Why should restrictive eating mean some kind of disorder, while millions of Americans stuff their faces with sugary, over-salted junk food?
Though the term “restrictive eating” is in the DSM-5, this is also a broad term that’s often used in the English vernacular by laypeople, including body positivie influencers.
Influencers have now made restrictive eating nearly synonymous with eating disorders and other unhealthy relationships with food.
At the same time, they post images of themselves gorging on cupcakes, candy, donuts, ice cream, pizza, burritos, etc.
Yes, we need to talk about severe restrictive eating, but then we should also talk about “abundant eating.”
Influencers who criticize the concept of cutting back on junk calories in the name of losing excess weight or acquiring a healthier body don’t have a problem with women posting images or videos of themselves eating oversized portions of ultra-processed foods. This is really strange.
Because the opposite end of that continuum kills significantly more Americans.
Seems to me that a woman who wants to par back on processed meats, foods that contain trans fats, cake/pie/ice cream and other sweets, and other junk foods, most likely has a healthy sense of self … because she cares what she puts into her body.
And if she happens to be good at this regulation of food intake, some influencers and their fans will be quick to label her as having an eating disorder, or on her way to anorexia nervosa, or suffering from poor body image.
Are they mad that they themselves don’t have more self-control? And to feel less rattled by this, they convince themselves that any woman who’s committed to sound nutritional management must clearly have an eating disorder.
Though anorexia nervosa involves restrictive eating, this doesn’t mean restrictive eating involves anorexia nervosa.
X = Y doesn’t mean that Y = X.
To put this another way, rain involves clouds, but clouds usually don’t involve rain.
Still confused?
Then look at this as follows. If I decide to give up any soda that contains NutraSweet (since this artificial sweetener has been linked to cancer in lab animals), this means I’m restricting my beverage intake.
If I decide to give up hotdogs and deli meats (because they’re high in sodium and contain carcinogenic preservatives), this means I’m practicing food restriction.
If I decide to have only two slices of pizza for dinner instead of eating the whole pie, this is restriction — by definition of the word.
If I replace my four-inch wedge of layer cake with a two-inch wedge, this is restrictive eating.
It will mean fewer bad things inside my body.
And if a woman wishes to lose 20 pounds of excess fat — and thus cuts back on unhealthy, sugary foods, and intentionally keeps her daily calories at around 2,000 (rather than her previous 2,800) — this, too, means an improvement in health.
Why wouldn’t it? She’s cut back on bad foods.
No, “bad” is not the moralization of food. “Bad” means unhealthy in this context.
If you eat fewer bad or unhealthy foods, your body will benefit. This is a no-brainer.
A change like this has been proven, through-and-through, to improve blood pressure, glucose metabolism and lipid profile.
These positive changes can also result in clearing up acid reflux and constipation.
Now if she continues dropping the weight by eating only 900 calories a day, this definitely would sound like the onset of anorexia nervosa.
But if she stops at 20 lbs., and maintains this weight loss by replacing donuts for breakfast with a vegetable omelet, juice with whole fruit, and for lunch and dinner, drinks only water with her plant based meal — then there is absolutely nothing wrong with her mental health.
I myself eat only lamb, poultry and seafood as far as animal muscle. I rarely eat red meat.
Does this mean I have an eating disorder? The influencers will want you to think so.
I do eat baked goods, which are not beneficial to the body. But suppose I decided to avoid them.
How would this mean I have a problem with body image or mental health? The human body didn’t evolve on pastries.
Baked goods are not natural, so how is it a sign of any kind of disorder if one decides to restrict consumption of baked goods?
In fact, baked goods at the typical supermarket contain trans fats, which are toxic to the heart.
Yet some influencers want you to believe that eliminating or even just cutting back on such foods means you have a problem with body image or have been “programmed” by society to hate your body.
But go ahead, binge on five candy bars while you accuse all restrictive eaters of having an eating disorder.
This is not about criticizing anyone because they are plus-size. The problem is their hypocritical rhetoric.
Their message is that anyone and everyone who practices the harmless forms of restrictive eating necessarily have some kind of problem.
This is an example of too much judgement — the very thing that they crusade against.
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