I love this definition of normal eating, and it's a fair question about what constitutes "normal" when our ideas around food have become so warped. I have been working on a post of a related topic—food noise. It's one of those things most dieters and disordered eaters are intimately familiar. Some have found freedom from the noise in weight loss drugs; mine went away within months of beginning intuitive eating. For me, normal eating means not obsessing over food nor judging myself for it.
Thank you Kristi. I’m really looking forward to reading your article on food noise. A term I never heard until recently, but that I’m very familiar with.
This is so helpful. It is a question I ask myself regularly. I love food, I love cooking for others. I think about food a lot partly because it is a hobbie. If I want some down time I will bake a cake or make a soup and also because providing food is a role I have chosen in our family, so planning and purchasing food are always on my to do list. I think I eat 'normally', but I have felt well being a vegan and more recently a vegitatrian. I am consious of how I feel after some foods, so I would describe myself as choosing, but our daughter who has recovered from anorexia would claim I have rules. I also read about food, nutrition, and dieting culture so the line between interest and obsessive can on occassion feel blurred. Thank you for your writing x
Thank you so much for your comments and thoughts Ruth. I think the line can definitely become blurred. I kind of came into the field of nutrition from my own disordered eating journey, but I also love the creativity cooking can afford us.
I think, for me the best way to know I don’t have rules is to test it out once in awhile and eat stuff I don’t think I “should” have or that I think maybe don’t agree with me, just to be sure I am not inadvertently restricting.
For me the line I like the most from Ellyn Satter’s definition is that “Normal eating is flexible”. That says it all.
Agreed to the flexibility element. What I love about your writing is it gives me an opportunity to sense check and tune into the emotional side of things and ask 'how am I feeling about all of this'.
Nuanced and personal. I think one of the challenges of social media in general is that any statement is only true in some ways, for some people in some places. The joy of substack is a little more space and time for exploration and to ask the question is this true for me, is this my experience?
Absolutely!! Like someone said, “It’s impossible to have nuanced conversations on limited platforms.” Substack gives a bit more space but it is still not the same as speaking in person.
I love this definition of normal eating, and it's a fair question about what constitutes "normal" when our ideas around food have become so warped. I have been working on a post of a related topic—food noise. It's one of those things most dieters and disordered eaters are intimately familiar. Some have found freedom from the noise in weight loss drugs; mine went away within months of beginning intuitive eating. For me, normal eating means not obsessing over food nor judging myself for it.
Thank you Kristi. I’m really looking forward to reading your article on food noise. A term I never heard until recently, but that I’m very familiar with.
This is so helpful. It is a question I ask myself regularly. I love food, I love cooking for others. I think about food a lot partly because it is a hobbie. If I want some down time I will bake a cake or make a soup and also because providing food is a role I have chosen in our family, so planning and purchasing food are always on my to do list. I think I eat 'normally', but I have felt well being a vegan and more recently a vegitatrian. I am consious of how I feel after some foods, so I would describe myself as choosing, but our daughter who has recovered from anorexia would claim I have rules. I also read about food, nutrition, and dieting culture so the line between interest and obsessive can on occassion feel blurred. Thank you for your writing x
Thank you so much for your comments and thoughts Ruth. I think the line can definitely become blurred. I kind of came into the field of nutrition from my own disordered eating journey, but I also love the creativity cooking can afford us.
I think, for me the best way to know I don’t have rules is to test it out once in awhile and eat stuff I don’t think I “should” have or that I think maybe don’t agree with me, just to be sure I am not inadvertently restricting.
For me the line I like the most from Ellyn Satter’s definition is that “Normal eating is flexible”. That says it all.
Agreed to the flexibility element. What I love about your writing is it gives me an opportunity to sense check and tune into the emotional side of things and ask 'how am I feeling about all of this'.
That’s a wonderful compliment! Thank you. It’s all so complex and nuanced…
Nuanced and personal. I think one of the challenges of social media in general is that any statement is only true in some ways, for some people in some places. The joy of substack is a little more space and time for exploration and to ask the question is this true for me, is this my experience?
Absolutely!! Like someone said, “It’s impossible to have nuanced conversations on limited platforms.” Substack gives a bit more space but it is still not the same as speaking in person.