Stress and disordered eating

We are all experiencing challenges during which words just can't describe what we are feeling.

Politics, police brutality, a pandemic and an international human rights movement - alongside other ongoing issues like global warming, animal rights, LGBTQ discrimination, wage inequality, homelessness, human trafficking, disability discrimination, deforestation, weight bias, air pollution - may make it impossible to make sense of our emotions.

No matter how hard you try, you can't avoid stress. And sometimes it gets the best of us. Stress can become a problem when you are unable to cope. Without a productive and healthy outlet, stress levels can escalate.

Poor body image and an unhealthy relationship with food can cause stress but it also works the other way around. The relationship between stress and disordered eating is a vicious cycle.

When you feel overwhelmed or out of control, it's natural to find ways to cope with those unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings. Feeling stressed and overwhelmed can trigger disordered eating behaviors, which are used as a coping mechanism. In turn, compulsion, obsession, fear, stress and negative thinking raise stress levels. You can trick yourself into thinking you are alleviating stressful emotions, feelings and thoughts but in reality, those issues are exacerbated. Disordered eating can cause stress levels to spike. When you are so fixated on food, weight and your body, it can overtake everything in your life.

Because people who struggle with disordered eating habits are highly susceptible to stress (and the other way around), stress can contribute to the development of an eating disorder.

In case you missed it, I recently had the opportunity to have a healthy conversation with Registered Dietitian and elite runner Kelsey Beckman on body image, dieting and disordered eating. I hope you find it helpful. I provided a few options for your listening/viewing pleasure.

If you are struggling, please reach out for help. You don't have to suffer alone.

Facebook discussion 
YouTube discussion 
Audio only 

A healthy conversation about body image, fad diets and disordered eating

In our body-image obsessed culture - supported by a multibillion-dollar industry that profits from body dissatisfaction, the idealized body image, dieting and fear of fat - creating a healthy relationship with food and your body can be incredibly difficult. Sadly, even in a global health crisis, weight loss, appearance and body image are still priorities for many people, athletes and businesses.

The diet culture is constantly reminding you that you are not good enough at your current weight and being a bit thinner or more toned will improve your health and happiness. In other words, changing what you look like will make you happier, more successful or will make people like you better.

What starts as an innocent attempt to eat a bit healthier or lose a few lbs can easily spiral out of control. When body image dissatisfaction is present, "healthy" eating can quickly turn into dieting which can turn into disordered eating. For many, it doesn't stop there. Dieting is considered to be a precursor to eating disorders due to its restrictive and controlling nature. When we restrict what we eat, we deny our body and brain what it needs. This restriction doesn't just cause weight loss but it can result in malnutrition, nutrient deficiencies and starvation. At a neurobiological level, this can trigger an eating disorder.

As an athlete, fitness enthusiast or health conscious individual, you have a very close relationship with your body. If you have a disordered relationship with food or unhappy thoughts or feelings about your body, you may not be aware of (or care about) the long-term damage that can occur by manipulating your eating and training in order to change your body image.

Social media is oversaturated with images of athletes with six-pack abs, tight glutes and strong, slender legs. Constant exposure to these images can make you believe that you are not built like an athlete - increasing body consciousness, lowering self-esteem and intensifying body dissatisfaction.
Chasing the idea that weighing less will enhance performance can make it easy to mistakenly slip into unhealthy, extreme and disordered eating behaviors.

Successful athletes come in all shapes and sizes. To be successful, you need to be healthy and strong. You need to be consistent with training and you need to take care of your mental health, just as much as your physical health. Restricting food, eliminating food groups or overexercising does not make you a better athlete. It makes you weaker and more fragile.  It takes work to embrace your unique traits, strengths and qualities but the process of developing a positive body image is worth it.

If you would like to learn more about body image, fad diets and disordered eating, mark your calendars for Friday May 29th at 10am EST. Head over the to Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition Facebook page where I will be having a live conversation with Kelsey Beckmann RD, LDN. Not only are we both dietitians who specialize in working with athletes but we are both competitive athletes. With considerable personal and professional experiences between us both, we will be sharing our perspective on these three very important topics so that you can learn how to nourish, fuel and train your body while maintaining great health and a great relationship with your body.

The truth about fad diets

Carbs. The dietary villain.

It wasn't that long ago when Americans were afraid to eat fat due to a possible link with heart disease. In the midst of a low-fat, fat-free diet craze, a message got lost in translation. Instead of reducing unhealthy fats, American's heard: Fats are bad, carbs are good. As the food industry does best, they saw this as a great opportunity to make and promote low fat/fat-free products. What happened next?

Take out the fat but add lots of sugar. Around this time, Americans started to eat more processed food (rich in refined grains and sugar), more fast food, more sodas and much less fiber and whole grains. Sadly, around this time there was a rise in obesity and diabetes. In addressing one problem (heart disease), dietary advice fueled another problem (obesity and diabetes). However, not all carbs are created equal (just like fats). Americans have a liking for sweet, refined and convenient foods - which contain a lot of carbs, sugar and energy dense calories. Rather than reducing the intake of these types of carbohydrates in the diet, diet fads encourage you to limit/avoid all carbs - including whole grains, dairy, legumes, vegetables and fruit. Once again, a message was lost in translation. We've taken a complex topic and made it simple - carbs are bad and fats are good.

