Many millennial mothers are rethinking their relationship to dieting, and wishing their children to avoid similar struggles.

In the 1970’s dieting and weight loss reached a fever pitch. Oprah, and pretty much every celebrity was on a diet and trying to lose weight. The American government even started a ‘War on Obesity’.

The main tool used to combat obesity was nutrition and dieting. Oprah went on her Weight Watchers, and the government basically told people to Just Say No’ to unhealthy foods.

However, years later this war on obesity is being questioned. Oprah has regained all the weight she lost. The American people are still getting heavier. The healthcare system is still under siege. And this is not just an American problem, but these trends can be seen in other first world countries as well, where obesity is a huge problem.

Science Says Long Term Dieting For Weight Loss Backfires

In the 1970’s and early 80’s science was used to justify the war on obesity.

The effects of obesity were dramatic and evidence-based. People who were obese:

Lived shorter lives
Had more physical and mental problems
Used more healthcare system resources

It turns out however, that while science does paint a bleak picture for obesity, it turns out that science also paints a bleak picture for weight loss!

For example, a meta-analysis of 29 long term weight loss studies (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/) shows that:

People regain the weight
People often regain more weight!
Dieting has harmful effects like slower metabolism

This puts people in a difficult situation. While obesity is obviously dangerous; purposeful, restrictive weight loss seems to backfire.

Mothers Who Experienced Negative Side Effects Now Rethinking Health

Nowadays millions of women are rethinking what it means to be healthy.

The weight loss industry is worth over a trillion dollars globally, but many people who spend their time and money on weight loss have little to show for their efforts, and lots of frustration.

As the negative effects of dieting become more clear, mothers are wondering if dieting is something they wish to pass down to their children.

For example, in a recent interview on the Eating Enlightenment podcast with mother Tricia Nelson, Tricia explores how dieting harmed her and why she instead chose a different health approach for her children.

Tricia explores how dieting made her feel inadequate, and nearly gave Tricia a full-blown eating disorder. After years of eating struggles including binge eating, Tricia stumbled across a different health paradigm – Intuitive Eating.

Intuitive Eating Is Part Of A New Health Movement

Intuitive Eating is a new health movement that essentially is inside-out, instead of outside in. Let me explain.

Most dieting and weight loss approaches are outside in. Some authority figure who is outside’ tells you:

what plan to follow
how many calories to eat
what foods to eat

However, as people now know, these outside’ approaches to weight loss don’t work. It turns out that following a plan that doesn’t incorporate emotions and psychology backfires in the long run.

On the other hand, Intuitive Eating approaches are inside’. They place priority on emotions, body connection like hunger and fullness, and food satisfaction.

More About New Health Movement

These inside’ approaches like Intuitive Eating are part of a broader health movement.

Nowadays on instagram there are body positive influencers promoting body acceptance. There is also the growing recognition of the social justice and health movement termed Health At Every Size, which seeks to reduce the social stigma and harm from obesity.

As these new movements seek to change the existing cultural paradigm around health, much confusion is inevitably arising. For example, critics say that Health At Every Size promotes the idea that obesity can be healthy. While Health At Every Size does not promote this idea, it’s easy to see how a person can get confused.

However, these movements despite their confusions are making headwinds. For mothers and a generation of weight loss believers who have nothing to show for their dieting except more weight than what they started with, these alternative health movements are resonating and changing the way mothers teach their children about health.

Children Motivate Mothers To Change Eating Paradigm

Tricia says that the birth of her children motivated her to take Intuitive Eating more seriously.

Tricia knew that dieting harmed her. However, Tricia also knew at the time when her child was born that she was still dieting.

But Tricia’s newborn gave Tricia the motivation to change her eating habits and become an Intuitive Eater.

While Tricia had known about Intuitive Eating before the birth of her child, the birth of her children gave Tricia the extra motivation to rethink what it means to be healthy and ultimately, to change her habits.

Nowadays Tricia asks her children how hungry and how full they are. She actively encourages them to listen to their taste preferences. And of course, no food is off limits.

(Not restricting food is a cornerstone of these health paradigms, as restriction often leads to binge eating and unsustainable eating patterns).

For example, Tricia was incredibly happy when her teenage daughter wanted cake for her birthday. Because her daughter had been raised as an Intuitive Eater, her daughter just had one piece of cake.

Instead of being prevented from eating cake and celebrating on her birthday, or binge eating the cake secretly, Intuitive Eating and other health movements promote normal relationships with food based on internal body signals like hunger and fullness.

Resources To Learn More About Intuitive Eating And Health At Every Size

If dieting and weight loss approaches have harmed you, then you should consider looking into Intuitive Eating. Especially if you are still dieting and want your children to avoid going down a similar path!

There are a variety of resources available to help you learn about this new paradigm.

Perhaps the best place to start is simply typing into google Intuitive Eating’ and seeing what comes up.

Another good place to start is the Intuitive Eating website (IntuitiveEating.org). This website has lists of major news publications on Intuitive Eating, as well as a comprehensive record of scientific studies conducted on Intuitive Eating.

This article was written by Jared Levenson. Jared Levenson is an Eating Counselor Coach who helps people to stop binge and emotional eating. His website and blog can be found at https://eatingenlightenment.com.

Mothers Reject Dieting And Rethink What It Means To Be �Healthy