ppl don’t binge eat bc ~processed food tastes too good~ or whatever paranoid reasoning diet culture has taught us, they binge bc they have a history of deprivation and restriction, often self-imposed.
if you think you’re not allowed to eat this or that food, you’re going to binge
if you think your “good” diet/lifestyle/behavior will start tomorrow, you’re going to binge (aka last supper eating)
if you have a history of food insecurity, you’re going to binge when food is available
if you have a history of dieting or being put on diets, you’re going to binge to be sure your net energy needs are met
if you have an eating disorder, you’re going to binge… and if you don’t, you’re more likely to die of the illness
the body drives hunger for very good reason, and it takes a long, stable period of eating sufficiently to get its hyperphagic (extreme hunger/eating) mechanisms to stand down. more deprivation means more out-of-control eating; more response to hunger means more regulated eating patterns. it really is that simple.
Tag: disordered eating
i just want people to know that engaging in disordered eating patterns is harmful and difficult regardless of whether it never morphs into a clinically diagnosable eating disorder, and if you are dealing with any of this you have my utmost sympathy and care. i am so tired of diet culture treating these behaviors as though they’re completely fine as long as they’re not “bad enough.”
Please do not talk about a child’s weight in front of them, or tell them they need to go on a diet.
Talking about weight in front of children is associated with mental and physical health risks, and both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society recommend against all weight talk around children.
Starting an ED in a child doesn’t necessarily look like outright mocking a child’s weight- it can be mild comments like “Have you lost weight?” with an approving tone, telling your child they have to play a sport so they don’t “gain weight and grow up unhealthy”, or always commenting on a young girl’s “dainty” figure when you notice how little she naturally eats. Just cut weight talk out of your vocabulary around kids please.
This includes talking about your OWN weight too. Don’t comment about how you can’t have a brownie because it will ‘go right to your hips’, don’t count your calories in front of kids, don’t do any of it. They will absorb it.
What about “you’re very small, pls eat more” (I can see his ribs) (he doesnt eat a lot + i work with him to find things he actually likes that still have nutrients) plus I talk A Lot about body positivity, about how all bodies are good bodies, I’m fat and I call myself fat but in a positive/neutral way + discuss how fat is an adjective and that other folks are the ones who make it negative. I squish my tummy and talk about how it keeps me warm, and how I’m fun to hug. My concern about his weight is not aesthetic based, but rather legitimate concern over his health (he takes ADHD meds so I Have to be concerned about him losing weight) (I know a lot of fatphobia/body shaming comes under the guise of health concerns, but if he gets sick and cant eat he doesn’t have a lot to keep him from dying and this terrifies me) I guess I’m wondering if this instance of weight discussion with a child is acceptable due to the nuance I provided. If not, pls help me find ways to share my concerns with him.
To me, at least, that sounds enough different that it doesn’t really seem like a problem. That’s coming out of legitimate and probably well-founded concerns about the child’s wellbeing, not appearance and concern trolling.
A focus on staying strong and well-nourished doesn’t sound like a bad thing at all, as long as the message stays positive and not shaming the kid for having trouble getting enough food in with the meds.
That said, I can also understand why it might feel hard to find a good balance there. Especially with how prevalent the other kind of interactions around weight and food can be–and especially if you’ve had too much personal experience of the shaming kind 
Happy Thanksgiving
You are allowed to enjoy your food, to eat according to your preferences, to eat to the point of satisfaction
You deserve to enjoy this holiday, however that may look to you (NOT to your ED, or judgmental/unkind relatives)
You can eat thanksgiving dinner AND eat breakfast and lunch and snacks
You can eat thanksgiving dinner AND all your meals AND not compensate for it before/after the holiday
It is also okay to struggle with this day and have negative emotions….remember you’re not alone in that. We’re all in this together.
If the people around you make harmful comments about food/dieting/eating/anything tbh….It is not meant for you. It does not apply to you. Imagine you’re in a bubble/force field/etc and let those comments bounce right off. You have overcome so much and are so strong and you can get through these painful moments.
I’m thankful for all of my followers and for everyone who is here, reading this, despite the difficult battles they are fighting. I’m thankful that you continue to fight ❤
I think the biggest lie that we tell ourselves is that we will finally love ourself when we’re thin.
try to actively stop yourself from thinking of food in terms of moral value. like, sure, eat your vegetables, but having a slice of chocolate cake doesn’t make you irresponsible, lazy, undisciplined, or a bad person, in any way; this mindset we absorbed from all around us is toxic and dangerous and you’ll be happier if you fight against it.
food that’s totally devoid of nutritional value doesn’t exist. all food has macronutrients which our bodies rely on to support life, and the vast majority of food has a significant amount of micronutrients. pop tarts, cheeseburgers, french fries, pizza, cookies, chips, white flour products and other demonized foods contain vital micronutrients such as iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, b vitamins, vitamin c, and more. meat is a better source of some essential micronutrients than plant foods.
vegetables and fruits are great, as are legumes, but they’re not the only nutrient-dense foods. they tend to be lower calorie & higher fiber foods, tho, which in conditions of scarcity (the reality for many ppl on earth, incl the ~developed world~) are far less efficient delivery systems for nutrients.
