Summer is a great time to enjoy food with family and friends, but what if you're trying to eat healthier after a bit of indulgence?
Food is to be enjoyed rather than feared, says dietician Angela Berrill. Her top piece of advice?
"Ditch the scales and focus on how you're feeling and your energy level."
Photo: Caju Gomes / Unsplash
Don't buy into diet culture
Angela Berrill Photo: Angela Berrill
Diet culture is "absolutely rampant" over the summer - with no shortage of advice on what to do and not to do to achieve certain 'results'.
Yet to have a healthy relationship with eating, we need to stop putting a moral value on specific foods. No food is inherently good or bad, Berrill says.
Social media loads us up with images of what good health "should" look like, she says, but it isn't the best destination for health information or body confidence.
"Go through your social media feeds and if there's anyone you're following that's making you feel less than positive about your body shape and size. Give them an 'unfollow' and follow people that are really positive about overall health and wellness, as opposed to how they're looking."
Weight and size don't tell us anything about a person's internal and overall health anyway, Berrill adds.
Think adding fruit and vegetables to your diet - not subtracting other stuff
We don't need to completely cut any foods out of our diet to be healthy, Berrill says.
Instead of focusing on what you need to cut out - like carbs, for example - work on adding in healthy nutritious foods like fruit and vegetables.
A positive approach to food and eating can help to push out less healthy habits, she says.
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