Glossary

Food Freedom

A way of eating that is free from: counting, measuring, weighing, tracking, second-guessing, overthinking, justifying, explaining, worrying, obsessing, hiding, sneaking, restricting, and/or compensating.

Food Freedom is a complex term that can also include: ditching diet culture and the pursuit of intentional weight loss, challenging the societal norms of dieting, food restriction, and the thin ideal, as well as eating disorder prevention and recovery.

Related to the Intuitive Eating concept Unconditional Permission to Eat.

Diet Culture

A system of beliefs that:

Worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue, which means you can spend your whole life thinking you’re irreparably broken just because you don’t look like the impossibly thin “ideal.”
Promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status, which means you feel compelled to spend a massive amount of time, energy, and money trying to shrink your body, even though the research is very clear that almost no one can sustain intentional weight loss for more than a few years.
Demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others, which means you’re forced to be hyper-vigilant about your eating, ashamed of making certain food choices, and distracted from your pleasure, your purpose, and your power.
Oppresses people who don’t match up with its supposed picture of “health”, which disproportionately harms women, femmes, trans folks, people in larger bodies, people of color, and people with disabilities, damaging both their mental and physical health.

- Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CDN

Normal Eating

What is Normal Eating?

Normal Eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It's being able to choose the food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it - not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad, or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is three meals a day, or four, or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It's leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some more again tomorrow, or it's eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention but keeps its place as only one important area of your life. In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food, and your feelings.

- Ellyn Satter

Body Image

Body image includes both how you feel about your appearance and what you see when you look in the mirror. Often this mental image can be quite different than reality. Body image is more about how you feel than how you actually look. When you feel poorly about your appearance, you are more vulnerable to other mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression. A negative or poor body image is a small voice in your head telling you that your body is “wrong," and that your body should look a different way, or that your body “feels” faulty. These messages and feelings are irrational beliefs that your mind and our society’s diet culture may dictate to you. We are all genetically programmed to have bodies that are different shapes and sizes (this is known as body diversity or size diversity) – it can take time to accept and feel at home in your body’s natural size and shape. It takes work, but peace can be achieved and bad body image will eventually go away.

- Jen Petro-Roy from ANAD.org

Self-esteem

Self-esteem is one's beliefs of one's characteristics, attributes, and abilities. Self-esteem is often influenced by external factors, such as what others think or one's ability to achieve. Excelling in certain areas, fitting a particular certain standard of beauty, and/or being praised by others, can raise one's self-esteem.

The terms self-esteem and self-worth are often interchanged; however, they are different, as self-worth is an internal feeling that one is worthy of love and respect despite one's accomplishments, outward appearance, and/or what others think. Self-worth is recognizing that one is valuable despite what one believes about their own traits and attributes.

Self-worth

"Self-worth is the internal sense of being good enough and worthy of love and belonging from others. Self-worth is often confused with self-esteem, which relies on external factors such as successes and achievements to define worth and can often be inconsistent leading to someone struggling with feeling worthy. Low self-worth is having a generally negative overall opinion of oneself, judging, or evaluating oneself critically, and placing a general negative value on oneself as a person."

- University of North Carolina Counseling

Body Diversity

Body diversity is embracing and celebrating all body types, shapes, and weights, including bodies of all races and abilities. Body diversity means there is not one body type that is considered correct, "healthy," or perfect, in which to compare all other bodies. We acknowledge that humans have different skin colors, heights, hair texture, eye colors, etc. As much as all of these are a beautiful part of human diversity, the weight, size, and shape of bodies are also part of diversity of our species that should be accepted and celebrated. Related to Size Diversity/Weight Diversity

Body Shaming

The action or practice of expressing an aversion to an individual’s body shape or size; a form of bullying that can result in severe emotional trauma, especially at a young age. Body shaming can be done by parents, siblings, friends, enemies, peers, strangers, and even medical practitioners.

Negatively commenting about the size or shape of anyone’s body can be extremely damaging to them, potentially leading to low self-esteem, self-harm, and even mental health disorders, specifically body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders. It often leads to comparison and shame and perpetuates the idea that people should be judged for their physical features. Sadly, body shaming occurs among both men and women of all different shapes and body sizes. Body shaming includes both criticisms of being “too fat” or “too skinny”, often picking on flaws that are completely irrelevant.

