What is a “Non-Diet” Approach?

I had such a great experience speaking at the California Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics (CAND) conference over the weekend!🥳The room was full of 100+ dietitians, dietetic interns, and nutrition students all eager to learn about using a non-diet approach in nutrition counseling. With seemingly so much misunderstanding around non-diet approaches, intuitive eating and Health at Every Size, it was so refreshing to get to share evidence-based information with a room of receptive, gracious clinicians.

So, what is a “Non-Diet” approach? It is a practice model that focuses on building sustainable patterns of health promoting behaviors WITHOUT focusing on body weight in people of ALL sizes.

Why is this important? A non-diet approach is associated with:
🎉Decreased body dissatisfaction
🎉Decreased disordered eating
🎉Decreased depression .
🎉Sustainable, enjoyable self-care behaviors such as eating and moving well in the long term. .
🎉And…it is aligned with HAES® and Intuitive Eating Principles

A HAES approach is associated with improvements in:
🌟physiologic measures (e.g., blood pressure, blood lipids),
🌟health behaviors (e.g., eating and activity habits, dietary quality), .
🌟and psychosocial outcomes (such as self-esteem and body image).

Notably, HAES achieves these health outcomes MORE successfully than weight loss treatment and without the contraindications associated with a weight focus! WIN WIN!! 🏆

If you’re interested in working with a clinician that uses a non-diet focus, check out haescommunity.org or contact me if you are local to southern California or are interested in virtual sessions.
If you’re a dietitian interested in learning more about this topic, please join the mailing list for news, updates and trainings.