Diets

This book is about a girl who goes on a diet and becomes the soccer star of the school.
It is aimed for children 4-8 according to Amazon. 

The book featured above makes me sick. What kindergartener needs to hear about a diet? And do they really need to hear that loosing weight will make them more popular, and make their dreams come true??

I want to teach children about healthy foods and moderation... but at the same time, in treatment I was told over and over again- all food is good food. Love your body. Give your body what it wants.. etc.

That is where this amazing book comes in handy called, "Intuitive Eating" and is written by Evelyn Tribole, and Elyse Resch. (Both authors are registered dieticians.) It's an amazing book and I think it is absolutely worth the $10 it costs from Amazon.

The book defines intuitive eaters as people who, "march to their inner hunger signals and eat whatever they choose without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma." These people leave the decisions of what to eat, how much of it to eat, and when to eat it up to personal choices with respect for individual autonomy and body signals.



First let me clarify something..
there are two meanings for the word diet.
One is "such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight"
The other is, "the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group."
I'm talking (and the book is talking) about the first kind of diet.

"Dieting is a form of short-term starvation. You can't fight biology. When the body is starving, it needs to be nourished."
Most of us who have eating disorders go through the cycle of starving, binging, and then purging. My body couldn't survive on the insufficient amount of calories I was eating so it craved carbs, fat, and protein even more. Then, because it was in starvation mode, it conserved any amount of food I would give it. That slowed my motabolism. I don't like to talk numbers but for this I will.
I fed my body 500 calories every day for a week. Then when I finally couldn't take it anymore, I would eat an immense amount of food... all the while hating myself.
My poor confused body! I was a growing teenager and it wanted 2,000 steady calories of veggies, meats, fruits, dairy, breads, and treats!
I've seen so many crazy diets advertised in magazines and endorsed by celebrities. Lets be honest with ourselves- those celebrities have people who are paid to keep them skinny, airbrushed, and perfect.
Diets don't work.

That is the first lesson the book taught me. As someone who made my diet so extreme it took me to death's door- I agree.