Who's with me for a Resisting Dieting Thread

[GeekLove]

Inspired by the Diet thread I wonder if anyone would be up for joining me on an audacious plan to declare Death to Diets!
It is well known that the food pyramid we were shown since 70s is almost upside down with carbs at the bottom and meat/fat at the top. This has encouraged the diet industry to encourage us amongst other thing to eat a diet rich in sugar and refined carbohydrates. Not only is this inadequate but it is addictive and thus the cycle begins.
If we paid more attention to food and see ourselves as animals we can see that no other animal eats a diet like ours. Until very recently sweet items were either windfalls (bee nest) or where seasonal and in some cases not at all. Carbs o ly came into our diet significantly until agriculture. Compared to the amount of time humans have been on this planet it is not long.
So I and any who wish to join me attempt to do the following:

1. Wean ourselves of sugar and educate our tastebuds. This does not mean. O sugar EVER but does mean that we have less of the cravings and can better detect hidden sugar and make judgment calls on dessert or not.
2. End Guilt. You are a human being and have a stomach -you eat. If you want desert fine, just pay attention to your body. Don't eat too fast and make sure you eat because you need to not because you want to out of boredom or habit.
3. Cut the carbs. Cut not eliminate this is not a fad diet as you do need them just not as much as the diet industry says. To all intents and purposes beige and white carbs are pure sugar. One can get sufficient carbs from fruit and veg.
4. If you do want to lose weight don't make that the sole goal. Focus on being stronger and fitter and better able to appreciate your body and the amazing things it can do.

So who's with me? Diet is Die with a T!

I like this idea and at risk of being unsupportive was wondering, is that not yet another set of dietary rules - particularly 'cut carbs'?

Yeah, this sounds like a low-carb diet thread...?

I was all on board for a resist the diet thread until I realised it was actually a diet thread!

I'm in the ideal BMI range for my height and have curves an wobbles that are in part due to being pregnant 4 times. I would like to accept that this is ok. I am no longer 21 and I shouldn't be expected to look as though I am.

Think I'm trying to say, I would love to be part of a thread that involved supporting one another to stop placing pointless constraints on what we eat and start celebrating that we are strong, fit and wobbly look like we have given birth in the past!

oops killed this one!

Fine, have a feminist (?) diet thread, will try to accept the fact that as a woman I am condemned to restrict my eating to attain acceptance

It's kind of sad when the admirable idea of resisting dieting ends up being just another diet :(

I don't intend for this to be a diet thread more a reaction to the pressure to eat 'slimming' food which are often full of sugar and fillers and that anything fatty is inherently EVIL.
This is a reaction against food fads encouraging cyclical dieting and a general boycott of magazines and media which promote diet fads and "lose 5lb in a week" nonsense.

I think the boycott of diet foods and fads (including low carb fad!) and magazines would be lovely. You can eat refined carbs like pasta and be happy and healthy, they're not the enemy.

But why?

Why make judgement calls on dessert?

I don't understand why the not a diet-diet is in Women's rights?

I don't debate that eating food that concentrates on the whole and unprocessed is better for your health/weight. But I really don't believe that this is anything to do with women's rights or men's rights.

I think this is positive because the whole of diet industry is based on women eating low fat but high carb high sugar food. It makes women on particular unhealthy and bloody hungry all the time.
Low carb is good because it make you feel much less hungry, this helps you feel less obsessed with food. The diet industry makes people mentally and physically unwell. We need fat, we need protein!
If you just get on with eating good food and don't obsess over calories and hunger (which low carb sorts) then you can have a much more positive attitude to food. It's not about losing weight.

Cutting carbs and sugar still seems like a diet to me. Isn't there a part of the diet industry that's about low carbs and sugar-free products too?

Also I'm not sure about the logic of seeing ourselves as an animals - every animal has a different diet, from grass to worms. Animals don't eat cooked food.

This may be a better diet than others, but I'm not sure it counts as resisting dieting.

This sounds like a healthy eating "diet" (using the word diet as the type of food we eat).

Low sugars, complex carbs, not too much protein, not too much fat, fruit and veg to get your micronutrients in and eat till you are full.

It's not a resist dieting thread.

Occasionally I get worked up about the fact that I have put on half a stone since turning 30 and contemplate low-carbing (which does sound perfectly sensible as diets go).

Then I remember that my BMI is perfectly fine and I would rather spend my time gardening, thinking about politics and perfecting my cake recipes.

Maybe we should have a feminist cake thread?

I do actually like the time spent waging war on my body fat though and the feeling of increasing strength that comes from doing heavy weights, and being able to run further and further so it's not all bad. Would like to be a bit more normal though.

RIOTS NOT DIETS!

YAY to blackcurrants!

Resisting diets is surely about resisting media messages about what women are supposed to look like, resisting the comments of people we know and resisting the talk at work amongst women who obsess about dieting!

Not about doing some kind of sub-atkins thing instead

That feeling strong, confident and happy are the goals, rather than looking a certain way.
And that if you are overweight - then losing weight for health reasons is admirable - and the way to do it if you want to is eat less exercise more. (easier said than done ahem).

I have never been "on a diet" in my life OP and I am not about to do yours either

Sue me.

Noooooooo!

This is some evo-psych (in the past, which we will romantise, despite it being utterly shit for women) bollocks diet dressed up as some kind of female liberation.

"My body, my business" does not just refer to my uterus, but to my entire body and that includes what I put in my mouth.

Feel a bit sorry for Geek but I have to agree with the others - you're touting a diet. Having said that, I can see you're proposing a political lifestyle choice, resisting the agro-food conglomorotes pushing of sugars/fats and horrible binge-diet cycles. Just what you're saying sounds a bit regimented.

I'm with OTT , instead of following rules we should be encouraging each other and our kids to celebrate real bodies, especially those that are a bit softer coz they've done something as amazing as nurturing life.

I agree that diet-food is shite. I certainly feel that when I eat plenty of protein and vegetables, I am more alert and happy than when I eat masses of crisps and not enough meat.

but frankly, what you do with your body and how your body looks is none of my fucking business. I have no "women do this with your body!" or "Women don't do that with your body!" tolerance left in my heart, mind or soul.

Fuck your fascist beauty standards, world. Fuck your shitty non-foods and your agri-businesses that are ruining the planet.

but also: fuck your guilt tripping and hectoring about what, when, or how I eat. Fuck your 'advice' and 'concern' for my health.

This is my body. It does good things for me. I live in it. And it's mine, not yours. So what you think about it is no fucking bother to me.

[this post brought to you by Currants can't be fucking bothered with any more diet talk, ever, ever, ever]

Would like to say more, but you've said it all for me.

Another round of cheers for blackcurrants.

I do like the idea of resisting dieting, but I think it would have to be about things like enjoying food for its social and emotional benefits, or finding ways to change our perception of body shapes.

If someone is eating something unhealthy - like too much salt, say - that should be a very specific, niche, individual issue. It should not be a 'diet' issue and the far, far bigger problem is not how individuals eat, it's how women as a group are guilt-tripped to feel about eating.