Why Diets Will Never Work for Weight Loss
As a naturopathic doctor who honors biochemical individuality and the healing aspects of nutrition, I have become very concerned with how “healthcare” is shifting away from using food as medicine and more as a means to control body weight.
Practitioners are sounding more and more like rebranded “wellness diet” experts rather than medically-trained physicians. There are many empowering ways to ensure overall vitality; however, I am saddened to witness holistic approaches being so narrowly focused on food and exercise as the primary ones.
Many health authorities are using “the obesity epidemic” as justification to continue stigmatizing overweight individuals and enforcing more and more restrictive diets on them. This is not only unethical and cruel, but the “science” is misleading.
There are many reasons for people to be in different body shapes. Food is only one of these reasons. Also, studies linking “obesity” to diseases are associative, not causative. Furthermore, weight loss maintenance is rare, outside of tightly controlled experimental settings. Finally, restrictive diets in attempts to control body size can have negative consequences in themselves.
Shrinking body sizes, in the long-term, is not a health goal that has proven to be helpful. Rather, it is promoting weight stigma, eating disorders, perpetuating a cycle of weight-rebound, and provoking more body shaming. (source, source, source, source)
The Missing Nutrient in the “Wellness Diet”
I want to provide my readers with another option they may not be aware of regarding their relationship to nourishing their bodies for optimal wellness. It is hard to drown out the bombardment of messages that are coming at us from the multi-million-dollar industries of weight-loss and fitness, but there is another way to pursue the benefits of wellness, regardless of body size. It is nurturing and allows one to make peace with food. This is the concept of Health at Every Size.
Recently, I’ve dedicated another series of articles to help prevent the harms that can result from this current form of healthism.
I just released the third article. It is focused more specifically on the harms of trading dietary adherence for nurturing relationships.
Click here to read more on this topic on my homepage.
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This material is for information purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for any illness. You should check with your doctor regarding implementing any new strategies into your wellness regime. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. (Affiliation link.)
Disclaimer: This information is applicable ONLY for therapeutic quality essential oils. This information DOES NOT apply to essential oils that have not been tested for purity and standardized constituents. There is no quality control in the United States, and oils labeled as “100% pure” need only to contain 5% of the actual oil. The rest of the bottle can be filled with fillers and sometimes toxic ingredients that can irritate the skin. The studies are not based solely on a specific brand of an essential oil, unless stated. Please read the full study for more information.
