What Does An Anti-Diet Dietitian Do?
Traditionally, the role of a dietitian was to put people on diets. While there are still many dietitians in the health and wellness spaces that still do this, there are many for whom they don't and consider themselves “anti-diet” dietitians.
What does an anti-diet dietitian do?
The anti-diet approach is a weight-neutral approach that focuses on food freedom rather than food rules. Within the anti-diet approach to health and well-being, you’re able to experiment and build a flexible eating pattern to nourish yourself with foods that you enjoy. Anti-diet is a philosophy many practitioners have adopted to help you connect to your internal wisdom instead of looking outside of yourself. This includes relearning how to eat/nourish yourself free from food rules and punitive exercise, and to engage in self-care practices.
While there are common misconceptions that anti-diet promotes poor health or that it is antagonistic towards people who diet, this is not the case. Anti-diet is anti diet culture not anti-people who diet or anti-people who want to lose weight. Anti-diet addresses the larger systems that create inequalities and make you feel that you have to pursue thinness and perfect health.
What to expect when you work with an anti-diet dietitian:
Anti-diet dietitians support you in reclaiming eating food as something that is intuitive and natural without external rules. They help you to reject a dieting mentality and overcome disordered eating behaviors. They reject the idea that there is a “right” way of eating based on external rules from diet culture and instead promote accessing ways of nourishing your body by helping you to reconnect to your body’s wisdom. They offer guidance and evidence-based nutrition education. Through nutrition therapy, dietitians help you sort through the food thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that that impact your relationship to food as a way to support you in feeling ease and peace with food. Anti-diet dietitians believe in body autonomy and the freedom for you to choose what works best for your body and life rather than imposing a “right” way of eating or exercising.
Why would you go to see an anti-diet dietitian?
People often seek the support of an anti-diet dietitian for reasons such as eating disorder recovery, chronic dieting, bingeing, emotional eating, negative body image, and more. Using an Intuitive Eating framework they can help you turn inwards and learn anew how to feed yourself from a place of self-care rather than punishment or discipline.
Anti-diet dietitians provide a calmer space for you to discuss your relationship with food and body. Discussing your experiences with dieting and exercise, desires to lose weight, fears of gaining weight, and feelings/beliefs about your body are all common topic of exploration with a dietitian. These conversations, in addition to homework that a dietitian would provide you in-between sessions, allows you heal from diet culture and disordered eating. In this way, working with an anti-diet dietitian encompasses the intersection of food as well as mental, emotional, and social health.
Anti-diet dietitians prioritize your food behaviors as opposed to the number on the scale. Weight loss is never an end goal. Through normalizing eating patterns and working on a peaceful relationship with food, human bodies will settle at whatever weight they feel most comfortable and safe. Fear of weight gain or body changes is very common, and anti-diet dietitians are there to explore these concerns often by using a HAES framework.
Anti-diet dietitians recognize that you are the expert of your body. You know what struggles you’ve encountered, you know the pace of recovery that suits you, you know what hardships you’ve faced, you know what feels good and what doesn’t, and you know what works for you in your routine. Dietitians help guide you by asking questions and offering support (and advice when given consent), but you are in control. You reflect, set your own goals and take ownership of the process.
Anti-diet dietitians can help you get back to basics when it comes to nutrition. As you progress in healing your relationship with food they partner with you to create personalized goals or strategies to ensure that you’re eating enough, eating consistently throughout the day, and eating a variety of foods that you enjoy. They can work with you to integrate gentle nutrition into managing your health condition(s) if applicable and if you so choose.
Anti-diet dietitians challenge the notion that there is a right weight or body size that you need to be in. They take the focus off of weight as a perimeter for health and instead focus on behaviors if it’s in alignment with their client’s goals. They also believe that health is not a moral imperative and that there are many ways to support their client’s goals and well-being even if “health” and “wellness” is not a priority and/or is not accessible.
The ultimate goal of an anti-diet dietitian is to support you in being nourished and not filled with hatred about your body so that you can show up authentically and live your fullest life. Ultimately anti-diet dietitians want you to have food and your body take up less headspace so that you can be free to do what you want to do more of in this life. You don’t have to suffer anymore from chronically dieting. There is a whole different way to be in relationship with food and to stop dieting for good so that food doesn’t take up so much headspace and so that you can be free to live your life in accordance with your own values.
*Please note that all anti-diet dietitians are highly trained in eating disorder/disordered eating treatment or management of certain health conditions. Everyone has their own scope of practice and areas of specialty. If you are seeking support, keep this in mind in order to find a provider who can best support you on your journey.
Curious about the anti-diet approach and how it could provide food and body image support?
You deserve holistic support that helps you define what a healthy relationship with food looks like to you. You deserve to cultivate positive associations with nutrition that are nourishing and joyful. The compassionate dietitians from our Seattle, WA-based nutrition counseling practice would be honored to partner with you in your journey. To get support today, please contact us.