At first glance, integrating intuitive eating and diabetes management may  seem counter-intuitive. And for many reasons, most approaches to managing diabetes  are based on weight loss and carbohydrate life-long restriction.

But there’s a major problem with these two approaches: a massive failure rate and unsustainability long term. As of today, diabetes is a noncurable  disease, requiring that requires a treatment plan that can be maintained for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, dieting has a failure rate in a  2-5 years period.

And that’s when a weight-neutral approach to diabetes comes in!

Diabetes and weight-neutral approach to health

What is intuitive eating

Nutrition and diabetes

Switching from judgment to curiosity with food

Get started – Next steps

Free Audio Guide to intuitive eating and diabetes

Intuitive Eating free mini-course

Diabetes Specific free resources

Diabetes and weight-neutral approach to health

A weight-neutral approach to health is based on the idea that your health status or risk level can’t be determined solely by your weight.

Moreover, it acknowledges that your weight is determined by a complex set of genetic, metabolic, physiological, cultural, social, and behavioural determinants. Many of these factors are either difficult or impossible to change.

Instead of focusing on a weight-oriented outcome to the management of diabetes, weight-neutral programs teach you to take charge of the factors that can help diabetes within your control.

So taking charge of these factors among many others will help you improve your well-being and management of diabetes regardless of your weight.

Here are just a few of these factors:

1. Stress management

Stress is an important contributor to pathological conditions in humans. And hormonal changes that occur during acute and chronic stress situations can affect glucose homeostasis. In fact, a large body of evidence  supports an association between stress and hyperglycemia (diabetes).

2. Weight stigma

The experience of discrimination and stigma around one’s body has a direct influence on health behaviours and stress levels. And research is pointing at weight stigma as a major contributor to health outcomes including diabetes.

3. Movement

Consistent gentle & enjoyable body movement has proven time after time to reduce blood sugar dysregulation.  Moreover, the recommendation from the American Diabetes Association is clear on the benefit of all forms of diabetes.

4. Body Dissatisfaction

Internalize weight stigma leads people to become increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies and make poor health decisions.

And a  2013 study published by the Journal of Obesity found no link between body weight and the way women feel about themselves. However, the findings show a link between how women feel about themselves and their health behaviours. In other words, the better they feel about their bodies, the more likely they are to take care of themselves leading to a better health outcome.

What is intuitive eating

When people ask what eating intuitively means, this is the definition that usually comes to mind: “a self-care eating framework that uses your body’s internal cues of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction to guide your eating behaviour.” It’s literally trusting your gut! Note that this intuitive eating definition emphasizes self-care and not weight loss.

Intuitive eating, an evidence-based approach to eating that allows you to be the expert of your own body. So this approach enables you to develop a healthy relationship with food and your body. And it teaches you to trust your ability to meet your own needs, distinguish between physical and emotional hunger, and ultimately develop body wisdom.

And eating intuitively is a well research process and proven health framework supported by more than 100 intuitive eating studies as of 2019.

Nutrition and Diabetes

There is no doubt that what we eat influences our blood sugar. And it’s a known fact that carbohydrates will increase our blood sugar level . However, not all carbohydrates have the same influence on the level of blood sugar.

Furthermore, studies are showing that individuals’ blood glucose levels respond very differently to different foods. So this is what we call bio-individuality. In other words, there’s no one “diabetic diet” for every  person diagnosed with diabetes. And while there are definitely generalities with eating and lifestyle that can be helpful, there isn’t a one fit all  approach.

An individual needs to explore what works for them and what doesn’t for them. So as life unfold the individual reaction to certain food will also vary and change with time.

This is how intuitive eating is the perfect approach to diabetes.

Switching from judgment to curiosity with food

Intuitive eating is part of a Health At Every Size™️ approach to diabetes and a global weight-neutral approach to health.

Intuitive eating will teach you to become curious about how certain food makes you feel. And to pay attention to how your blood sugar is post-meal, be attentive to how you feel after eating,  and your overall level of energy.

Being an intuitive eater will allow you to engage with food objectively without judgment.  So it puts you back into power when making your food choice. And it  helps you build trust and respect for your body instead of fear and hatred.

Intuitive eating is really about switching to love instead of fear when it comes to food and diabetes.

Get started – Next steps

Are you are ready to  learn more about how you can blend intuitive eating and diabetes in your life?

The first place to begin your journey is with educating yourself about diabetes. And this includes learning about different treatment options so you can make the best choice for you.

1. Read the material supplied by your medical team and ask a lot of questions.
2. Access this free handout from Dr. Lindo Bacon on the Health At every size and intuitive eating approach to diabetes.
3. Access our free  Intuitive Eating Guide
4. Consider reading the Health At Every Size Book by Dr. Lindo Bacon

Audio guide to Intuitive Eating and Diabetes

This audio guide (podcast) is a collaboration with two of my colleagues. Both are experts in the treatment of diabetes under the lens of Health At Every Size and Intuitive Eating.  

Rebecca Scritchfield is a Washington DC-based Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Exercise Physiologist.  And she has been practicing weight inclusive, HAES care since 2008. Also, Rebecca is the author of the book Body Kindness and the host of the Body Kindness podcast.  

Glenys Oyston is a Los Angeles-based Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. And she has been practicing a HAES® philosophy since 2010 and has provided extensive diabetes education for the past five years. Also, Glenys is the co-host of the Dietitians Unplugged podcast. 

