Diet culture is pervasive. What it teaches, is problematic. Those that have tried it again and again, end up with a predictable set of behaviours and attitudes about food and their bodies. If the following list describes you, you may be one of them:

• It seems as if I am always on diet

• I lose weight, only to gain it again

• I am preoccupied with the desire to be thinner

• I feel guilty when I eat “illegal” foods

• I have a closet full of clothes in different sizes

• I have lost touch with my natural hunger signals

• I fluctuate between periods of sensible, nutritious eating and out of control eating

• I think about burning kilojoules when I exercise

• I am at war with my body

You do not have to be at war with your body to be healthy. In this episode I speak with Maya Naumann, RD and member of Non-Diet South Africa on her experience with disordered eating, diet culture and being at war with her body, even through her own dietetics practise. We look at what it means to be a dieter vs. a non-dieter, how you can learn to trust your body's intuitive human element in eating practises, the flaws in the biomedical model taught in dietetics studies, assessing the root of your diet culture beliefs, and Anita Johnston's four areas for eating disorder recovery.

​Maya is qualified with a Bsc (Medical Honours) in Dietetics from Stellenbosch university in 2000. Her dietetics degree gave her a good, thorough clinical understanding of nutrition and the human body...nevertheless, she left university with a painful, shameful VERY secret, borderline eating disorder. She had a fearful, obsessive relationship with her body and with food.

After endless researching on how to be free of this disorder she learnt how to nourish herself and her body in a life-giving, peaceful, free, joyful, abundant, celebratory way. She now helps people realise that they do not have to be at war with their bodies to be healthy.

You can find Maya at https://www.mayanaumann.com or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mayanaumanndietitian

PS If you are struggling with Gut Health issues in your recovery from disordered eating - head on over to https://www.rawbiotics.co.za/?sca_ref=3947322.Xy5xg1deW2 to browse gut health probiotic support.