“empty calories” aren’t a thing – calories are units of energy – and you’d have to work pretty hard to find a food that contained no significant amount of any micronutrient. again, all foods have the macronutrients that keep us alive.
kindly get off my posts about the health benefits of eating foods you enjoy w this shaming nonsense about “foods that have no nutritional value”. i’m sorry your relationship w food is characterized by fear & a mistrust of pleasure, but we’re not here to keep you company in your misery
Last time I was at the aquarium, I read an informational sign about how the animals prefer certain types of food because they’re “a good source of calories.” A good source of calories! When’s the last time you heard a human food being referred to as such? Obviously there are other nutritional considerations that are important too- I’ve had nutritional deficiencies due to celiac and have felt the real impact of those- but WE NEED CALORIES TO FUNCTION.
So I’ve started using that phrase “good source of calories” around the house, and it still feels a little silly, but it’s a real thing! Just speaking for myself, I’m not instinctively good at maintaining regular eating habits, but I also know that I MUST get food into my body early in the day and replenish it regularly so that I have the energy to do stuff and avoid headaches, dizziness, and mood changes. I also frequently lack an appetite for breakfast, so yeah, I look for foods that are particularly calorie-dense so that I can get the most bang for my buck. It’s seriously startling how much impact this has on my sense of well-being and ability to get the stuff done that I need to get done.
to-dance-beneath-the-diamond-sky:
Friendly reminder that 1200 calories is the recommended amount for a 5 year old
this hit me.
another fact is that 500 calories isn’t even enough for a new born.
why did I go so long convinced that going over 500 in a day was the end of the world?
Another friendly reminder that the United States used 1,000 calorie diets as torture for political prisoners and justified it using the diet industry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/17/bush-torture-memos-commer_n_188190.html
In a footnote to a May 10, 2005, memorandum from the Office of Legal Council, the Bush attorney general’s office argued that restricting the caloric intake of terrorist suspects to 1000 calories a day was medically safe because people in the United States were dieting along those lines voluntarily.
“While detainees subject to dietary manipulation are obviously situated differently from individuals who voluntarily engage in commercial weight-loss programs, we note that widely available commercial weight-loss programs in the United States employ diets of 1000 kcal/day for sustain periods of weeks or longer without requiring medical supervision,” read the footnote. “While we do not equate commercial weight loss programs and this interrogation technique, the fact that these calorie levels are used in the weight-loss programs, in our view, is instructive in evaluating the medical safety of the interrogation technique.”
Another another friendly reminder that the Minnesota Starvation Experiment subjected adult men who were VOLUNTEERS to 1,560 calorie diets and the psychological effects were so profound that one volunteer cut three of his own fingers off and could not remember why.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment
These men were volunteers who knew exactly what they would be going through and when it would end, and who believed they were doing it for a good and moral reason (the research was used to help rehabilitate victims of starvation and famine at the end of WWII).
And these are the things we are expected to engage in FOREVER to stay at a “healthy” weight.
Reading about the Minnesota Starvation experiment was my wake-up call. It was what kicked me out of my eating disorder. The guy missing three fingers, whatever his name was, he was the last straw for me.
Scared me so fucking bad I stopped restricting my food that day, and never went back to it.
Just bringin’ this back around like I sometimes do.
Wow. This really hit me hard.
EAT
Fun fact– calorie restriction exacerbates symptoms of pretty much *every* mental illness.
One of the BEST WAYS I fight my anorexia is wising up with scientific facts, and letting go of my twisted logic!!!
When you feel like restricting, remember that diet culture MADE you think restriction=weightloss=skinny=Good.
Gina Kolata’s book Rethinking Thin has a lot of fact and is very readable, for those wanting a jumping-off point.
we need carbs and we need fats and we need proteins and honestly fuck diet culture for normalizing malnourishment
People commenting on this saying we don’t need sugars don’t know how the human body works
we need carbs and we need fats and we need proteins and honestly fuck diet culture for normalizing malnourishment
People commenting on this saying we don’t need sugars don’t know how the human body works
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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