A Word About Moderation
Moderation is defined as the avoidance of excess or extremes. In diet culture, moderation can be described as eating only the amount of food that your body requires to be healthy. But what is healthy? Is my ‘healthy’ the same as your ‘healthy’? ‘Healthy’ does not consider a person’s underlying health condition or an invisible illness. Moderation can also look like limiting portion sizes which can be very much like policing; something we are trying to unlearn through Intuitive Eating. We will be going into what moderation can look like from diet culture and why; Moderation Is Not Always Key.
Moderation and Diet Culture:
As stated above, moderation is part of diet culture, but it is disguised under the veil of health. Health and especially the phrase “being healthy” have been used by marginalized folks for decades. In a future post, we will discuss the BMI scale and the troubling history behind its creation. Because moderation mentions decreasing the portion sizes of foods eaten during meals, this can cause a detachment from one’s inner hunger cues and signs of fullness. When we limit the amount of food we eat, our body can go through a famine state if the restrictions are extreme enough. Moderation attempts to label specific foods as healthy or unhealthy and how often you should eat them. This all goes back to what we learned about the food police and our active battle with them about what we want to eat. Thinking about moderation when we eat could turn intuitive eating into a diet, which we are trying to avoid on this journey.
How to Approach Moderation:
It can be easy to turn Intuitive Eating into a diet. Conversely, Intuitive Eating can be seen as a practice that only involves eating endless large amounts of whatever food. Being conscious of our fullness and hunger cues, and desires is key. And, we should not be spending all of our time focused on what we eat and the ingredients involved. Moderation has been twisted into a way for other people to tell you how much you should eat and what you should not eat, IE, the food police. There will be times when you use food to cope with your emotions. This is allowed and this is ok. With an Intuitive Eating approach, we can expand the toolbox, and you still might choose food from time to time. It is all permissible, it all part of the learning.
Moderation is not a bad thing in every context, however, it has been misused in diet culture. If it were not for the diet mentality we are working to deconstruct, it may help us decide how much we want to eat based on how full we feel. We are intending to avoid using moderation as a metric that can be used against us or marginalize us. Starting or continuing your journey of Intuitive Eating will help you learn how to move away from these ways of thinking and improve your relationship with food! If you have questions about Intuitive Eating, please message Robin Harris through email at robin@bodypositiveacupuncture.com to schedule a workshop.