Although this blog post is about diets, it would be a mistake to ignore the other lifestyle factors that contribute to poor health, such as stress, poor sleep hygiene, working too many hours, alcohol abuse, loneliness, low self-esteem, limited physical activity, sedentary lifestyle, obsession with technology and so much more. Is it practical to assume that the elimination of carbs (even fruit!) will improve the quality of life of an overworked, sleep deprived and stressed human being? Sure, you may lose weight by decreasing calories and cutting out the nutrient-poor foods in your diet but a diet fad doesn't change your life unless you've changed your lifestyle.

From Atkins, to Paleo, to Whole 30, to Keto....almost every diet has an enemy (or enemies) and it continues to be carbohydrates. While we now know that fats are not unhealthy, carbohydrates are still claimed to be bad for you - they still have a nasty reputation. As the merry-go-round of good vs. bad food continues, people are confused - what do I eat?? And with this confusion comes misinformation. American's seek simplicity in such a fast-paced world so it makes sense that people look for diets that are easy, provide a quick fix and involve little to no thinking.

In my opinion, it's not the diet itself that is the answer to health and weight problems. People desire rules to help simplify complex situations. Plus, in our viral and social society, it's easy to want what others have. It's much easier to comply to dietary advice when you are told "carbs will make you fat, don't eat them" than to spend months working on your lifestyle choices and relationship with food in order to adopt a diet that is more scientifically-based, sustainable and suitable for all life situations. It's easy to fall prey to a diet that uses buzz words to catch your attention.... "boost mental clarity, quick weight loss, improve your gut health, not leave you hangry, easy, longevity, anti-aging, improved athletic performance, better sleep, overall health improvement." Don't be fooled to believe that eliminating carbs can really do all of this.

While scrolling through social media, browsing the internet, thumbing through a magazine, listening to a podcast or hearing from your friends/family members/teammate, there's a good chance that fad diets are gaining your attention. Right now, "keto" (or ketogenic) is creating a lot of buzz among celebrities, athletes and medical/health/fitness professionals. All this chatter may be making you a little curious, interested or just confused and frustrated. For the sensible eater, a fad diet may sound absurd, ridiculous and miserable but for an individual who is vulnerable for change, the latest diet fad is viewed as plausible solution that will finally fix a long-term problem. 

Even with glowing testimonials and pages of research studies, the chance of experiencing long-term weight loss or health success with a fad diet is not in your favor. Although nearly every diet promotes weight loss, health improvements and a "lifestyle" approach, in reality, the majority of fad diets are not sustainable....for a lifetime. Remember this as you browse through social media and see/hear someone raving about a diet - this is a snapshot of life, not an indication of how this person will eat for a lifetime. Beyond dietary compliance, many fad diets fail because they are not health-promoting (and sometimes dangerous). Even if a fad diet has "proof" that it is safe, sustainable and effective for the short-term, removing entire food groups, severely limiting food variety, starving your body of nutrients and living a life of food rules is harmful to your long-term physical and mental health. 

With the rise of every new fad diet, it's easy to get lured in by the hype - especially when the diet is all over social media, in magazines and even in the grocery store. To make matters worse, early adopters often become "authorities" with very strong opinions (and very convincing testimonials). The real nutrition experts (dietitians) are thought to be "ignorant to the facts" as the real authorities are quick to dispute any and every counterargument with a testimonial or research study. Through repetition, and hearing about a certain diet over and over again, it's only a matter of time when you will believe the authorities that this diet is superior to any other diet out there. And so it begins - you subject your mental and physical health, quality of life and fitness/performance to a trend.

Let's get real. When someone experiences impressive and superior results from a fad diet, results will be shared - often in the form of blog posts, podcast interviews and interviews. However, as you well know, what works for one person doesn't always work for another person. There are outliers that achieve results that are not easy, sustainable or effective for the masses. And even if the diet appears to be a new "lifestyle" for those who have had success, it's impossible to know if this diet is actually a permanent lifestyle. Adhering to a diet for a few months or even a few years is far from a lifestyle. 

As a sport dietitian, my job is to personalize diets for health and performance. Never do I suggest a style of eating that is not sustainable. Eating can and should change. There are plenty of recommendations, suggestions and guidelines to help develop a long-term style of eating but unless you have a medical condition, never should eating come with rules and a bad or off-limit food list.

The truth about fad diets is that a few will succeed in the long-term but most people will fail. Would you want to get surgery from a doctor who has failed most of the time and has only succeed a few times? Diet fad results are exaggerated and negative results are rarely discussed (or heard). To succeed with a diet, you need to follow it for the rest of your life and it needs to work for you - however you define success for your health, fitness and quality of life. Different dietary approaches work for different people. A diet that offers recommendations for the masses (with very strict rules) isn't personalized for your needs and your lifestyle and your goals.

As for the Ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting (the two fad diets that are all the rage these days), there's nothing magical about these diets.

For most people, achieving weight loss, health and performance improvements for the long-term means making changes that can be maintained for a lifetime. With birthdays to celebrate, events to attend and meals to enjoy with family and friends, you need to change your lifestyle to ensure that your diet will work for you. I can tell you that eliminating carbs or not eating for 8-16 hours is not the solution.