What we cover in this free audio:  

• Is weight loss the solution to treating diabetes ? 
• 5 most frequent myths about diabetes debunk  
• The Health At Every Size approach to treating diabetes  
• Where to find resources to integrate a non-restrictive approach to preventing and treating diabetes.  

Intuitive Eating free mini-course

We created a free digital mini-course that will teach you the basics of intuitive eating. Ans it includes a downloadable guide for your reference.  You can access this free resource by registering here.

We also have an online self-study course to learn intuitive eating. So this course will take you through the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating alongside integration exercise and coaching videos. You can register for the Intuitive Eating Project here.

Diabetes Specific Resource

Dr. Lindo Bacon has written a guide to help people navigate the journey of integrating the Health at Every size principle in their approach to diabetes management. You can access this free Health At Every Size guide here.

My colleagues Rebecca Scritchfield & Glenys Oyston both registered dietitians who know that self-care for diabetes doesn’t have to involve restriction and weight loss have created an education & support group. The Health at Every Size® (HAES®) Care for Diabetes education and support group can be accessed here.

If you are looking for a 1 to 1 relationship with specialized health practitioners with a Health At Every Size & Intuitive Eating approach, you can search the database of one the site below:

Size and Diversity Organization
HAES Community
Intuitive Eating Certified Counselor 

“I’m done with dieting… I’ve had enough. I can’t go on one more diet!”

You’ve probably said that at one point. You start looking for an option. Then you find intuitive eating, and it sounds interesting! No more food restriction. You follow your hunger and fullness cues instead of counting calories. You want to try intuitive eating to lose weight… because food freedom sounds oh so appealing and exciting after years of dieting!

More and more women are turning to intuitive eating these days. It’s “cool” to be anti-diet, and even cooler to be an intuitive eater. Intuitive eating has been proposed as the next big “diet trend” in the next decade ahead…and that’s a big problem!

Typically, when we refer to “diet trend,” we refer to ways of eating to achieve weight loss. That’s what we expect, and for most of us, that’s what we seek. We think we need to lose weight. Notice that the keyword here is NEED. We want to lose weight and we don’t want to diet anymore so intuitive eating seems to be the perfect option.

It’s normal to want to lose weight

I want to validate those weight loss desires. Those desires to modify your body to fit the “thin ideal” are real and constantly encouraged in a society that is laden with weight stigma and fatphobia. It makes perfect sense that you have that desire and that you think you need to lose weight.

If you find yourself asking the question, “How can I practice intuitive eating and still lose weight?” then this post is for you. And so, I’m writing this blog post to help you understand what intuitive eating is about, how your body maintains a certain weight through your set point, why it’s useless to fight against this mechanism through dieting, and what you can do instead.

You will learn:

What is Intuitive Eating?

Will intuitive eating lead to weight loss?

Your set point first

Homeostasis and happiness set point theory  

Identifying and manipulating your set point 

Why dieting is not the answer 

How to get started with Intuitive Eating

What is Intuitive Eating? 

If people ask for an intuitive eating definition, this is what I usually give them: “a self-care eating framework that uses your body’s internal cues of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction to guide your eating behavior.” Notice that this definition emphasizes the body attunement element of intuitive eating, meaning that you need to listen to your body in order to eat intuitively.

This approach to eating allows you to develop a healthy relationship with food and your body. It teaches you to trust your ability to meet your own needs, distinguish between physical and emotional hunger, and ultimately develop body wisdom.

Should you try intuitive eating to lose weight?

If someone who claims to be a health professional tells you that you’ll lose weight with intuitive eating, run the other way! No health professional can rightly claim that Intuitive Eating leads to weight loss. I’ll explain why.

Rejecting the diet mentality is the first principle of intuitive eating. Focusing on weight loss will only hinder your progress as an intuitive eater.

Does that sound surprising? Well, it shouldn’t if you understand what eating intuitively means.

Intuitive Eating is based on interoceptive awareness or the ability to perceive physical sensations inside your body. This means, to be able to eat intuitively, you need to connect with your body and listen to your body’s “messages.” ⁣

In contrast, focusing on weight loss is based on external rules. It dulls your interoceptive sense and leads to body-doubt. It makes you think that something is wrong with you just because you’re not losing weight as you expected. Thus, you’re likely to think that intuitive eating “doesn’t work.”

While it’s true that some people lose weight when they eat intuitively, weight loss is more of a side effect rather than the focal point of intuitive eating. Some people who eat intuitively don’t lose weight, and that’s okay. Intuitive eating is weight neutral and is aligned with the Health At Every Size approach. (For more info on this approach, I recommend that you read the Health At Every Size book by Linda Bacon.

⁣Time and again, research has proven that dieting for weight loss is not sustainable. Besides, it causes more harm than good to your body and mind. Dieting increases the risk of eating disorders, binge eating, weight cycling and weight stigma.

Intuitive eating to lose weight? Your set point first.

Think of your set point like a natural mechanism that your body uses to maintain a natural weight. This mechanism runs without your intervention. It’s just like how your lungs manage the appropriate amount of oxygen for your body or the way in which your heart manages your blood pressure.

Another fascinating analogy is how your brain automatically gets you steady on a bike even if it’s been 10 years since your last ride. It just happens without you having to think about it. Set point manages your weight in the same way.

In her book Health Every Size, Dr. Lindo Bacon describes our set point as the fat thermostat in our bodies. Your set point acts just like a heat thermostat in a room. When set to a certain temperature, the thermostat will send a message to the heating system to activate when below a determined temperature.

