Year: 2023

You may have heard the term, food freedom or seen inspirational posts on Instagram with pictures of yummy food. But, what does food freedom mean exactly?

A Mindset

Food freedom means that all rules, diets and restrictions around food are eliminated. Our culture loves to promote fad diets and the misconception that certain foods are good and certain foods are bad. Food freedom removes boundaries around food and allows you to enjoy food without restriction, guilt or diets. This mindset brings freedom to the way we eat as well as our mental space around food. It is “freeing” to forget diets, lose the guilt and embrace whole foods!

Diet Quality not Calories

Diet quality is focusing on whole foods that nourish our bodies. This means a focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lean proteins and healthy fats. By incorporating a wide variety of foods into our diet including complex carbohydrates and a healthy dose of fiber, we increase our fruit and vegetable intake and make our gut microbiome happy.

No Guilt

Food freedom removes the guilt that can be associated with food. Allowing ourselves to enjoy the foods we like while focusing on diet quality over calories. Food freedom takes the stress and guilt away from food and gives you freedom to enjoy foods you like while fueling your body with high quality, whole foods. Making peace with food, is a freeing feeling!

Building Positive Perspectives

By ditching diets and restrictions around food, food freedom also builds positive perspectives around what you eat. This means nourishing ourselves with a quality diet and learning that food and eating can be enjoyable and good for you.

Are Intuitive Eating and Mindful Eating the same as Food Freedom?

Intuitive eating and mindful eating are practices that can bring you to food freedom. Intuitive Eating is based on 10 principles that include rejecting diet mentality, making peace with food and challenging the food police. Mindful eating focuses on the eating experience, encouraging experiencing your food with all five senses, no distractions while eating (i.e. television and phones), listening to your bodies ques for hunger and satiety. The principals and goals of intuitive eating and mindful eating can help you get to a place of food freedom. If you are interested in intuitive eating or mindful eating, I encourage you to find a registered dietitian who can guide you on these practices.

Curious what food freedom can do for you?

If food freedom has been on your mind and you are interested in learning more, I would love to help you on your journey. Send me a quick email or book a call with me to learn more.

These days, social media seems to be full of numerous so-called nutrition “experts.” Here’s a news flash for you, anyone can call themselves a “nutritionist!” Crazy, right? It is a completely unregulated term. However, registered dietitians ARE nutrition experts who have earned credentialing to obtain the title.

All dietitians are nutritionists, but not all nutritionists are dietitians.

If this is confusing to you, you are not alone. Registered dietitians can use RD (registered dietitian) or RDN, (registered dietitian nutritionist) in their title, both options are approved for use by the Commission on Dietetics Registration. Dietitians can provide Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) to help patients manage chronic diseases, while “nutritionists” cannot.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the difference in education and training between dietitians and nutritionists.

Requirements to become a Registered Dietitian:

• A Bachelor’s Degree or higher in nutrition/dietetics field from an accredited institution
• Completed an accredited supervised practice program with 1,200 hours combined at a health-care facility, public health and foodservice organization
• Passed a national examination given by the Commission on Dietetic Registration
• Obtained licensure based on state requirements
• Continuing education of 75 credits per 5 year cycle
• Abide by code of ethics

Requirements to become a Nutritionist:

• NONE!

If you find yourself seeking nutrition advice, I urge you to do some background research on the person providing the advice. Do they have a degree and are credentialed in dietetics? If not, how do they claim to be an expert?

There is a LOT of misinformation out in the world related to nutrition. This misinformation is on social media, the internet, as well as books! Yes, people with no background in nutrition have published books on nutrition! Do not believe every “nutritionist” who gives advice or tells you to eat what they eat. Dietitians work in a variety of settings and will always have their credentials listed.

Areas of Practice for RDNs:

• Hospitals and health-care facilities
• Sports Nutrition
• Corporate Wellness
• Private Practice
• Community and Public Health
• Research
• Universities
• Food and nutrition related industries

All nutrition recommendations should be INDIVIDUALIZED. We are all unique people with unique needs, and nutrition advice should always be tailored that way. If you want sound advice, seek out a registered dietitian nutritionist who has the education, credentials and knowledge to assist you in your health goals. If you are looking to get started on your health journey through nutrition, I’m here for you! Email me or send me a message here.