Alex Rodriguez: Dietitian - APD

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Which one resonates with you most as something you have changed your perspective on over time?

Diet culture and toxic hustle culture around exercise is getting old. We’re working hard to build spaces for nutrition and movement which are more inclusive, safe, sustainable and enjoyable. ❤️‍🔥

Our food supply is highly regulated and it’s not poisonous or full of toxins, unless it’s miles past the use by date x

Please listen to me/us dietitians and not overconfident topless people on tik tok x

A food’s ‘healthiness’ is not determined by how restricted of nutrients it is.

It is determined by how much it meets someone’s physiological, psychological, social, and financial needs.

Food labels are used by companies to market their products and grab your attention in the grocery aisle.

They’re not redundant, however we encourage you to interpret them with a grain of salt, and to try not relying on them to make a majority of your food decisions 🤞

A key part of a healthy relationship with food is recognising all foods fit.

It’s removing black/white labelling from food, recognising that all foods serve a purpose.

It’s recognising that ‘healthy/unhealthy’ labels are given to foods by society (often without proper grounding), rather than being from a legitimate property of the food itself.

Less processed carbohydrate sources offer more protein, fibre, and micronutrients. These are probably going to give us energy over a longer period of time, and keep us fuller for longer. They are also less helpful immediately before high intensity exercise, and may not be applicable/suitable for certain cultural or much loved traditional dishes.

Refined carbohydrate sources may be lower in protein, fibre and micronutrients, but they still give us energy. They are often much more appropriate before exercise, contribute to delicious & enjoyable food experiences, and may be much more accessible for people with stronger sensory preferences.

There’s just too many fun food experiences and incredible things your body and mind are capable of, to not be eating them 🥨 🍚 🍌 🥖 🥔 🍎 🍝 🍣

Read it a few times 🫶

When living with disordered eating, we can convince ourselves we ‘don’t like’ something, to avoid having to eat it.

This may come from a place of guilt, anxiety, or both, towards eating the food which we have a negative association with.

We may fear impacts this food will have on our body composition, guilty about ourselves as a person for ‘allowing’ ourselves to eat foods we have rules against, both, or more. It may make things even more difficult if we have been shamed for our bodies, and/or eating these certain foods in the past.

Part of overcoming disordered eating is compassionately reflecting on what are genuine food dislikes, from things which we actually do enjoy, but feel guilty or afraid to eat them. ❤️

There is always more than what appears on the surface with someone.

We don’t wake up one day, let alone be born into this world, deciding that we dislike our bodies or that we have moral responsibility to look a certain way or eat in a rigid manner.

The diet-centric and body ideal centric world we grow up in, and continue to live in, pervasively teaches us this over a long period of time.

Part of recovering from disordered eating and diet culture is slowly learning that holding a certain body composition or following a particular rigid diet holds no inherent moral value, and that our worth is dependent on so much more.

Food is meant to bring joy, and our worth is dependent on so much more 🖤

One of the (many) reasons someone with disordered eating can’t just “snap out of it”, is because their behaviours are serving a purpose.

Rules about the type, amount and timing of food, excessive exercise and body checking to name some examples, are helping people to cope with their past and/or present living distress.

They can come to be a significant way in which someone evaluates themselves by how they eat, exercise and look like, limiting most other parts of themselves and lives.

One of the many reasons someone is afraid to move past them, is due to overwhelming fear of losing what may be bringing them a strong sense of comfort they may not have from much else currently.

If you are living with eating and exercise concerns, it is valid if you believe you don’t wish to change how you are living. However, ask yourself, how would you feel if the way you were eating and living now, would be the same for the remainder of your life?

Some reminders for you this world eating disorders action day. 🤝 🌎

Many of these have helped me on my own recovery journey from my eating disorder, through managing negative body image and self critical days, and even more specially, nowadays when interacting with clients in eating disorder recovery now.

It’s normal to have some care for what our physical appearance looks like. However, we deserve more, and offer the world so much more than that. Our worth, value and qualities we bring to the world and others who matter, extend far beyond our physical appearance. 💙

It’s normal for humans to compare ourselves to others.

It assists us in navigating the world and ourselves.

However, when we’re speaking about bodies, the western world in particular idolises certain bodies, and is cruel/dismissive towards bodies which don’t meet these ideals.

