6:15

foods? They tend to develop

6:17

outsized cravings for those foods.

6:19

In anti diet, I reported on a randomized

6:22

controlled trial showing that

6:24

women who were deprived of chocolate for

6:26

a week had more cravings for

6:28

chocolate and ate more chocolatey foods

6:30

when the study period ended, then

6:32

those who weren't deprived. And this

6:34

response to deprivation was significantly

6:36

stronger among the restrained eaters,

6:38

AKA chronic dieters, in

6:40

this group. What's more

6:42

of the restrained eaters also reported

6:44

more frequent food cravings in general

6:47

than did the unrestrained eaters. Of

6:49

course, there's nothing wrong with food cravings in

6:51

and of themselves. Right? But it's just interesting

6:54

how dieting and deprivation can trigger

6:56

them. So what I take

6:58

from all that research is that the

7:00

food environment doesn't seem to affect

7:02

unrestrained eaters the way

7:04

it does chronic dieters or people

7:06

who are deprived of food. In

7:08

other words, maybe the deprivation is

7:10

really the driving force here. Rather

7:12

than the abundance of delicious processed

7:14

foods in large portion sizes or

7:16

the way those foods are advertised. You

7:19

may have heard a different story about food

7:21

cues because of Brian Weinstein's research.

7:23

Right? For anyone not familiar

7:25

with him, Brian Wansink is a

7:27

researcher who is largely responsible

7:29

for the widespread belief that people

7:32

eat more in response to larger portion

7:34

sizes and cues from their food environment.

7:37

He did a bunch of buzzy studies that got a

7:39

lot of media attention over the past couple

7:41

of decades, and his studies have been

7:43

cited more than twenty thousand times

7:45

in scientific journals and books.

7:47

But OneSync research has subsequently

7:50

been discredited. Many

7:52

of his studies were retracted by the

7:54

journals they were published in, and numerous

7:56

other journals had to issue corrections. Cornell

7:59

University where Wansink used to work,

8:01

launched a year long investigation and found

8:04

that he, quote, committed academic misconduct

8:06

in his research and scholarship including

8:09

misreporting of research data,

8:11

problematic statistical techniques,

8:13

failure to properly document and preserve

8:15

research results, and inappropriate

8:18

authorship, end quote. In

8:20

twenty eighteen, he resigned and disgraced

8:22

from his post at Cornell University. So

8:25

we need to be very skeptical of any

8:27

of Wansing's findings, as

8:29

well as those of the researchers who worked with

8:31

him at Cornell's Food and Brand Lab

8:34

many of whom colluded with him in his

8:36

scientific misconduct. And

8:38

better quality evidence shows that restrained

8:40

eating and deprivation are

8:43

likely the reason that some people might eat

8:45

bigger quantities when presented

8:47

with larger portion sizes or

8:49

other cues from the food environment. When

8:51

people are driven by external cues

8:53

like diet culture rules, they're

8:55

more likely to respond to other

8:57

external cues like food available or

9:00

advertising and marketing. But

9:02

when they're driven by internal cues,

9:04

right, when they're intuitive eaters and

9:06

not dieters, They're not as likely to

9:08

be swayed by those messages from outside

9:10

themselves. They don't need to be

9:12

told to quote unquote make better choices.

9:14

Right? And they're not likely to listen to that outside

9:16

advice anyway. Now,

9:18

let's get into the why behind all of

9:20

this. I think one of the

9:23

reasons Wonsink's research had so many

9:25

people convinced is that it

9:27

seemed to reinforce what diet culture

9:29

has already told us. And what it's

9:31

already made us believe in fear, which is

9:33

that our food environment is

9:35

making us eat too

9:37

much of the quote unquote wrong types

9:39

of foods. Right? Diet

9:41

culture demonizes our food environment

9:43

as the latest culprit in making us

9:45

quote unquote overeat and gain

9:47

weight. And demonizing certain foods

9:49

and ways of eating is a hallmark of

9:51

diet culture. You know, in my definition of

9:53

diet culture, it's the third pillar,

9:55

along with lionizing supposedly

9:57

healthy foods. Deminizing

9:59

the food environment and highly

10:02

processed foods is also a convenient

10:04

way for diet culture to deflect

10:06

from the real culprit, which is itself.