Your hypothalamus is the region of the brain that controls the system in your body that regulates your set point. It sends messages of hunger and fullness to manage your weight. Set point will make you think of the cookies in the cupboard and will also make you say no to the pizza when you’re full.

Our set point manages all the various components in the complex human body that create our body weight. Your set point is your ideal body weight, the body weight you manage naturally without food restriction, deprivation, and over-exercising. It is your weight between diets, the weight at which you can live a non-food or exercise-obsessed life.

The set point is the body’s internal system to maintain healthy weight. One 1970s research study showed that the average weight of a 60-year-old man was only four to five pounds more than the average 30-year-old man. That kind of weight maintenance is no accident and not the consequence of dieting either.

Set Point example

Dr. Bacon has this very powerful example in her book, Health at Every Size:

“Just consider a 50-year-old woman who weighs about five pounds more than she did when she was 20. If she eats about 2,000 calories a day over the course of 30 years, she takes in about 22 million calories. Since five pounds of body fat stores about 17,500 calories, that means that her body was just 0.08% off in balancing energy in versus energy out. This amounts to a difference of about 50 calories per month—less than the calories in one egg!” – Bacon, Linda. Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight (p. 12).

Our set point can fluctuate during our lifetime. Currently, research estimates the fluctuation to be between 10 to 20 lbs. Set point fluctuates so it can maintain homeostasis.

If you are ready to explore Health At Every Size, you can download Dr. Bacon’s manifesto here.

Homeostasis and happiness set point theory  

Homeostasis is the ability of the human body to maintain a stable environment. It’s key to our survival. The body’s magical ability to adapt to its environment at any given condition is what allows us to survive.

This ability to maintain balance is what maintains a stable body temperature, stable blood pressure, stable level of iron, blood glucose…and yes, body weight. All of these biological systems focus on maintaining homeostasis, a.k.a. balance, so we can survive and thrive in our environment.

It even goes beyond the physical body. Homeostasis is also what creates your thoughts and emotions. Your mind responds to its emotional environment as well.

The happiness set point theory is almost similar as the body weight set point theory. It suggests that our level of subjective well-being is determined primarily by heredity and by personality traits ingrained in us early in life. As a result, it remains relatively constant throughout our lives. Our level of happiness may change temporarily in response to life events. However, it almost always returns to its baseline level.

For humans, homeostasis means survival. Our bodies will do anything to bring us back to homeostasis so we can survive, including the dreaded weight gain.

Identifying and manipulating your set point  

Are you at your set point right now?

That’s a very good question which unfortunately is not that easy to answer. How much fat protection your body requires (your set point) is the result of a complex interplay of genetics and the lifestyle choices you made today as well as in the past.

You see, at this time, we do not have a tool that will allow us to determine an individual set point. We also don’t have the knowledge on how to manipulate someone’s set point either. As of today, the complexity of the human body and the number of elements involved in managing one’s set point exceed our scientific capacity.

So to be clear, if you see a headline claiming to have the secret trick to lower your set point, like the 21-day set point reset detox, which I just saw recently, that’s 100% diet culture in action. It’s a lie! Don’t buy into it because it’s a scam. It’s just another gimmick from someone who wants to make money from your despair about your body weight.

What we do know is that if we want our body to settle at a natural weight that is effortless and healthy, we must make our brain feel safe. When the brain feels safe, it will send messages to the body that it’s safe. Will you lose weight? We do not know. No one actually knows. But what we know is that health arises or is maintained in a safe physical and psychological environment.

Why dieting is not the answer  

When you go on a diet or when you exercise, you create an unsafe condition for your body.

The human body perceives intentional weight loss as a threat. That’s the reason diets don’t work. Your body will adapt to the starvation/deprivation period while you’re dieting and trying to lose weight.

But as soon as you release the pressure of the unsafe condition (i.e. you stop dieting or over-exercising), your body will come right back to your set point. In many cases, it will ensure complete protection from any further threat of weight loss.

So, what can we do? Based on all the current research that I’ve read, I’d like to suggest focusing on creating a relationship of trust and respect with the innate wisdom of your body.  Create a safe environment, both psychologically and physically, in which you and your body can thrive in, not just survive.

The best place to get started is to educate and understand what could be perceived by your body as unsafe especially when it comes to food and body weight.

I would encourage you to get started by listening to episode 214 of the Going Beyond The Food podcast right up to the part where I recommend a tool to help you determine what could be impacting your set point.

Here’s a free checklist and resource to help you understand the set point theory and get started on your journey into a more trusting and respectful relationship with your body.

How to get started with Intuitive Eating 

In all the years that I’ve been helping women as a clinical nutritionist, I’ve found that intuitive eating is the best starting point for developing a healthy relationship with food and one’s body. I’ve also made a part of my life. The women I’ve helped, as well as I, can attest that it’s positively life-changing!

I invite you to start your own intuitive eating journey and experience the same benefits that we’ve enjoyed from it. I have put together some resources that will help you get a good head start.

First, you can download my Get Started with Intuitive Eating Guide for free. It will teach you a 3-step process that will help you get started with intuitive eating right away.

Also, you can listen to the intuitive eating podcast episodes. Here, I share my best tips and interview experts who give their valuable insights on eating intuitively.

Intuitive Eating to Lose Weight FAQs

Health beyond dieting seems to be a foreign concept to most people.

As I’ve always said, the prevalent diet culture conditioned us to believe that thinner is better in all aspects of life including our health. We’ve always heard that thin equals healthy, and that dieting is the way to a thinner body.

We’ve also been brainwashed into thinking that a thinner body is more attractive because it is associated with health.