From a young age we are unfortunately taught what we ‘should’ look like, in order for ‘health/success/happiness’, and how we ‘shouldn’t’ look. This happens at the swiping of our fingers nowadays even more promptly on social media.

What if we lived in a world where a wide range of bodies, of varying sizes, shapes, colours, heights and more could all be accepted as being valid, and even better, appreciated for the beauty in their diversity?

Every body has the right to live within a body, and live a life which enables them to practice self acceptance, appreciation and respect. Not only for how we look, but for being human. 💙

Have you ever heard someone living with food and body concerns be described as ‘vain’ or ‘superficial’? 😔

This displays a potential lack of understanding and empathy for the person living with these concerns.

Someone living with negative body image and eating concerns often finds it difficult to see their worth beyond physical appearance alone. This may drive the person towards obsessing over, and living their life in a way which revolves around maintaining a certain appearance.

They may have been taught (indirectly or directly, over a long time sometimes), that to be safe, accepted, seen, that they needed to maintain a certain appearance. This may be connected to traumatic experiences for some people.

I have lived with, and still live with concerns of the like, where I find it challenging to see my worth beyond my body composition alone. It is incredibly hard and not something I am happy about.

We need space, compassion, empathy, and for people to help us see our value and worth in areas beyond our physical appearance. ❤️

There’s lots of ways to check in on someone, and many reasons why it may be worth reaching out to someone to touch base.

They may just be busy/under the pump, or they may genuinely be needing support and unsure who or how to ask.

Here are (some) ways to get started with checking in on somebody 💙

Happy 🐫 day

🌮 “Food Freedom is just an excuse to let go and eat whatever you want” 🍔

A common anxiety people have, and criticism of the non diet space, is that it completely disregards nutrition quality and baseline nutrition principles for someone to follow a balanced diet which is nutritious.

I understand this worry, I have felt it myself, and want to validate the path of thinking in a black and white manner when our brain is very anxious and perhaps not receiving enough nutrition.

However, this is not what food freedom and the non diet space is about. We WANT people to incorporate foods from all food groups (including fruit/veggies, whole grains, legumes, proteins yada yada yada), AND be able to enjoy foods commonly labelled as ‘unecessary’ or ‘unhealthy’ as well, label and guilt free.

As nutrition professionals, we understand the depths of human nutrition requirements, and get zero benefit from deliberately encouraging people not to meet these requirements.

However, it’s important to note that we have been raised in a society which normalises dieting, restriction, unecessary extremeties to follow with our eating, eating being tied with body ideals, nutrition misinformation, and more.

Food freedom is about viewing all food NEUTRALLY, feeling safe and morally fine eating all foods without mental repercussions, and using this as a safe base to be able to nourish our bodies and our lives in ways they want, and need to.

Been a minute- we’re savage this evening (only a little bit)

Whilst you’re with me- there are many amazing influencers online who genuinely want to support everybody, non judgementally and respectfully.

These memes are coming for those spreading misinformation and contributing to disordered eating and body image concerns. 💙

Dietitians Week is coming to a close, and I thought I would share some (of many) ways in which a dietitian can help you with disordered eating concerns. 💚

My dietitian was instrumental in my recovery journey- helping me re learn to find trust in nourishing my body how it wants, needs and deserves.

These are just some of many ways in which a dietitian can help you on your journey- keeping in mind everyone’s needs and experiences are different. 🫶

Being an eating disorder recovery and mental health advocate, and non-diet dietitian, I feel like a hypocrite at times for how much I have become invested in running once again over the past year. People who are aware of my past have questioned me and motives behind it. I question the safety for my audience, who may be following me in positions where exercise is unsafe, not permitted, or inaccessible for them.

12 years ago, at the depths of my eating disorder, motives for running were primarily unhealthy and dangerous. I was underfuelling drastically, not to mention pursuing a relentless, unrealistic athletic identity was the only concept of self worth I had. I also held a primary motive of trying to control what my body looked like by excessively exercising.

Despite this, exercising was one of the only ways I knew how to cope. What was keeping me afloat, was also slowly taking my life.

Through recovery, I actually hardly ran at all. This was a good thing- in recovery, we need to spend significant amounts of time reflecting on the WHY behind our thoughts, experiences, and behaviours. We NEED to take a break from, and/or modify exercise, in order to learn who we are, and how we want to live, beyond our eating disorder.

10+ years later, I (unexpectedly) have rediscovered a love for running. It’s different this time though.