Fatphobia

A societal or cultural phenomenon that discriminates, oppresses, judges, or makes assumptions about a person's health, habits, or lifestyle based on the size, shape, weight, or appearance of their body. This belief equates “fatness” to laziness or lack of self-control and views an individual’s weight as a “personal choice”. This form of discrimination exists in the workplace, healthcare settings (known specifically as Medical Fatphobia), education, personal relationships, the media, clothing stores, and elsewhere. This pervasive belief views people in larger bodies as “lazy”, “ugly,” or somehow less of a person. Fatphobia can be directed toward one’s own self as a fear of weight gain or becoming “fat” or can be directed toward someone else as judgment, insult, or bullying. Fatphobia is directly involved in the increase of disordered eating thoughts and behaviors and the rise in a number of eating disorders. Related to Fatphobic/Anti-fat Bias.

Medical Fatphobia

A type of fat shaming/body shaming that specifically occurs in a medical setting, where healthcare practitioners aim these weight biases toward their patients in larger bodies. This form of weight stigma is often learned in medical school (or before) and can cause healthcare providers to attribute a vast majority of pain, injuries, symptoms, diagnoses, sickness, and disease/risk of disease to a patient’s weight. Sadly, medical providers forget that their patients living in smaller bodies often suffer from the same exact challenges and complaints as their patients living in larger bodies. However, providers will offer multiple evidence-based treatment options to their patients in smaller bodies and will repeatedly offer only one option to their patients in larger bodies – lose weight. Even though nearly ALL the research shows that prescribing intentional weight loss: 1) is the biggest predictor of weight GAIN, and 2) is not a form of practicing Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). Medical fatphobia causes harm and creates challenges to the provider-patient relationship and is attributed to a lower quality of care. In certain circles, Medical Fatphobia is known as ‘the last acceptable bias.

(also known as Weight Bias in Healthcare)

Thin Privilege

by virtue of being, or living in a body below a certain size, a person has greater access to resources and faces less discrimination in society versus a person whose body is above a certain size. People in larger bodies face consistent, systemic oppression – not just body shaming from a few individuals but a culture that makes it difficult or impossible to find clothes & spaces that fit, healthcare that’s effective & non-discriminatory, equal access to employment, and all other basic human rights that we all deserve.

The term “thin privilege” is meant to highlight this systemic disparity, and to call out the fact that dignity, respect and equitable treatment shouldn’t be privileges reserved for smaller-bodied people at ALL – they should be a universal right afforded to everyone, no matter their size.

Having thin privilege doesn’t mean that you’ve never had any body image issues, or that you’ve never struggled with disordered eating, or that you’ve never been bullied or shamed by an individual for your size. You can have thin privilege and also hate your body. Having thin privilege doesn’t even mean that you feel thin – the vast majority of people in diet culture NEVER feel thin, even those with thin privilege.

-Christy Harrison, Food Psych Podcast

Person in a Larger Body

"A phrase that people in the anti-diet movement use as a value-neutral way of saying someone's body is larger than the so-called "normal range" on the BMI chart and that there's nothing morally or medically wrong with their body size. We use the term person in a larger body to avoid using the words "overweight" and "obese" due to their troubling history born out of oppressive beliefs about body size that stigmatize higher weight people and treat body size like a disease. This weight stigma is actually likely to be more harmful to people's health than their weight itself. In fact, weight itself is not "bad for health" the way we've been told in diet culture ... Instead of using stigmatizing "O words," I typically use the phrase "larger bodies," "higher weight," or "people who wear plus size" to emphasize the fact that body size is a neutral trait."

- Christy Harrison

Weight Cycling

The repeated loss and regain of body weight. Weight cycling is often referred to as “yo-yo” dieting. A weight cycle can range from small weight losses and gains (5-10 lbs. per cycle) to larger changes in weight (50 lbs. or more per cycle). Research links greater health risks to weight cycling versus an individual’s weight alone. Losing and regaining weight may have negative psychological effects as well.

Orthorexia

Orthorexia Nervosa is a type of eating disorder characterized by an extreme focus on “healthy” eating. When healthy eating becomes an obsession, the individual may start to cut out more and more foods, ingredients, and/or food groups from their diet. They may, for example, stop eating gluten (without a diagnosis of an allergy or celiac disease), any processed food, seafood or fish, all sugars, oils, and so on. People with Orthorexia Nervosa usually start with a few foods they won’t eat and then progress to more and more. With Orthorexia Nervosa, the desire for healthy eating begins to affect a person’s physical and psychosocial health. Even though the root cause is not a desire to lose weight, in advanced cases extreme weight loss can occur, similar to the weight loss seen in anorexia nervosa. In addition to the health risks associated with malnutrition and weight loss, the individual also faces psychological trauma and social difficulties.