10:09

Right? It's driving people towards

10:12

responding to cues in the

10:14

food environment in a way that they

10:16

wouldn't do if diet culture and

10:18

deprivation weren't present. And

10:20

when we jump to blaming the food environment

10:22

and the food industry tree for all of

10:24

Western cultures, ills, as so

10:26

many people do these days. We're

10:28

actually reinforcing the diet culture

10:30

beliefs that drive people

10:32

into disordered eating and eating disorders

10:34

in the first place and that make

10:36

them lose trust in themselves and they're

10:38

really chip with their bodies. Right?

10:40

When we repeat diet culture's rhetoric

10:42

without questioning it, we end up

10:44

colluding with the diet mindset. And

10:46

eating disorder professionals in particular,

10:48

I think need to be incredibly

10:50

vigilant against these kinds of arguments

10:52

and not simply repeat them.

10:54

Unless we reinforce the beliefs that are driving

10:56

our clients' eating disorders. Now

10:59

all that being said, I will acknowledge

11:02

that the tenth and last principle of

11:04

intuitive eating is to use

11:06

gentle nutrition awareness to help

11:08

care for your body. So there's a

11:10

place for nutrition in intuitive

11:12

eating. And if someone is eating

11:14

only fast food or convenience

11:16

food, it's true they might not feel

11:18

so great. And they might benefit from

11:20

bringing some other kinds of foods into their

11:22

life to the extent that that's

11:24

economically available to them, sometimes it's

11:26

just not. And that could

11:28

be part of gentle nutrition for them,

11:30

perhaps. But gentle

11:32

nutrition is the last principle of intuitive

11:34

eating for a reason. That

11:36

is people can't really engage with nutrition

11:38

in a way that's outside of

11:40

the diet culture paradigm until

11:42

they do the work of breaking down the

11:44

diet mentality making

11:46

peace with food, learning to

11:48

honor their hunger, stopping

11:50

restriction, all the other principles

11:52

and approaches of intuitive eating,

11:54

which you know, to me is really the

11:56

antidote to diet culture. In

11:58

my view, the most important thing for

12:00

putting people back in charge of their own

12:02

food choices and helping

12:04

them follow their own internal cues

12:07

is to help them stop restrictive and

12:09

restrained eating and break free from the

12:11

diet mentality. So when I'm

12:13

speaking to a large audience, like I am

12:15

with this podcast or in my

12:17

writing, I never jumped to the Gentle

12:19

Nutrition Principle. Right? Because

12:21

it's again, it's the last principle for a

12:23

reason, and the overwhelming majority

12:25

of people that I'm talking to

12:27

are in a place where they really need help with

12:29

the earlier principles. Especially

12:31

breaking down the diet mentality and making

12:33

peace with food. So working through

12:35

all of those other principles really has

12:37

to come for Nutritionist we're gonna

12:39

have a hope of it being gentle,

12:41

right, and not being just

12:43

another form of diet culture, another

12:45

diet to beat ourselves up

12:47

with. Another thing I think

12:49

is important is that, you know, as I

12:51

alluded to earlier, if someone's

12:53

eating nothing but fast food and

12:55

convenience foods It may be

12:57

due to poverty and the inability

12:59

to spend time or money required

13:01

to cook from scratch. Right? Because

13:03

even if someone can afford to buy the ingredients

13:06

to cook, They also need the time to

13:08

prepare them. And both time

13:10

and money can be scarce for lower

13:12

income people. Right? Many of whom

13:14

have to work multiple jobs and

13:16

just don't have the time to be preparing

13:18

meals from scratch whenever

13:20

it's time to eat. You know, as

13:22

someone who has a master's in public

13:24

health nutrition and worked in

13:26

more traditional public health settings for several

13:28

years before doing the work I do now.

13:30

I really have come to believe that the

13:32

public health field needs to

13:34

stop talking so much about food and

13:36

weight and start focusing

13:38

more on ending deprivation in all

13:40

its forms, whether that's deprivation

13:42

due to poverty and food insecurity,

13:45

deprivation due to diet culture

13:47

or both. And in

13:49

fact, there's compelling research showing

13:51

that often it is both. There is a

13:53

groundbreaking study in twenty

13:55

seventeen and a replication study from

13:57

twenty nineteen by Carolyn

13:59

Becker and colleagues. And

14:01

both of those studies found that food insecurity

14:04

is associated with significant

14:06

levels of disordered eating and

14:08

clinically diagnosable eating disorders

14:10

and that the people with the greatest degree of food

14:12

and security also had the highest

14:14

levels of disordered eating, not

14:16

just binge eating, which is what you

14:18

might think and they did have that,

14:20

but also compensatory bulimic

14:23

behaviors. Remember, these are people

14:25

with the highest levels of food insecurity

14:27

and they're doing these compensatory behaviors. Right?