This is a belief that’s hard to let go.

Why It’s Hard to Change Your Beliefs About Weight and Health

Your reptilian brain is the reason why it’s not easy to let go of beliefs. It’s the most primal part of your brain that has the survival instinct. It seeks to protect you from danger. Because the diet culture has programmed your reptilian brain into believing that fat people aren’t healthy, you’ve since associated health with thinness.

But as you’ll see, there is evidence that proves that your body size has little do with your health outcome. That said, it’s going to require some effort to reprogram your reptilian brain to fully accept the belief about health beyond dieting.

In this article, you’ll find answers to the following questions regarding health beyond dieting and the Going Beyond The Food Method:

• What does it mean to be healthy?

• Does “obesity” cause one to be unhealthy?

• Is health beyond dieting possible?

• What is Health At Every Size?

• What is a weight-neutral approach to health?

• Body dissatisfaction and shame: How do they affect health behaviors?

• What happens if we take the Going Beyond The Food Method™️ approach to health?

• Who is the ideal candidate for The Going Beyond The Food Method™️ Health approach?
• How to get started with a weight-neutral approach to health

What does it mean to be healthy? 

We all grew up with the idea that health is the absence of illness. But the World Health Organization has a definition of health that’s different from what we’re all used to. WHO defines health as “a complete state of physical, emotional and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Good health is essential to being able to handle stress and live a long and active life. It doesn’t just refer to the absence of disease, but also to the ability to recover from illness, to adapt to life challenges in general.

When you’re healthy, it doesn’t mean you’re never sick. Humans have the innate capacity to adapt and recover from sickness and health issues. That is to say, being healthy allows you to recover and bounce back quickly.

Does “obesity” cause one to be unhealthy? 

The keyword here is CAUSE. Before we can answer the question, we must first understand the difference between Correlation and Causation. For example, smoking is correlated with alcoholism, but it doesn’t cause alcoholism. However, smoking causes an increased risk of developing lung cancer.

As of 2019, there isn’t any evidence that directly points to obesity as a causative factor in a disease. That said, many studies link or correlate obesity to health risks. Even when body weight is correlated to health risks, it is never the sole factor of any health condition.

For example, research also found that obesity does not affect the risk of having coronary heart disease and stroke “Metabolic status is relatively stable despite rising BMI”. (However, it does increase the risk of developing diabetes)

But if the question is, “Is obesity associated or correlated with health risks?” the answer would be yes.  If the question is “Is obesity causing disease?”  the answer would be no. That’s where the big difference lies.

Here’s where it gets interesting – one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese are actually metabolically healthy. Being metabolically healthy means having your blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels, and other metabolic markers within the normal range.

Is health beyond dieting possible?

Yes, and scientific research proves it!

A  2016 study by researchers at UCLA studied 40,420 adult participants in the most recent U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Researchers looked at the participants’ health as measured by six accepted metrics (not including BMI). These metrics are  blood pressure, cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose, insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein.

The study found that 47% of people classified as overweight by BMI and 29% of those qualified as obese were healthy based on at least five of those other metrics.

Meanwhile, 31% of normal-weight people were unhealthy by two or more of the same measures.

A number of research studies show that weight loss is not necessary to improve physical health. Studies have also found that fitness is more predictive for mortality than weight. This study defined ‘fit’ as 3-4 hrs per week of walking.

Source: JAMA. 1999 Oct 27;282(16):1547-53.

Note: “Fit” is not synonymous with “thin” or “lean.” That’s Diet Culture. Being fit means being in good health, especially because of regular physical movement.

Furthermore, trying to change your health status simply by losing weight has not only proven to be an ineffective approach but also carries potential negative side effects to your health. The focus on intentional weight loss via dieting can be harmful. Multiple studies demonstrate negative side effects of dieting behaviors. The three most documented negative effects are weight cycling, disordered eating, and weight stigma.

What is Health At Every Size? 

As a response to the failure of the traditional weight-loss model of health, the Health at Every Size (HAES) movement emerged over the last decades.

Health At Every Size is a philosophy and an approach to health. Linda Bacon, PhD, an advocate for body positivity, wrote the book Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight. It shows through research that health behaviors influence health more than weight.

The HAES movement promotes the simple truth that all bodies are good bodies. It shifts the focus away from dieting for weight control. Instead, it steers you toward self-care practices that support your body’s natural wisdom and vitality.

Chasing health at any size is possible. Dr. Bacon had led research to support the Health At Every Size approach to health with positive outcomes over the traditional model of intentional weight loss.

Honoring your body, and being able to understand your body’s needs, leads to meaningful changes in health behaviors.

HAES subscribes to the idea of health as stated by the World Health Organization—that it is more than just the absence of disease. It also sees health as a continuum that varies throughout one’s life span. Health, in this model, is from a holistic perspective (physical, psychological, relational, and spiritual).

In fact, the Health At Every Size approach discourages judging others and oneself regarding their health status. It acknowledges that shame and oppression can have significant negative effects on one’s health and wellness.

What is a weight-neutral approach to health? 

A weight-neutral approach to health is based on the idea that your health status or risk level can’t be determined solely by your weight.

It acknowledges that your weight is determined by a complex set of genetic, metabolic, physiological, cultural, social, and behavioral determinants. Many of these factors are either difficult or impossible to change.

Instead of focusing on a weight-oriented outcome, weight-neutral programs teach you to take charge of the factors within your control. These factors include your thoughts and behaviors. Taking charge of these factors will help you improve your well-being, regardless of your weight.

