What is an Anti-Diet Dietitian?
I’m a registered dietitian. Most people I talk to have a lot to say about that! As soon as they ask what I do for a living, I know to brace for whatever they say next.
Usually it’s something like:
“Oh, so you’re the food police!”
“Don’t look at my plate… I’m being bad today.”
“Can you help me lose weight?”
“And you’re still eating that?”
“Don’t judge me!”
So I’ve updated my introduction.
“Hi, I’m Kris, and I’m an anti-diet dietitian.”
An anti-diet dietitian? But Kris, isn’t that an oxymoron?
Well, yes and no. Stick with me.
It all depends on what you mean by “diet.”
Let’s play a quick word association game: off the top of your head, what are the first few words or phrases that come to mind when you hear the word “diet”?
To most people I ask, diet means:
Losing weight
Being hungry
Restricting food intake
Eating “good foods” instead of “bad foods”
Getting “in shape”
Being stressed about what to eat
Not eating “X”
Needing to have better willpower
Fat shaming or being pressured into a diet
Body image or wanting to be “X” size or wear “X” clothes
Needing to lose weight to be healthy
Fads or trends like intermittent fasting, low-carb, keto, detoxing, etc.
So yes, I am very much “anti” that understanding of diet.
But, let’s dig a little deeper.
The definition of diet, according to Britannica Dictionary, is:
the food that a person or animal usually eats
the kind and amount of food that a person eats for a certain reason (such as to improve health or to lose weight)
So really, “diet” can be a very neutral term– it’s just whatever you eat!
But, like we established earlier, the word “diet” is usually loaded with a ton of negative feelings. Most of the time, when we say “diet” what we really mean is some form of restrictive eating with the attempt to control body size.
I wish I could say that people simply misunderstand the field of dietetics, but unfortunately many dietitians perpetuate anti-fatness, healthism, etc as part of the larger diet industry.
In order to become a registered dietitian, a clinician goes through extensive training on diet, nutrition, and health. Unfortunately, dietitians receive little to no training on important topics like eating disorders, food insecurity, Health at Every Size (HAES®), Intuitive Eating (IE®), the failure rate of weight-loss diets and the damage that those diets cause long-term, and so much more. This involves a lot of additional learning (and even more unlearning!) That’s why the distinction between a dietitian and an anti-diet dietitian is so important.
So what is an anti-diet dietitian?
Someone who WILL:
Ask your individual goals surrounding food and health
Recommend a weight-neutral approach, focusing on behavior changes
Take into account mental AND physical health (and recognize that this is a false divide anyway!)
Recommend the most minimally restrictive dietary changes if medically necessary
Acknowledge systems of societal oppression
Build intake forms and physical spaces to be accessible with a diversity of body sizes, genders, sexualities, abilities, etc. in mind
And someone who WILL NOT:
Impose their ideas of what your goals surrounding food and health should be
Recommend weight loss
Focus on so-called physical health to the exclusion of mental health
Recommend excluding food groups for reasons other than strictly medically necessary
Ignore systems of societal oppression
View accessibility as an afterthought
When looking for a dietitian, even if they claim to be anti-diet, ask as many follow up questions as you need to feel comfortable. Sometimes you may need to try a few different dietitians in order to find someone who aligns with your values and understands your lived experience. An anti-diet dietitian is a good place to start!