Louise Pollard Nutrition

27/03/2024

Just a couple of days until Easter, and if you’re a parent who celebrates, you might be asking yourself, "should I restrict the amount of chocolate and sweets my child eats this weekend?"

It’s tempting to want to micro-manage your child’s consumption of chocolate over Easter, but the reality is that we live in a world where kids are constantly exposed to chocolate and sweets, so while doing this might seem helpful at home and short term, it doesn’t help your child learn how to self-regulate their intake of these foods outside of your home, as they get older or on occasions where sweets and chocolate are abundant.

This might sound strange (especially coming from a dietitian), because mainstream advice recommends limiting and withholding sweet foods from children. However, you really can help your child much more in the long term, by giving them access to chocolate and sweets and the opportunity to listen to their body, than you will by withholding these foods or restricting the amount they eat. Of course, I am not suggesting you give your child constant all-day access to chocolate and sweets. I’m saying you can make these foods available within the structure of your child’s usual meal and snack routine at times decided by you.

In this updated blog, I discuss why restricting foods is counterproductive, why regular access to all foods is important (yes, even chocolate, sweets and co.) and offer some tips on how to approach Easter.

Nutrition and intuitive eating coaching for women and children. Say goodbye to diets and learn how to truly nourish body, mind & soul. Book a free intro session

29/02/2024

Even though it’s been over 25 years since dietitians Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S & Elyse Resch, MS,RDN,CEDS-S, F.iaedp, FADA, FAND created the Intuitive Eating framework, myths about Intuitive Eating still abound.
In my latest blog, I unpack 9 of these myths:
1. Intuitive Eating is anti-health
2. Intuitive Eating is all instinctual
3. Intuitive Eating means eating whatever, whenever
4. Intuitive Eating will help you lose weight
5. Intuitive Eating is anti-weight loss and anti-dieters
6. Intuitive Eating is eating only when you are hungry and stopping the moment you feel full
7. Intuitive Eating is not science-based
8. You can’t use Intuitive Eating in eating disorder recovery
9. If you have a health condition, you can’t practise Intuitive Eating

Happy reading!

https://louisepollardnutrition.com/9-common-myths-about-intuitive-eating/?fbclid=IwAR0Wlm2K0zXYsP1PQX6EK6hJv9LuNTO76rruW6DA_-oAJVdbkQIYFBptTK8

Nutrition and intuitive eating coaching for women and children. Say goodbye to diets and learn how to truly nourish body, mind & soul. Book a free intro session

15/02/2024

I just thought they wanted to eat healthier. If only I had known that was the beginning of an unhealthy relationship with food” is sadly, something I often hear parents say.

When your teen tells you they “want to get healthy”, your first instinct may be to celebrate & even praise them for any new food & exercise choices. Which is understandable, because of course you want your child to be well-nourished & active.

Maybe you also feel a sense of relief, that after years of trying to get them to eat more fruit & vegetables, they finally are. Or because they’re spending less time on the sofa, on their phone or computer & moving more.

And indeed, these can of course be good things. If we have access to them, many of us can benefit from a regular intake of fruit & vegetables & movement we enjoy.

What I am suggesting is we can never simply assume that when a teen says they want to “get healthy” that this is AUTOMATICALLY a positive thing, because this is often how disordered eating starts & is unintentionally overlooked.

Recognising problematic food or exercise behaviours is REALLY tough for parents because
🥝 🍎 🥦 they’re under a great deal of pressure to feed their children a particular way and
⚽ 🛼 🚴‍♀️ensure they remain active and
🍽️💪🏽 disordered eating & exercise behaviours are normalised – even praised in our culture.

That’s why if & when your teen announces “I want to get healthy” it’s so important to stop & get curious about your teen’s beliefs about what it means to “be healthy” or “eat healthy”, to observe their food & exercise behaviours & find out more about their motivation for these.

Scroll ➡️through to see some ways you can approach this.

Finally, something I can’t emphasize strongly enough: you know your teen better than anyone. If you suspect something isn’t “right”, seek professional help. That might sound like an over-reaction, but experience shows, it often isn’t. And appearing to be over-reacting is nothing compared to the risk of delaying getting appropriate care.

08/02/2024

“I just want to be able to eat normally” is something I hear a lot & a goal many of my clients have.

So, what does normal eating actually look like?

Scroll ➡️through to find out.

And if we were to list some characteristics of normal eating, here’s how they might look:
♥️ flexible & energising.
♥️ peaceful & calm.
♥️ compassionate & not rooted in control & punishment.
♥️ allows for both nourishment AND pleasure.
♥️ recognises there is no such thing as “perfect eating”.
♥️ is about treating yourself & your body with the respect you both deserve.

Would you add anything?

01/02/2024

Did you know that food restriction has many different guises & doesn’t always look like “not eating”(much)?

When restricting what you eat has been your normal for so long, it can be really difficult to recognise it, if you don’t know what you are looking for.

Scroll ➡️through to see some of the many guises of food restriction. Did any of these examples surprise you?

Many people sincerely believe that they have given up dieting & no longer engage in restrictive eating behaviours because the way they eat doesn’t look like the first picture. Friends, restriction comes in so many forms: not just physical, but also mental & can look like only having coffee for breakfast, filling up on vegetables, chronic undereating & overexercising, avoiding certain foods or food groups, not honouring food cravings, only eating what is “proper” when in the company of others even when you really want to eat something else, not eating after 6pm & so many more.