Weight-neutral approaches to health have significantly decreased body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and depression. They’ve also increased sustainable, enjoyable self-care behaviors such as eating and moving well in the long term.

Body dissatisfaction and shame: Their effect on health behaviors

Weight stigma (also known as body shaming, or weight shaming) is the social devaluation, denigration, and discrimination of people perceived to carry extra weight based on their weight.

It originated from the “old school” model of inducing behavioral changes through punishment or shaming. A common example today is the “before and after” pictures we often see on social media.

It’s a common belief that weight stigma or shaming will motivate people who don’t meet body size ideals to change their behaviors so as to avoid further stigma.

As a result, many women internalize weight stigma and become increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies.

A 2013 study published by the Journal of Obesity found no link between body weight and the way women feel about themselves. However, the findings show a link between how women feel about themselves and their health behaviors. In other words, the better they feel about their bodies, the more likely they are to take care of themselves leading to a better health outcome.

Conversely, body dissatisfaction discourages women from taking part in certain health-related activities and from eating properly to fuel their bodies. These behaviors could eventually lead to weight gain… cynical right?

Shifting from weight management to health behaviors

Instead of focusing on weight management to improve your health, what if you shifted your focus to health behaviors?

For example, what if you cared more about the quality instead of the quantity of the food you eat?

What if you improve your mindset and thoughts so you can be better motivated to move your body every day?

What if you take steps to reduce and manage stress so that you can enjoy a better quality of sleep?

Research associated healthy lifestyle habits to a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index. Therefore, all BMI groups can benefit from practicing healthy habits. Interestingly, the greatest benefit is seen within the BMI “obese” group.

The Going Beyond The Food Method️ is a weight-neutral and non-diet health framework composed of eight core elements. Our health framework is grounded in holistic principles and functional medicine approach to health. It also follows Health at Every Size principles.

What happens if we take the Going Beyond The Food Method™️ approach to health?

The Going Beyond The Food Method is a proprietary methodology that I created. The program is primarily designed to help women make peace with food and their body. As a result, women are able to focus their efforts on health outcomes beyond dieting and weight loss. Certainly, it’s a five-step process that includes mindset, emotional regulation, mindfulness, body neutrality, and intuitive eating.

The method️ is based on four core pillars: Body Wisdom, Body Trust, Body Respect, and Body Neutrality.

The health behaviors we teach inside our programs center around intuitive eating, a well-researched self-care eating framework. Moreover, it teaches Body Neutrality, a framework that neutralizes body dissatisfaction.

Sustainability and health beyond dieting

The single most powerful advantage of a weight-neutral and non-diet approach like the Going Beyond The Food Method️ is sustainability. It helps you develop the ability to sustain health-promoting behaviors throughout your life. Our unique approach, combined with the evidence-based health benefits of intuitive eating, is very powerful!

Certainly, when it comes to health, consistency is significantly more powerful than short-term results. One of the secrets to consistency is self-compassion.

A 2015 study systematically reviewed a weight-neutral and no-diet approach to health. It determined the overall effects on factors including weight, biochemical measures, food, activity, behavior, body image, and mental health.

• • Weight stability (in 5 yrs)
  • Improved biochemical markers
  • Cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, CRP
  • Sustained healthy behaviors
  • Improvement in:
    1.  Dietary quality
    2. Psychological states
    3. Disordered eating patterns
    4. Self-esteem
    5. Depression

The Going Beyond The Food Method framework supports health-promoting behaviors and makes health beyond dieting possible. It encourages the increase of fruit and vegetable intake and variety in diet. In addition, the framework aims to encourage health behaviors such as physical activity, stress management, sleep quality, and digestive health.

Who is an ideal candidate for the Going Beyond The Food Method™️ approach to health? 

Truly anyone! Individuals who’ll benefit most from this approach are:

• Chronic dieters.
• Women who are overly concerned with weight and shape (a.k.a. body image issues).
• Women who are repeatedly trying to lose weight and restricting food for two years or more.
• Women who have had enough of dieting and regaining the weight that they lost.
• Women who are intuitive eaters.
• Women who have disordered eating behaviors.

If you have an eating disorder, I recommend that you work with a qualified health practitioner first. Bring yourself to safety and lay the groundwork with a health practitioner in a one-on-one setting.

Then you can come to one of our programs to learn the mindset piece of health beyond dieting.

Health beyond dieting: How to get started with a weight-neutral approach to health

You can begin by reading Dr. Linda Bacon’s book, Health At Every Size. If you need more support in the process, you can enroll in one of our programs.

We work with women throughout the world, helping them to make peace with food and with their bodies. Moreover, we help them chase health through a weight-neutral approach. The Going Beyond The Food Health Mastery program will take you through our eight-element framework towards health. It will show you how to chase health without having to diet or lose weight.

Our program is open all year round anywhere in the world. Moreover, we also have other programs to help you with other aspects of healing your relationship with food and with your body.

Health Beyond Dieting FAQs

This post is written by a college and our guest expert Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative. You can find more about Bridgit here.

Peri-menopause – the 5-10 years leading up to menopause – is a common time to be diagnosed with a thyroid condition.

In this article, I’d like to address these questions:

• Why then?

• Why more in women?

• What can be done?

Peri-menopause may begin in your late 30s or early or mid 40s.  You may notice that your PMS is worse. You may have spotting between periods. Over time, your periods will likely get more dramatic, with missed periods and heavy periods.  