🌅 I now know, just how much fuel my body requires to perform. It feels incredibly different moving freely in a well fuelled body, compared to restrictive states the eating disorder created.

🌅running is a point of connection to wonderful communities of like minded people, in a once new city to me I felt very lonely in after moving to.

🌅moving my body freely, outdoors, helps to soothe and regulate my anxiety and mood. This is also connected to my neurodivergence.

🌅running is only one part of my life, one way in which I cope, and one thing I enjoy and look forward to in my days. It is no longer my sole identity, nor something I need to ‘perfect’ to feel worthwhile.

Your relationship with food and exercise CAN change, and the journey + hard work of recovery IS worth it. 💙

When people meet me for the first time, they often talk about how ‘confident’ I am, and are very shocked to find out about high amounts of social anxiety I experience.

Additionally, masked neurodivergent traits, and very low depressive moods are a surprise too.

I’m only speaking anecdotally, however at a societal level, those living with mental illness and/or who are neurodivergent don’t necessarily “look” like what is expected of them.

1) Mental Ill health, or neurodivergence, are not ‘looks’

2) stereotypes and assumptions are held and made towards mental ill health across society, however this does not make them correct. In fact, it makes (it) ever more important to critically reflect on and challenge these.

3) As mainly covered in this post- those who are living with mental ill health, and/or who are neurodivergent, may have grown up in environments where they have felt compelled to mask, or suppress their experiences. Just because you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they are not experiencing them.

For better support of mental health, we need to look and judge less, and ask, listen and reflect more. ❤️

Disclaimer: I have not used mental ill health and neurodivergence interchangeably. I have discussed them alongside each other due to them both often being heavily masked by those experiencing them.

Insta versus reality

to celebrate another lap around the ☀️ 26

Sushi is probably up there as one of my favourite foods. I love the sensory elements, as well as being fascinated with the skill, precision and creativity it requires to make it well. 🍣 🥢

There were many times deep in history where a social eating outing would have been paired with relentless anxiety, pre planning, restriction, uncontrollable binge eating, and so much more.

I am so grateful to enjoy social eating experiences for not only the delicious variety in food we don’t normally get to eat at home, however the social connection, nostalgic and pleasure based experiences it has to offer. 💙

Something worthwhile trying if your social media feed is getting in the way of addressing your food, exercise or body concerns 🤞

Social media is here to stay- we have the opportunity to make changes in line with taking care of ourselves, where diversifying what we see in our feeds is one of them 📱

For many of us, we’re privileged to be excited for, and thoroughly enjoy eating around others in social settings.

For others, it can be a really distressing experience, for a whole host of different reasons. The couple of examples in this post are non exhaustive, but a couple which tend to (anecdotally) come up the most often.

It is perfectly valid if you are curious about why this may be the case for you (preferring to eat alone), just as it is valid if you prefer to stick to this setting for eating more often than not.

It’s also valid if you wish to overcome some of these fears, due to feeling as if you long for more social eating experiences.

Just like with anything, aim to be as curious (rather than judgemental) towards yourself and/or others as possible 🫶

Last time I did one of these it seemed to be helpful for people, so I thought I would do these examples a little more often.

Nutrition is nuanced, not black and white, and requires a different approach for different people and situations.

Full fat, regular, &/or sugar sweetened yoghurt is not inherently unhealthy. For some people, it may be the ‘healthiest’ or most appropriate/helpful product for them. Some people may just prefer it to other alternative yoghurts. That’s okay too.

Reduced fat, non-sugar sweetened, higher protein yoghurts are not inherently disordered or fuelled by diet culture. For some people’s requirements, they may be useful or more helpful, but for some they may be inappropriate, or inadequate in nutrition for them.

The reason behind why decisions are being made, matters more to this context, than the actual food itself.

I feel like I could have made 10 posts on this.

It’s a topic very close to my heart on a professional level (nearly every single person with an eating disorder I’ve helped, has been impacted in some way by unhelpful content on social media).
It’s also important on a personal level, with the influence social media had on my journey.

It’s such a huge topic and very unlikely to be able to do justice in a single post, conversation, or year even.

This will be an ongoing battle with the evolution of social media.

It’s not about abolishing it altogether, social media is here to stay.

But how we use it, who we follow, how much and how often we use it, and what people are allowed to post (cough cough whatcha doing Insta/Tik Tok), are all needed to reduce more years of lives impacted by, and lives lost to eating disorders and other mental illness.

