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Stress Awareness Month

Emma Leister, MANNA Dietitian


Outline

1. What does “health” mean?


2. Exploring our relationships with food
3. How might nutrition recommendations create stress?
4. How do we heal some negative relationships with food?
5. Practicing mindfulness
Defining “Health”
What does “Health” mean to you?
What does “Health” mean to you?
Health can refer to physical health, mental health, emotional health,

spiritual health, and social health


April is “Stress Awareness Month”, so we are shifting our
focus from nutrition and physical health to nutrition and
mental health
Exploring our relationships with
food
Share a story about a food that reminds you of
home
Share a story of a food that brings you joy
Describe a “comfort food”
Tell me about a food that you have a negative
experience with
How does stress affect what / how you eat?
How do our relationships with
food evolve?
Infancy

A baby cries when it’s hungry, and stops eating


when full
Infancy

A baby cries when it’s hungry, and stops eating


when full

What stops us from continuing to eat this way as we get older?


Relationships with food during adulthood
How does your relationship with food evolve as you get older?
Relationships with food during adulthood
How does your relationship with food evolve as you get older?
Relationships with food during adulthood
How does your relationship with food evolve as you get older?
Relationships with food during adulthood
How does your relationship with food evolve as you get older?
How might food/nutrition bring
people stress?
1. Eating Disorders

● Anorexia: an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat


● Bulimia: binge eating large amounts of food with a loss of control over the eating —
and then purge, trying to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way
● Binge eating: eating large amounts of food in a short amount of time with a loss of
control
● Orthorexia: an obsession with eating foods that one considers healthy
2. Food Allergies
3. Illnesses

● Diabetes - paying attention to certain food groups; portion sizes, high


and low blood sugar
● Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) - Fear of the unknown. “Which food
will trigger GI discomfort?”
● Kidney Disease (on dialysis) - patients must monitor sodium,
potassium, phosphorus, fluid, protein
Healing negative relationships
with food to manage stress
Personality 1: the stress eater
How to manage stress eating

1. Note that emotional eating is normal! You are only


human.
2. If you feel that emotional eating is hurting your
health, find some other ways to manage your stress
(see handout)
Can you think of a time when emotional eating may actually help?
Personality 2: the chronic dieter
Personality 2: the chronic dieter

https://9gag.com/gag/aVMpVAK/how-ron-swanson-eats-a-banana
Healing a chronic dieting relationship

Look out for “diet talk”


Healing a chronic dieting relationship

Look out for “diet talk”

“Carbs are bad for you” “This is my cheat meal”

“You’re not fat, you’re beautiful” “I feel fat”

“I was bad today I ate a donut” “I can’t eat that today I ate so badly yesterday”

“Congratulations on your weight loss!” “I need to lose 5 pounds”


Personality 3: all or nothing eating
Personality 3: all or nothing eating
Healing from an ‘all or
nothing’ relationship
Healing from an ‘all or
nothing’ relationship

Note: if you do have an


episode of binge eating,
you still need to eat the
next day! Reflect on why
you may have binged.
Tomorrow is a new day!
Healing from an
‘all or nothing’
relationship

All foods fit!


Mindfulness
Mindful Eating
Mindful Movement
Conclusions
Take home messages
● Everybody has a unique relationship with food
● Sometimes stress impacts the way that we eat
● Sometimes our relationships with food can create stress
● All foods fit!
● Healing negative thoughts about food can help you to reduce some of
the stress in your life
● It is important to take time in your day to be mindful--eliminate
distractions from the TV and phone, be more “present”, and take
breaks!

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