Other symptoms may be popping up too, like anxiety, brain fog and weight gain. You may be thinking, “these sound like thyroid symptoms,” and you could be right!

But before we explore the thyroid connection, let’s cover what is normally happening during peri-menopause.

What is Peri-menopause?

Peri-menopause is, in short, the opposite of puberty. In puberty your ovaries are waking up to start your reproductive years. Your brain and ovaries are learning to work together to coordinate a monthly cycle, and often the first few reproductive years are hormonally unstable.

In peri-menopause, the brain-ovary relationship is starting to shut down. The ovaries are closing up shop, but the brain keeps knocking at the door, trying to get the shopkeeper working again.   

The sex hormone that needs to rise sufficiently in the first half of the month is estrogen. It is produced by the ovaries as they also grow eggs. If you produce enough estrogen and release an egg, you’ll ovulate.  And if that egg is healthy and hearty, you’ll produce a good amount of progesterone in the second half of your cycle. (The egg sac, or corpus luteum, makes progesterone after ovulation.)

How Your Thyroid Could Be Impacted in Peri-menopause

Even though both estrogen and progesterone are declining in peri-menopause, progesterone declines more dramatically in this stage. This leads to a condition called ‘estrogen dominance.’

Too much estrogen can prevent the thyroid hormone from getting to where it needs to go and can prevent it from converting to its active form. For some women, their thyroid symptoms are simply a result of this high estrogen interfering with thyroid hormone activity.  We’ll talk about how to address estrogen dominance shortly.  

Another thing estrogen effects is the immune system. Estrogen is associated with stimulating the TH2 branch of the immune system (1).  TH2 is short for T Helper cell type 2, a lymphocyte (immune cell). TH2 is part of the adaptive immune system, which mounts a specific attack against pathogens.+  Adaptive immunity is usually a good thing, but it can also lead to autoimmunity if the antigen activity is directed towards itself.

As estrogen is the dominant sex hormone in women, this helps to explain why autoimmunity and thyroid disease is more common in women.  

As we age, we also experience decreased immunity, and a tendency towards TH2 response.  

In the aged, however, naive cells are less likely to become effectors. In those that do, there is a documented shift towards a Th2 cytokine response.

The elderly have impaired ability to achieve immunization but much higher levels of circulating autoantibodies, (due to the lack of naive effectors) impaired response to viral infections, increased risk of bacterial infections, and increased risk of both neoplastic and autoimmune disease.” (3)

However, there is hope and action we can take to keep estrogen in check!

Thyroid and Peri-menopause Solutions

1. Improve Gut Health

If you’ve studied the thyroid, you know that gut health is key to prevent an autoimmune response and to convert thyroid hormone effectively.  Did you know it’s also important to clear estrogen dominance?  One way your gut helps clear estrogen is through the estrobolome, “the aggregate of enteric bacterial genes whose products are capable of metabolizing estrogens.” (4)

You can be friendly to your gut by avoiding:

• Genetically modified foods (GMO) – These kill off friendly bacteria

• Sugars – These feed troublesome bacteria . Challenge with sugar cravings you can consult our free guide to help you manage your sugar cravings here.

• Unnecessary antibiotic use – This kills everything, with bacterial imbalance often resulting in its wake

You can be friendly to your gut by including:

• Small amounts of fermented foods like sauerkraut or kimchi

• A wide variety of fibers from salad greens, fresh spices, berries, etc.

• A long period from an early dinner to breakfast lets your gut bacteria grow in peace!

If you are impacted by uncomfortable peri menopause symptoms a great place to start is with your diet. Making simple changes to the way you eat can have powerful impact to reduce your symptoms.

2. Boost Progesterone

Progesterone helps keep estrogen in check, so boost it by giving your body ingredients to make hormones.

• Hemp Oil – I’ve been very impressed with how 1 T of hemp oil a day helps my own peri-menopausal hormones

• Borage Oil – This oil, usually in pill form, has gamma linoleic acid to spark hormone production

• Maca- This adaptogenic root herb helps boosts hormone production and can benefit your energy levels and sex drive

3.  Help Out Your Immune System

If aberrant immunity could be a problem in your case, add some components that can balance your TH2 activity:

• Fish Oil- Fish oil has a balancing effect on the immune system and decreases inflammation. (5)  Quality matters with fish oil, so do research to find a good brand.

• Vitamin D- Vitamin D deficiency is found at higher levels in people with autoimmune thyroid disease.  (6) Talk to your doctor about getting your vitamin D tested and restoring it to a level around 60-80 NG/DL through sunshine and vitamin D3 supplementation. You can consult our guide to supplement here.

Learn more about the thyroid at perimenopause from experts like Dana Trentini, Dr. Tom O’Bryan and Heather Dubé at the free, online Hormone Balance After 40 Summit.

The summit happens live June 5-11, 2017, but recordings will live on after the live summit.  Register here.

You’ll hear 30+ experts on the topics like:

• Boosting your Metabolism

• Reclaiming your Sex Drive

• Restoring Mental Clarity.  

The best part is that it’s all free and you can attend online from any computer or smartphone.  Register here for your own

Hormone Balance After 40! This is possible and normal!

Today, I’m sharing my best natural remedies for hot flashes. But what really causes hot flashes? Ask any doctor and they’ll tell you that hot flashes and night sweats are caused by falling estrogen levels as women age. That’s it.

Anyway, that’s the answer most of my ladies in my community get when they ask.