As always, there is plenty of nuance when it comes to nutrition & eating that is difficult to convey in an Instagram post. If, for example, you choose not to eat dessert after a meal, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are restricting. It’s perfectly reasonable to not eat dessert after a meal, if you know you wouldn’t enjoy it & doing so would lead to feeling uncomfortably full (because that doesn’t feel good). And of course, it’s perfectly fine to eat fruit & vegetables, since they deliver fibre & a range of vitamins & minerals our bodies need for overall health. What matters is intention, the reason WHY you might be engaging in some of these behaviours.

Are your food choices what you truly want & feel like in the moment? Or do you fear what will happen if you don’t follow your food rules?

Sending you so much compassion, if you are struggling with this. 🧡

01/02/2024

A client once asked me this perfectly legitimate question.

And since it might be one you have too, I’m sharing an abbreviated form of my answer with you.

Scroll ➡️through to find a few reasons why you might be hearing this information for the very first time today.

Additional notes: Available science - & there’s a lot, dating back as far as the 1950s, - shows us that the vast majority of people will gain back the weight they lose after dieting within 2 to 5 years. In fact, weight regain is the typical long-term response to dieting, not the exception. The vast majority of people who do actually lose weight short term end up gaining that weight back at some point (& it’s not for lack of trying).

Whichever way you slice it, there is something really wrong with a “health” intervention that not only fails most of the time, but has the opposite of the intended effect & is associated with harm.

01/02/2024

With the enormous pressure to conform to a certain body ideal in today’s culture - especially at this time of the year when we’re hearing lots of messages about how we need to lose weight after the end of year festivities - it makes sense if you’re feeling the need to shrink your body!

And I’m not wanting to shame anyone here who has dieted in the past, is now or intends to start one this January. It’s your body & you are free to decide whether to diet or not.

But I do want you to know that dieting isn’t the successful & risk-free endeavour it’s made out to be. Because you may not have heard this from any one else before.

If you scroll through, you’ll find out more about why going on a diet is less successful & more harmful than you might think & have been led to believe.

And, I also want you to know, you do not need to diet to work on your health if that’s something you want to do. You can prioritise your physical, mental & emotional well-being by choosing actual health-promoting behaviours like moving in ways that feel good & bring you joy, getting enough quality sleep, managing chronic stress & increasing food variety ❤️.

If you’re tired of dieting year in, year out & still want take care of your body & mind in a way that is associated with better overall health, but are not sure how to start, I can help. Reach out for a complimentary appointment to find out how I can help you.

01/02/2024

Many people think Intuitive Eating is just eating when you’re hungry & stopping when you’re full or just eating donuts* all day, every day. But this isn’t what intuitive eating is. Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to nutrition & health based on 10 guiding principles (not rules) that - unlike diets - takes into account your physical nutritional needs as well as your mental & emotional health.

Here's how the creators of the approach Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch describe it: “Intuitive eating is a self-care framework that integrates instinct, emotion & rational thought.”

Rather than using external guides—such as counting calories or points, measuring portions, or following certain food rules—to determine what, when & how much to eat, intuitive eating helps you to re-connect to & learn to trust your body’s cues – cues you were born with - to guide you when it comes to making decisions around food & eating & other aspects of your selfcare (including rest, sleep, coping with your emotions, moving & more).

Sceptical? That’s OK & understandable given the messages we’ve all grown up hearing about food & eating. I was sceptical too, when I first stumbled across it. There are now over 200 scientific studies supporting this approach.

If you’ve made the decision to or are considering ditching dieting this year & want to learn more about this approach, consider starting with this book - the 4th edition of “Intuitive Eating – a Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach” by dietitians Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch.

Ultimately, intuitive eating is about putting the pleasure back in food & healing your relationship with food, mind & body so you can live your life to the full. And who doesn't want that?❤️

* I used donuts here as an example, but you could replace donuts with any foods you enjoy eating & are deemed bad or unhealthy by diet culture.

16/01/2024

Diet culture is really loud right now with all the "New Year, new me" messaging and what a lot of us don’t realise & are not told, diet culture* harms us all with its false messages & empty promises.

Scroll ➡️ through to unlearn 5 messages diet culture would have us believe.

As you scroll through & especially if these things are new to you & sound rather radical, know that you do not need to diet to work on your health if that’s something you want to do. You can prioritise your physical, mental & emotional well-being by choosing actual health-promoting behaviours like moving in ways that feel good & bring you joy, getting enough quality sleep, managing chronic stress & increasing food variety (if your resources allow you to do so)❤️.

Were any of these new or surprising for you?

*Christy Harrison, RD defines diet culture in her book “Ant-Diet” as “a system of beliefs that:

- Worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue, which means you can spend your whole life thinking you’re irreparably broken just because you don’t look like the impossibly thin “ideal.”

- Promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status, which means you feel compelled to spend a massive amount of time, energy, and money trying to shrink your body, even though the research is very clear that almost no one can sustain intentional weight loss for more than a few years.

- Demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others, which means you’re forced to be hyper-vigilant about your eating, ashamed of making certain food choices, and distracted from your pleasure, your purpose, and your power.

- Oppresses people who don't match up with its supposed picture of “health,” which disproportionately harms women, femmes, trans folks, people in larger bodies, people of color, and people with disabilities, damaging both their mental and physical health.”

16/11/2023

When it comes to making peace with food and your body, being able to offer yourself some self-compassion is essential – for the simple reason that it’s really hard to make peace with food and your body, if you’re constantly at war with yourself. In this blog, I discuss what self-compassion is, the science behind it, some of the myths around it (hint: it's NOT self-pity), why Intuitive Eating hinges on it, and how you can start practising it.
Happy reading!

Nutrition and intuitive eating coaching for women and children. Say goodbye to diets and learn how to truly nourish body, mind & soul. Book a free intro session