An Eating Disorder Disguised as the Health and Wellness Diet

It is no secret that diets have been exposed over the last decade to be harmful towards a person’s health. Diets, or more broadly, Diet Culture has been around for many years. It is a capitalistic group of organizations all geared up to help people lose weight while making money at the same time. The catch? We all (well most of us) know that diets simply do not work. 

Diet culture is not blind to this. So what have they done? Diet culture has grown with the times to adopt a new ‘Health and Wellness Diet’ spin on dieting (still dieting nonetheless). In turn, people have adopted the belief system that they will not diet but will adopt a new way of eating and treating their body which in turn, will help them lose weight (a diet disguised as something else). What this new diet has created is an unhealthy obsession with health and wellness. It is not uncommon that people are skipping family traditions, social engagements, overdoing exercise, all in the pursuit to be more happy. 

You might be asking yourself, but aren’t there healthier foods than others? Isn’t exercise healthy? 

Yes, absolutely. Although not to a degree that causes more stress and anxiety. When someone's life becomes governed by their decisions of health they might also find themselves more stressed, anxious, and missing out on important moments in life. The argument now becomes is eating that cookie more healthy than putting your mind and body through excessive stress? 

Let’s not even get into the statistics on the correlation between stress and disease. 

Not only does the Health and Wellness fuel stress and anxiety but it is a diet even more fueled by guilt and shame. 

Once the rules have been set in someones head regarding what is healthy and unhealthy (commonly based off of what is high caloric and low caloric) if they eat something that is not ‘good’ they will be met immediately with guilt and shame. For a lot of people, guilt and shame continues to fuel a cycle of emotional eating sending them further into their guilt and shame. 

Your life is worth more than food obsession, the Health and Wellness Diet, and dieting in general. You deserve to live a life that is not governed by good or bad foods, healthy or unhealthy, and most importantly, stress, guilt, shame, anxiety and depression. 

Seek the help of a professional and begin to unravel your relationship with food and your body, you owe it to yourself. 

REACH OUT FOR SUPPORT WITH EATING DISORDER TREATMENT

If you are interested in learning more about how I work with individuals through eating disorder treatment, please feel free to read more here or reach out to set up a free 20 minute consultation. I look forward to hearing from you!

-Ellie