Just a bit on me I’m Stephanie Dodier Clinical Nutritionist and Intuitive Eating expert and I lead a community of women over 40 so we are very familiar with the topic of hot flashes! I developed the Going Beyond The Food Method™️ a proprietary methodology that helps women make peace with food and their body. Chronic dieter and body shy women become intuitive eater & body confident women that live a full life unconditionally. If a life without dieting is something that sounds interesting I’d love to meet you.

Back to the topic of hot flashes.

So when you go to see your doctor say that you want to stop hot flashes and night sweats, what you’re most likely to get is a prescription for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and an extended talk about the issues that are associated with HRT.

Take a moment to stop and think about it though – how can all of this just be from falling estrogen levels? It just doesn’t make any sense, since every woman on the face of the Earth sees a drop in her estrogen during menopause, why don’t all of us get hot flashes? And the women who do get hot flashes get them at different times – some when they’re upset, others when they eat sugary or starchy foods.

Now think about what happens when you flash. You get hot, you get sweaty, your heart rate goes up, and you might well feel anxious. Doesn’t that feel more like someone came up and surprised you – something like a panic attack? A Fight or Flight reaction?

How can this be? Let’s break it down.

Adrenal Glands & Hot Flashes

The part of your brain that regulates temperature responds to both estrogens AND to adrenaline hormones. Adrenaline is a stress hormone in the same family of stress hormones as cortisol and norepinephrine. All 3 of these hormones are produced by our adrenal glands located on top of our kidney.

Your adrenaline level is usually low if you are in a state of relaxation and feel calm. We know that your if your adrenaline level is low that your estrogen level is high or low that you won’t a hot flash. However, if your adrenaline level is chronically high, i.e. you’re more stressed out than you should be, and you have a drop in estrogen you will trigger a series of reaction in your body that will produce a hot flash.

Yes hot flashes are in part due to estrogen level being low BUT it’s triggered by our stress level via adrenaline. Addressing your stress level is as important as considering how we can stabilize our estrogen level.

Natural Remedies For Hot Flashes: Stress Reduction Techniques

If you’re stressed, then your body is responding to stressors in your environment. We’re talking about physical and emotional things that are affecting your body to bring it out of balance. These are things that we know may cause hot flashes.

Environmental stressors can come from a myriad of places, and here are some examples. Check out which ones you think you might be struggling against.

• Nutrition
• Illness
• Relationships
• Finances
• Lack of movement
• Negative thoughts

Reducing sources of stress in your life will help you to stop hot flashes. Let’s see how.

Nutrition

Diet-induced stress is a great place to start. We know that when we eat sugary & highly processed food our blood sugar levels go up. This makes our insulin kick in to reduce them. When insulin rises, cortisol goes up with it. ! Making dietary changes is one of the best natural remedies for hot flashes. Read more about how to modify your diet here.

Movement

Incorporating movement in your life can be incredibly critical when it comes to managing your hot flashes. Lack of movement is not only a cause of stress for pre and postmenopausal women but for everyone. For women in menopause, it can escalate to more symptoms than in many other people, so adopting a practice of mind/body light movement techniques like walking in nature, yoga or even swimming will have an amazingly calming effect on your nervous system, reducing the impact on your adrenal glands.

Supplementation

B-vitamins offer a great place to start supplementing to stop hot flashes since B’s are in high demand in the metabolism of stress in our body. They’re also a powerful methylator in the metabolism of hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. Find a complete B-complex formula and take it 3 times a day with food.

Herbal supplements have been studied and demonstrated to help manage your cortisol level and thereby your stress level, thus reducing the load on your adrenals. Licorice Root is well known for helping to support adrenal balance as well as energy levels and endurance. Rhodiola is an adaptogenic herb that protects against stress-related fatigue and ultimate “burnout”, increasing mental clarity, supporting the immune system and assisting in balancing blood sugar regulation – an all around great supplement!

Vitamin C is another powerful nutrient that can be added to your daily regimen and will help support your adrenals. It’s also, of course, one of the most powerful antioxidants and an immune booster. Use 1000mg x3 day with food if you’re unsure where to start.

You can access my favourite brands and recommendation in my store right here

Your mind and thoughts: the most powerful tips for stopping hot flashes

One of the key natural remedies for hot flashes is focusing more on loving thoughts. Thoughts that bring you pleasure (like thinking about people you love or favourite pets) short-circuit the harm done by the body’s physiological reaction to stress.

This learning to “think with your heart” may be challenging at first, but it’s definitely worth it. If you faithfully work at this technique and regularly pay attention to the areas of your life that bring you joy and fulfillment, you will evoke biochemical changes in your body over time that will recharge your adrenal batteries. You can read more about my personal journey with connecting mind and body here.

Learning to quiet your mind and focus on positive thoughts can be easy with the practice of deep breathing or meditation. Start with a quick and easy 5 minutes a day as you wake up. Then as you get more comfortable, increase your quiet time (aka meditation) to 15-20 minutes a day. I teach techniques to overcome food cravings that can get you started on this journey to quieting your mind. In my free guide Crave Cure Guide I take you through my 4 steps to cure you cravings.

The good news is that there are many natural remedies for hot flashes and other unpleasant and unwelcome symptoms of peri–menopause and menopause. Reducing your level of stress in many aspects of your life can not only leave you feeling more relax and healthier but also cooler! You can stop hot flashes.

Next steps would be for you read the first article in this series Nutrition for Menopause and last one Sleep and menopause.

GERD is something that so many people suffer with including many of the women in my free and private community, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). Living with GERD means living with stomach acid, and sometimes stomach contents, flowing back up out of the stomach and into the esophagus where it can cause damage, and always causes discomfort. Fortunately, there are natural remedies for GERD.

