What’s the first thing you think of when you hear a dietitian say diets are bad? From the looks I’ve gotten when I tell people that frequent dieting is unhealthy, I think the most common thought is “is this dietitian telling me I don’t need to eat healthy?”

The short answer to that is no. We all know eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, limiting sugar and fat, and eating whole grains is good for your health, and I’m never going to advocate against healthy eating.

So, what does it mean to live a diet free life?

Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to reframe the narrative of “diet free” to “health focused.” Living diet free means you’re not focusing on a number on the scale, but rather choosing to eat for your health, both mental and physical.

Emerging research shows a correlation between frequent dieting and increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. There is also something known as the “obesity conundrum” where people who are in the obese category are perfectly healthy. Additionally, now people within the healthy BMI ranges are developing these same diseases, leaving researchers and medical providers to wonder whether we’ve had it backwards this whole time. Perhaps obesity isn’t the cause of disease but rather a symptom.

It may not come as a surprise that people have been worried about their weight for centuries and often turned to the extreme diet trends of the time in order to lose weight. In the year 1028, William the Conqueror became too overweight to ride his horse and went on a fully liquid diet consisting of only alcohol in order to lose weight. The Lemonade Cleanse, made popular in 2006 by Beyoncé, originated in 1941. And in the early 1900’s, the tapeworm diet was popular. If you’re thinking “please don’t tell me people ingested tape worms to lose weight” then I have some bad news for you. They did indeed eat tape worms to lose weight.

Ok, but those are all extreme examples of diets, right? And you may be asking yourself what’s so wrong about wanting to watch how much sugar I eat or limiting fast food? And of course, the answer is there is nothing wrong with wanting those things.

It is true that in the past 50 years, Americans have gotten heavier and heavier. The reasons for this have been heavily studied, as have the effects of obesity. Reasons such as a sedentary lifestyle, or eating too much fast food, or the rampant sugar content in American foods have all been listed as culprits. As a result, the diet industry has boomed into a multi-billion-dollar business, selling you on the idea that if you just take this pill or drink this drink, you’ll be thinner and therefore healthier.

What about what the science says about diets such as paleo, keto, and other fad diets. They do work…in the short term. The average person regains all the weight they lost on a diet within 2 years, and unfortunately that weight regain often leads to increased risk of chronic disease. Some people are able to keep the weight off, but unfortunately, they are the exception rather than the rule.

How about what the science says about which diet is best? Well, when an analysis was done to find out which diet had the highest success rate, researchers found that all diets led to weight loss and the common denominator between them was a decrease in calorie intake. This means that it doesn’t honestly matter which diet you try so long as you eat fewer calories.

In the U.S., a lot of people have learned to ignore their hunger/fullness cues, which over time has led to an inability to know when to eat and when to stop. And if you are unable to tell when you’re hungry or full, you may end up eating too much or not enough. Diets exacerbate this problem by telling you what to eat and when, which more often than not intensifies cravings for certain foods.

For example, over the past 20+ years we have been told “carbs are bad,” so a lot of people have been limiting their carb intake. The problem is that the body is fueled by the glucose it gets from the carbohydrates that you eat, and often times, limiting carbs turns into craving carbs. Now you have a battle in your mind between what your diet is telling you you shouldn’t eat and what you’re craving. This often leads to falling off the wagon and regaining the weight.

Craving a food and not getting it is a difficult thing to deal with, especially if it’s day in and day out. People eventually give in and then feel like a failure because they couldn’t be diligent with their diet. Choosing to live diet free means you don’t say no to cravings. When you provide your body with what it’s asking for, then often those cravings leave and you end up with fewer cravings overall. This means you’re happy and your body is happy.

So, what does all this mean for you? Put simply, frequent dieting often doesn’t work and may be actively harming you over time. Choosing to live a diet free lifestyle means that you are throwing out the concept of “good” and “bad” foods, and learning to listen to what your body is telling you.

To be honest, there is enough to say on this subject to fill many books. In next week’s blog post, I’ll be covering weight bias internalization, otherwise known as the negative effect that diet culture has on your psyche. For now, I’ll leave you with this consideration: Have you ever tried a diet that you’ve been able to keep up indefinitely?

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