Hello and welcome to my podcast! My name is Kristyn Pscolka and I’m here to talk about the real deal with mental health. Anxiety, depression, and eating disorders are all things I have gone through. I am recovering everyday from my eating disorder and I’m so glad to say that I am doing much better! Everybody is struggling with something, so why do we push those feelings away? Let’s dive into some deep convos and help build each other up.

Kristyn talks about how awful dieting and restricting foods is. She really gets into (when does she not) and explaining how one’s desire for food increases when they restrict it. She gives 3 summaries for the 3 articles she posted on Patriot Press, so be sure to check them out if you or someone you know is struggling with their relationship with food.

Article 1 Drake, Kaitlyn. “Choose Your Health and Say no to Fad Diets.” University Wire, 07 Oct 2020. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2475974665?accountid=62936.

Summary: “Choose Your Health and Say No to Fad Diets” by Kaitlyn Drake provides a lot of great information on balanced eating. Society pairs thin and healthy and discourages bigger bodies. People turn to diets when they feel unhealthy, insecure, and don’t fit society’s standards. A person may appear thin and can be significantly unhealthy. Our bodies are not meant to fit the ‘mold’ because everyone’s body requires different things. Diets are not and never will be the answer. 

”Good diet changes involve none of these things and can actually help create a healthy balance with food, but fad diets make food into the villain, not the hero.” 

“ For example, even though researchers have known for a very long time that carbohydrates are an essential part of a balanced diet, those who are following the Keto diet refuse to consume them, or at least restrict themselves so that they eat carbohydrates in very small quantities. This means that people on Keto are not only cutting bread and pasta out of their diets, but fruits and whole grains as well.” 

Article 2  Tran, Raymond. “The Distasteful Truth about Diet Culture.” UCSD Guardian, 17 May 2021, https://ucsdguardian.org/2021/05/16/the-distasteful-truth-about-diet-culture/. 

Summary: In the article “The Distasteful Truth about Diet Culture” by Raymond Tran, he teaches the rules that diet culture enforces onto society and the harm that it does. Diets and forms of laxative or any weight loss scheme will cause pain, discomfort, bloat, and nausea. It’s very likely that dieting will lead to orthorexia, which is when someone obsesses over eating healthy food. When one restricts certain foods, they are more likely to become obsessed with wanting what they are not allowing themselves to eat. The longer you restrict it, the more you want of it.  Stop confusing your body with the different eating patterns you’re following because the more consistent we eat well, our metabolism will become steady and our bodies will maintain the weight it should be at. 

“The more extreme or restrictive a diet is, the more likely it is to lead to orthorexia — a term that refers to an individual having an unhealthy obsession with healthy food. Much in the same way a person who struggles with anorexia or bulimia obsesses over calorie count and weight, someone with orthorexia fixates on clean eating.

“Most diets are nearly impossible to keep up with, which makes falling off of them even worse on people’s mental health and their outlook on food.”

Article 3 Brickwedel, Haley. “Research before You Try a Diet.” University Wire, 02 Mar 2020. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2429317467?accountid=62936

Summary In the article “Research before You Try a Diet” by Haley Brickwedel, it discusses why people need to stop dieting and start mending their relationships with food because diets don’t work. It explains how humans rely on all food groups and people can enjoy food as long as it’s balanced with carbs, protein, fats, and color. Diets worsen one’s relationship with food because diets are constantly changing your eating habits and restricting certain foods. After all of your ‘hard work’ of restricting and missing out on social events and the tastes of your favorite food, the weight will eventually come back. Stop dieting and take time to mend your relationship with your food and create healthy and balanced eating habits.

“Eat foods that your body craves and foods that make your body feel good, energized and satisfied. This means, eat what you enjoy and enjoy what you eat physically, mentally and emotionally,” Keeney said.

Cutting out just carbs and fat can affect the body. Unless there are dietary restrictions or religious guidelines, an individual should provide their body with all food groups.”

“Diets come to an end and so does that “healthy eating.” Many times, the diet trend does not change an individual’s overall eating habits or relationship with food.”

Diets worsen one’s relationship with food because diets are constantly changing your eating habits and restricting certain foods. After all of your ‘hard work’ of restricting and missing out on social events and the tastes of your favorite food, the weight will eventually come back. You are not going to diet forever because you’ll be out of life itself. Stop dieting and take time to mend your relationship with your food and create healthy and balanced eating habits.

The best advice I was given was to balance the plate. Have all the food groups represented on the plate. Fruit and veggies, grain (bread, potatoes and more), protein (fish, eggs, tofu and nuts) and dairy (milk, yogurt and cheese).

The human body relies on all food groups. We can enjoy all food if it is balanced and it is enough. Carbs are the brain’s main source of energy. Fats keep you full longer and protein helps muscle strength. “Healthy eating” is not always salad, apples and water. Healthy eating is eating what makes you feel good. This could be; salad, pizza, pasta, cookies, bananas, etc… Bread is not unhealthy, it simply just does contain any nutrients, but our bodies don’t know the difference. The body digests and breaks down all food the same.

I have a new ‘diet’ called the Variety Diet. Eat whatever sounds good to you. Maybe you’re hungry, or maybe you just need a boost or a break. People get scared when there are boundaries because they anticipate that they won’t be able to control themselves and eat everything that truly looks good. I say trust your body because it will tell you what you’re craving and when it’s had enough.