This is a consistent and constant problem for those who suffer with it, and it can seem like there are few solutions for GERD patients. There is hope, ways to address the burning chest pain that comes with GERD, things that your doctor doesn’t know.

GERD : The Emotional Connection

GERD is fundamentally connected to our emotional life. Our inability to process new things that are coming into our lives, the fear that we feel about the future and what it means, the feeling that we can’t do it and so we don’t process life the way that we should in order to be healthy.

Not processing emotions = not processing food.

These two are one and the same in our lives! Chinese medicine tells us this as well, as it teaches us that digestive and stomach problems come from worry, anxiety, mistrust and fear. Even modern-Western science tells us that, anxious feelings are connected to the symptoms of acid reflux.

The goal is to learn on how to listen to yourself, and take away the power of that stress by confronting it gently and then planning to remove it. Here are some things that you can do to help calm the emotional state that is driving gastroesophageal reflux disease.

• Regular meditation
• Journaling
• Going for a walk through nature
• Exercise

Natural Remedies for GERD: The Acid Connection

What your doctor WON’T tell you is that the primary issue driving GERD isn’t too much stomach acid – it’s too little. Research shows us that GERD is closely linked to stomach pressure, gas which is pushing up on the opening to the esophagus. That pressure comes from food not being digested properly.

Right after chewing, the second step in digestion is stomach acid breaking down the food. Without proper digestion, “bad” bacteria in the gut start to grow out of control as they feed on undigested carbs. H. Pylori affects more than half of people in modern society, and it produces many of the symptoms associated with GERD, as well as other digestive issues like constipation and IBS.

The good news is that you can combat the effects of low acid and resolve GERD! Here’s how.

• Have your HCL production tested (many doctors are hesitant to do this, but it’s important!)
• Don’t drink during meals
• Add HCL to your diet (watch my video to learn how!). Don’t add this if you’re on an anti-inflammatory medication as it could cause serious side effects.
• Try bitters or apple cider vinegar, two natural remedies for GERD, although the HCL is more effective.

You CAN resolve GERD! What your doctor doesn’t know about GERD, are these incredible techniques. Things that can make your life yours again, without the pain and discomfort. The first step as always is to start with food which you can refer to The Crave Cure Program for guidance on how to change your nutrition.

NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs) are over-the-counter medication sold under names such as Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Celebrex, Naprosyn, Toradol, etc. They’re commonly used to reduce pain caused by headaches, arthritis, coughs, colds, and sports injuries. However, very few people know about the truth about NSAID side effects.

How NSAIDs work

NSAIDs work by reducing or blocking the production of a compound named “Prostaglandin”. You can think of prostaglandin as something similar to a hormone (i.e. estrogen or cortisol).

Prostaglandin has certain negative effects such as increasing inflammation, pain and fever, but on the positive side it protects our stomach lining from the damaging effects from HCL (the acid we have in our stomach that helps digest our food) and it also protects the small intestine lining from the damaging effects of the digestion process.

Therefore, prostaglandin serves both a good and bad purpose in our body. Remember that NSAIDs reduce prostaglandin, and therefore, they influence both its positive and negative effects. This means, that yes, your pain is reduced, but your stomach and small intestine are exposed to the damaging effects of the digestive process that occurs in our gastrointestinal tract every minute of the day!

The Truth About NSAID Side Effects: The Ugly Side of NSAIDs

NSAIDs have positive side effects of reducing pain but also can lead to the following body messages or symptoms:

• Stomach ulcer (a hole in the stomach lining) leading to poor production of HCL (hydrochloric acid), which in turn leads to poor digestion and malabsorption.
• Small intestine lining perforation causing leaky gut (hole in the small intestine) leading to food allergies and intolerances, and in the long term to auto immune disease.
• Depression (in most cases due to the above leaky gut syndrome)
• Delayed digestion
• Kidney damage
• Liver damage
• Dizziness
• Tinnitus
• Increase blood pressure

The Root Cause of Our Pain

Taking NSAIDs is a way of affecting and treating symptoms, and doing so is only hiding the root cause of the issue. When we experience symptoms such as headaches, this sends us a message that something is wrong inside of us. We must listen to these messages to find the root cause and treat it, or otherwise the pain or inflammation will continue indefinitely.

In the case of chronic diseases such as arthritis, which require long term usage of NSAIDs, always take the time and care to consider natural options. As an example, fish oil (specifically the EPA component of fish oil), is a powerful agent that reverses the effects of prostaglandin (inflammation & pain) without the side effects. So, choosing an alternative could potentially be as easy as taking a regular dose of fish oil….

Body Messages

To recap the two critical points – when our body manifests symptom such as headaches or pain, this a way for it to give us a signal that something abnormal is happening.

We must listen, or otherwise chronic diseases will be waiting just around the corner. Lastly, it is important to keep in mind that although available over the counter, NSAIDs are very powerful drugs that have many side effects and we should avoid taking them on regular basis.

Alternative Solution to NSAIDs

Now that you know the truth about NSAID side effects, you’d want to look for effective pain relief without any of the dreadful side effects I mentioned. You have a few alternative as outlined by Dr. David Williams here.

If you pain is due to inflammation, which is most likely the case for symptoms such as arthritis, joint pains in general and most injury you can follow my anti-inflammatory protocol here.

Share your thoughts: Do you currently use NSAID? Do you use an alternative? What is your go to for pain relief?