Adapting a Food Neutrality Approach for Eating Disorder Recovery

Author: Kathryn Lodwick-Jones

Food neutrality is the concept of avoiding labeling foods as “good” or “bad”, but rather approaching them without value or judgement. By approaching food from a neutral perspective, we let go of socially and culturally attributed guilt and allow for a more accepting and sustainable relationship with food and eating. In an age where pressures from social media, influencers, and food industries perpetuate diet talk and dichotomous thinking about food, we must actively work to reframe and challenge these beliefs to reduce patterns of disordered eating. Adapting a food neutrality approach to eating is particularly important in Eating Disorder treatment and recovery where negative food beliefs and behaviors are often prevalent. This approach can support more effective recovery from Eating Disorders including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating.

 

The Psychological Impacts of Food Labeling

When we label food as “healthy” or “unhealthy” this can contribute to feelings of guilt, shame, or anxiety around eating. Although the rise of social media has contributed to increased exposure to  unrealistic body standards, diet culture has existed for  millennia. We can trace the promotion of restrictive or prescriptive eating to the ancient Greeks during the 12th century BC, resulting in centuries worth of negative impacts on mental well being and beliefs about the body. Labeling food as “junk” or “lacking nutritional value” can also contribute to further social isolation, ostracization, and restriction. This may in turn increase one’s desire to control, limit, or categorize food creating a hierarchy.  Food labeling and judgement can contribute to disordered eating patterns, potentially encouraging black and white thinking and other emotional or cognitive patterns that may emerge in Eating Disorders including restriction, bingeing, or purging. Food neutrality encourages autonomy and acceptance of food choices and can support the practice of  mindfulness and neuroplasticity.

 

Health Implications of Food Neutrality

Research indicates that removing judgement from food may lead to better overall nutrition and mental health. Food Neutrality can support intuitive eating, which encourages listening to body signals rather than external rules. Case studies also show that food neutrality can  help break cycles of restrictive eating and promote recovery. Other benefits include: reducing disordered eating behaviors, increasing a more balanced and diverse selection of food, improved body-image, reduced anxiety surrounding eating, and greater overall well-being.

 

The Role of Food Neutrality in Eating Disorder Treatment 

Food neutrality challenges the harmful thought patterns associated with Eating Disorders. Therapists and dietitians incorporate a food neutral approach in treatment to support clients in reframing their beliefs and changing their relationship to food to promote recovery. Adopting a neutral approach to food can support intuitive eating and reduce disordered eating behaviors like emotional eating or obsessive food rituals.

 

How to Practice Food Neutrality 

The presence and practice of food labeling varies across cultures and generations. Social norms including beliefs about what is “acceptable” or “healthy” and behaviors also influence food choices. Food neutrality can help challenge and shift these norms toward inclusivity and acceptance.

1. Focus on the experience of eating and enjoyment of food rather than moral judgments, assumptions, and beliefs about food.
2. Notice when you’re thinking from a diet-based mindset and redirect your thoughts to the experience of nourishment. Remember that eating is a natural and necessary part of life that can often be pleasurable.
3. Practice mindful or intuitive eating practices that allow you to be present and connect with your body when eating. Building a trusting relationship with your body to notice when you’re hungry or full allows you to make peace with the experience of eating. In Eating Disorder recovery, sometimes distraction is needed.  In these moments it’s important to practice self-compassion and encourage flexible thinking.
4. Create balance and diversity of food groups in each meal that includes various flavors, textures, and food types rather than focusing on calories or macronutrients. Remember that what’s on your plate is your business and for your own nourishment, and what’s on other’s plates is for their bodies and nourishment. No two bodies are alike, so no two plates are alike.
5. Get support when you need it. Surround yourself with like-minded people, attend an eating recovery support group, engage in your own therapy, practice self-compassion and a growth mindset.

Food neutrality has profound potential in not only Eating Disorder treatment and recovery but also societally. The implications of adapting a food neutral approach can foster healing, self-acceptance, and sustainable recovery. Individuals in treatment and recovery as well as mental health and health care providers should integrate a food neutral approach in their approach. Today can be the day you reconsider your current attitude towards food and how it is serving your well-being.

 

Here are a few recommended readings to get started on approaching food from a neutral lens:

• Gentle Nutrition: A Non-Diet Approach to Health Eating by Rachael Hartley
• Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN 
• Intuitive Eating for Life: How Mindfulness Can Deepen and Sustain Your Intuitive Eating Practice bt Jenna Hollenstein, MS, RD, CDN
• Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating by Christy Harrison, MPH, RD
• Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia by Harriet Brown
• The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care by Judith Matz, LCSW and Ellen Frankel, LCSW 
• The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America by Virginia Sole Smith

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