I saw a lot of people resharing post bringing attention to (hopeful) changes, in what teachers will be allowed to teach in class regarding BMI & “healthy eating”.

There were a lot of comments on this. Some were awesome, positive and inspiring to see a shift in coir culture around food, nutrition, weight, bodies and beyond.

Some were really unsettling, evidence of problematic attitudes still ever present out there.

I’ve broken down some standout comments (helpful and unhelpful comments) to try and communicate some of my thoughts on the issue.

To those who were distressed by what this post brought up for you, or by the comments on this post, helpline (1800 ED HOPE) is available. 🦋

I’m still pretty bad at this.

I think a lot of us, especially those of us with higher levels of sensitivity and compassion for others, can’t stand seeing/hearing others in pain or struggle. It’s pretty natural just wanting to fix/solve something for them straight away.

Whether it’s in my personal life (if I’m on the receiving/giving end of helper/fixer mode), or in my professional life, it’s been a steady learning journey pausing/catching myself in the moment, and instead just trying to be there WITH the person.

Not in the future, or before their problem happened, but being there, in the moment, aligning with how they feel as best as I possibly can, before asking them how to help/support.

They often know what they want/need in the moment, and sometimes it’s just for people to hear, validate, and ‘get’ them.

Many years back now, I posted a photo comparison between when I was in the depths of my eating disorder, compared with a photo of my (then) current body.

This photo has since been deleted a while ago, and I reflect apologetically for posting this.

Even though normalising, and upholding body changes in recovery can be supportive and valuable, photo comparisons just don’t do eating disorde recovery justice.

We can’t simplify a complex physical, psychological, environmental (and more) experience into X vs Y body photos.

Photo comparisons can drive significant comparison (already a rampant experience in eating disorders), and reinforce harmful stereotypes about what people ‘look like’ when they are experiencing an eating disorder.

Let’s uphold proudness, accomplishment and encouragement in recovery, but in safer and more wholistic ways. ❤️

It’s not about the food/drink itself, but the reason behind why the choice is being made.

Choosing sugar free versions of drinks (or anything for that matter) is not Inherently disordered.

However, reasons behind why the choice is being made, how a person responds to having full sugar versions of things, how the person feels about having full sugar versions of things, can tell a lot more of a story.

One question I get asked/hear being asked the most is “I don’t know what to say and what not to say” to my [enter] who is struggling with their food, exercise, and body.

The frustrating, broad sweeping answer is that there is no black/white, right/wrong way to communicate with everybody living with challenging relationships with their eating, exercise, body or more. Everybody is different, and will respond better or worse to certain approaches and styles.

However, generally speaking

✏️ be CURIOUS. Show interest in learning about what the person is living with, without pretending to understand, without dismissing them, and without comparing them to others/yourself. Do some learning in your own time too for your own context- remembering disordered exercise and eating is unfortunately normalised, and sometimes encouraged in our society.

✏️ try to be CALM. This is hard for them, often harder than they show on the surface. Validate their experience and distress as much as possible- do more listening than talking.

✏️be COMPASSIONATE. Again, this is hard for them. Often harder than you can imagine. However, being there to listen, learn, guide and support is offering more gel than you think.

✏️ be CONFIDENT. We want to show the person we are there with them, walking alongside them, but not encouraging or reinforcing their disordered eating or exercise.

Food anxiety can be caused by many different reasons.

People may be anxious about certain allergies or intolerances and managing or avoiding these symptoms, they may experience specific sensory aversions, they may have had negative past experiences in certain eating environments, they may be experiencing body image disturbances, or many more examples.

It’s important to gently, non-judgementally and curiously support people experiencing anxiety around eating. Unless they want to, it’s likely best to save the conversations for away from the eating table, and aim to listen more than direct. 🫶

Some updates for the new year 🫶

I posted on my story a little while ago that I’ve made the daunting, but exciting decision to return to university to pursue Psychology study.

For a long time, mental health has been a primary passion of mine, through both strong interest and values, as well as personal loved experience.

I’m aiming for lots of my content to remain from an eating disorder and non-diet dietitian’s lens.

However, moving forwards I’ll also be increasing my frequency of broader mental health awareness and advocacy posts, which I hope are still important and supportive for you.

Hope your 2024 is off to a great start ❤️