14:30

The twenty seventeen study also found

14:32

that those with the highest levels of food and

14:34

security reported the highest levels of

14:36

internalized weight stigma. So

14:38

this means that even if binge eating

14:41

begins in response to the deprivation of food

14:43

and security rather than the deprivation of

14:45

dieting, which it definitely

14:47

can. Dioculture beliefs

14:49

about body size can

14:51

still come into play even for

14:53

people who are food insecure. So in

14:55

other words, food insecurity and diet

14:58

culture are not two separate

15:00

silos. They're interconnected

15:02

and they both are linked to disordered

15:04

eating. Now, if I'm

15:06

working with someone one on one and I know

15:08

their history, I know, you know, what

15:10

they're going through in terms of like a history of

15:12

food and security, and I've worked

15:14

with them through rejecting the diet

15:16

mentality, overcoming

15:18

deprivation, all the other principles

15:20

of intuitive eating, then maybe

15:22

at that point, I will talk with them about

15:24

food selection and, you know, how

15:26

the foods they're eating or sitting with

15:28

them or energizing them and how

15:30

they might diversify their eating so that

15:32

they're getting a range of foods

15:34

beyond just fast and convenience foods.

15:36

But That's usually a conversation

15:38

for very far along in our work together.

15:40

Once people have really stepped outside of the

15:42

diet culture paradigm, and are no

15:44

longer having, you know, negative

15:46

reactions to any talk of nutrition or

15:48

health or getting triggered into

15:50

orthorexic behaviors. And that

15:52

can take a very long time and it really

15:54

depends on the person. So I hope

15:56

that helps give you a window into my

15:58

thinking about these topics. And

16:01

into what I believe all eating disorder

16:03

professionals and public health professionals

16:05

would do well to consider when they're

16:07

framing discussions about that

16:09

is, you know, we need to make sure we're helping

16:11

people reconnect with their own internal

16:13

cues before we start throwing a

16:15

bunch of nutrition information at

16:17

them. And the evidence shows that when

16:19

people are in touch with their internal

16:21

cues, they're not as likely to be

16:23

swayed by outside forces anyway.

16:26

I talk more about all this in my first book anti

16:28

diet as well, so you can check that out for

16:30

more. This is already kind of a long episode,

16:32

and I will leave it there, but I

16:34

hope that helps answer your question, Laurie,

16:37

and thanks again for asking.

16:39

To submit your own question for a chance

16:41

to have it answered, either here or in

16:43

my Food Psych weekly newsletter or

16:45

both, you can go to christy harrison

16:47

dot com slash questions. Thank

16:49

you so much for listening. And if you found

16:51

this podcast help I'd be so grateful if

16:53

you take a moment to subscribe, rate

16:55

and review it on Apple Podcasts or

16:58

wherever you listen to podcasts. You can

17:00

see all the places to do that at christy

17:02

harrison dot com slash subscribe. This

17:04

episode was brought to you by my online

17:06

course intuitive eating fundamentals.

17:09

If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make

17:11

peace with food, learn more and sign

17:13

up at christy harrison dot com

17:16

slash course. That's christy harrison

17:18

dot com slash course.

17:20

For full show notes and a transcript of

17:22

this episode, go to christy harrison dot

17:24

com slash 305 And

17:26

to get the transcript, just scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter

17:28

your email address. Big thanks

17:31

as always to our editor and sound

17:33

engineer, Mike Lalande. Community

17:35

and content associate, Vinci Chuay,

17:37

an administrative assistant, Julian Wojtaszek,

17:40

for helping me out with all the moving parts that

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go into producing this show.

17:44

Album art was photographed by Abby Moore Photography,

17:46

and the logo was designed by Melissa Alam.

17:48

Our theme song was written and performed by

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Carolyn Penny Packer Rigs.

17:52

And I'm your host and producer, Christie Harrison.

17:55

Thanks again for listening and until

17:57

next time, stay site.