What is healthy eating?

Butterfly: Let's Talk

We live in a world where we’re constantly marketed cheap, addictive “food” with very little nutritional value, and we’ve all heard about the public health impacts of that.

It’s a situation that’s led to a growing distrust of the food system and increased fear of food. It’s little wonder there’s rapidly growing interest in “healthy eating”, and it’s why the diet industry has begun to systematically rebrand itself to be more about health and “wellness”. But the industry is still fundamentally a weight loss industry, with a clear focus on restricting food intake.

In this episode, we ask the question, “what is healthy eating”? Dietitian Elizabeth Stathakis says a healthy diet is diverse and depends on your budget, your geography, your cultural preferences, and your medical history. There’s not one healthy diet that fits for us all.

Psychologist Janet Lowndes warns that when we classify foods as good or bad and get into restriction, that restriction can gain momentum. There is a real risk of developing an eating disorder.

We also talk to three people who have a lived experience of how their healthy eating did indeed develop into an eating disorder. Now that they’re in recovery, they describe how their idea of healthy eating has evolved to be much healthier for both their bodies and minds.

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