Behavioral signs that a person might be struggling with Orthorexia Nervosa:

Constantly checking ingredient labels and nutritional information
Spending inordinate amounts of time on “health food” or nutritional sites, or similar social media sites (i.e. Instagram “healthy eating” groups
An increase in concern about the health of ingredients
Increasing inability to eat certain kinds of foods and an increasing amount of “fear foods”
Cutting out an increasing number of food groups
Avoiding eating with others if they do not control the menu
Showing high levels of distress when “safe” or “healthy” foods aren’t available
Frequent “cleanses” where the person fasts or eats a specific diet intended to rid the system of “toxins”

(National Alliance for Eating Disorders, 2022)

Fear Foods

A term used to identify a food that is avoided due to fear, anxiety, shame, or guilt. A food can become fear food for several different reasons, including: fear of weight gain, calories, carbs, amount of fat or points it contains, nutrition facts, ingredients, preservatives, or because it's "fattening", all of which are due to diet culture.

You will know a Fear Food if:

• You cannot be around the food or keep it in your house because you fear you will "lose control" around it.

• You create rules about how much, when, or how often you're allowed to have the particular food.

• Stress/anxiety builds when you think about the food becoming available (example, going out to eat).

• You may begin avoiding social situations where a food that causes anxiety might be available.

• You experience guilt, shame, or feel the need to, "fix", "undo", burn off, change how you will eat in the future, or rid your body of the food after you eat it.

Challenging and overcoming fear foods is an integral part to developing a healthy relationship with food, eating, and one's body; this includes viewing all foods as neutral, not "good" or "bad", "safe" or "unsafe".

Generational Dieting

Almond Mom

An "almond mom" is a mother (or other caregivers) who projects disordered thoughts/behaviors about food, exercise, and/or bodies onto their child(ren) in an effort to force the child(ren) to adhere to society's beauty standards and thin ideal. The "almond mom" often believes that she is pushing these beliefs for the good of her child(ren). The "almond mom" is often struggling with her own disordered thoughts and behaviors around food and eating and body image issues. An "almond mom" may not necessarily expect her child(ren) to believe and participate in the disordered thoughts and behaviors, but rather, she practices these behaviors in front of her children in an effort to manipulate her own body. Children soak in everything around them, and often they adopt these thoughts and behaviors about food and bodies as their own. Many of these children grow to struggle in the same way as their parent.

(related to Generational Dieting)

"Thin Ideal"

The societal idea that being thin is superior. Our western culture equates thinness to attractiveness, good health, level of fitness, and even good morals. It is important to note that in most cases, the "thin ideal" is impossible for most people to achieve due to genetics and many other contributing factors, without disordered behaviors, including eating disorders, overexercise, and even death. Due to our society's deep rooted diet culture, even those living in smaller bodies rarely feel like they are thin enough.

Weight Bias

Intentional Weight Loss

Engaging in behaviors, such as food restriction and intense exercise, in an effort to reduce one's weight and/or body size. Research shows that intentional weight loss fails 95-98% of the time, and for the vast majority of people, it contributes to long-term weight GAIN. Intentional weight loss is most likely to result in weight cycling which is independently correlated to negative outcomes to one's mental and physical health. Improved overall health can be achieved without restrictive behaviors and/or weight loss.

"Intentional Weight Loss" is the term that is typically used by the scientific community and in published research articles, as opposed to using the words "diet"/"dieting".

Diet Rock Bottom

Diet Rock Bottom is the intersection of three areas: 1) you know you cannot go on another diet ever again, 2) you still wish your body was different, and 3) you are grieving the time, money, energy and happiness you have wasted to diet culture and failed attempts at weight loss.

Feeling regret, sadness, and anger over the years lost to the pursuit of weight loss is really common. Hitting diet rock bottom is often a necessary breaking-point people reach right before they are ready to explore Intuitive Eating and do the work to improve their relationship with food and their body.

Self Objectification

A psychological process that occurs when people learn to view their own bodies from an outside perspective. It is common for someone who's struggling with self-objectification to view themselves as an object first & a human being second. As a result, the person typically 1) views themself as different body parts in need of fixing (i.e. a stomach, thighs, arms) vs. a whole person & 2) is hypercritical about their body and the parts of their body.

Self-objectification can create issues for a person’s mental and emotional well-being. Some examples include constantly being obsessed with what others think of them even when they are not around, engaging in unhealthy/disordered body checking behaviors, and worrying so much about what their appearance that it negatively disrupts their daily life.

Self-objectification can be a contributing factor to poor body image, body dysmorphic disorder/body dysmorphia, & the development of disordered eating/eating disorders.