Body Positivity?

Let's talk about body positivity....this episode might be a bit more controversial than our typical content, but we felt the need to address it! We LOVE empowering women and helping them love their body, but we have found that the traditional body postive movement might actually be causing more harm than good....

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/bayleethedietitian/ or https://www.instagram.com/brianna.dietitian/ and send us a DM! You can also follow the podcast https://www.instagram.com/mocktailminutes/

Featured Mocktails:

Roasted Purpose - https://www.instagram.com/theroastedpurpose/

Drink Wholesome - https://www.instagram.com/drinkwholesome/

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

Baylee: 0:23

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey.

Brianna: 0:29

And this is Brianna.

Baylee: 0:30

This week I am drinking Mocktail minutes, very own matcha blend, Berry matcha from the roasted purpose. And it's delicious. It's just like a good, refreshing drink and it's got protein.

Brianna: 0:42

I love that. I'm gonna get on a big matcha kick soon. I'm gonna like figure out how to make it like really delicious. All of it.

Baylee: 0:49

Well, you just need to get our matcha

Brianna: 0:51

Yeah, that one is actually very good. But you know, I'm like. I'm just trying to make like hot. I don't know. I wanna be such a good matcha person, but I haven't figured out how to make it. But Rachel had a really good video the other day actually, and I think it kind of explained what I'm doing wrong. But anyways, I am doing, drink wholesome egg white protein. The vanilla one. Um, and I just mixed it with a little bit of like cold brew for like a little protein coffee. I really like their pro, their egg white protein. If you have any like sensitivities to weigh or even plant, I feel like it's such a good option.

Baylee: 1:26

Oh yeah. I love drink holes and it's the protein powder I use for,

Brianna: 1:30

yeah, I never feel bad after drinking it ever, so it's kinda my go-to.

Baylee: 1:35

that's. we're, we're getting a little controversial here, I feel like today. So we are talking about body positivity, so we're taking a little bit, we've, I mean, talked about it a little bit in some episodes, but we're taking kind of a different approach and giving our thoughts on it.

Brianna: 1:54

I feel like the body po positivity movement. It got big a couple years ago, I feel like. And for good reason, right? Like women kind of hate their bodies. So having a movement where it's like, you know, self-acceptance, great, I love it. But I think there is a side of it that sometimes so much self-acceptance, you kind of feel like you can't ever wanna change your body or anything that goes with changing your body is bad. And then we kind of get a little bit into denial.

Baylee: 2:24

Yes. And this is where, I mean, some people might get mad at us for talking about these things, but you know, these are just facts. And so Hayes is something some of you might have heard of, and I remember when I was in school to be a dietician, so I. I think it was my first conference. What is it called? Oh, fci. That's like the big dietician conference. my first one, it was in like 2017 probably, and one of the presentations was over Hayes. So Hayes is healthy at every size. It was, it's basically like a framework that promotes body respect, like weight, inclusivity, just health enhancing behaviors for people of all sizes and. It was developed in response to concerns over weight, stigmas, discrimination in healthcare, and just like the harmful psychological and physical effects of chronic dieting and fatphobia. So, I mean, I think like with anything. The intentions were good. The intentions were to reject the use of just weight as a primary indicator of health. It was to encourage more intuitive movement and eating, promote more like self-respect, support health behaviors without just focusing on weight loss, and do fight the weight stigma, however. it really encourages the idea that a person's size does not determine their health status. And while Hayes gained some popularity, especially on social media and among some healthcare professionals, it's, I think, deserves almost some criticism because of again, let's look at the facts now. When I say this, I am not saying you are less of a person because you are overweight or obese. Like this is not the point here. The point here is saying that when you have excess fat, it does contribute to health conditions that are working against your body. I mean, over 42% of American adults are. Obese. That's like almost one in two adults are obese. Childhood obesity rates have quadrupled In the last 40 years, obesity is also linked to at least 13 types of cancer. And in two th I think 2019, there was a study that concluded that obesity, obesity now kills more people globally than hunger. And the thing is like. All of these studies repeatedly show that a higher BMI correlates with an increased risk. Increased risk of type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, sleep apnea, infertility. Yet we have this other, I don't like, what do we call haze? Like we have haze who's like, doesn't matter what size you are, you can be healthy. Yes, it's true. And I also don't think like BMI is the end all, be all, but. What's that body composition like? So it's, I'm thinking more of, if we have all this excess fat, it is going to contribute to all these health concerns and it's a hundred percent something we can work on controlling.

Brianna: 5:41

Yes, and I think, I think it started off so good. I think it started off so good. It was trying to, again, like you said, really take the stigma out of. Doctors simply looking at certain metrics and being like, you must be unhealthy because this, or looking at someone and having a different, um, standard of care because they were in larger bodies, which is totally not okay. And I have, I mean, I've seen this in the hospital. Not every person who is in a larger body is unhealthy and so I get it. But it is safe to say like. Obesity and I hate, I hope sometime in the future we're starting to use obesity in terms of like your body fat percentage, right? Because some people are always just gonna be a higher BMI. Some people with a low BMI are just as unhealthy as someone with a high BMI.'cause it really is that muscle mass. Versus fat mass. And your fat mass. What, how, what percent of that is visceral fat?'cause that's like the, you know, but it is safe to say if you are at A BMI of 35 or 40, which a lot of research that has links, like your risk of all these diseases go as up dramatically. And it's safe to say if you're A BMI of 40, you are probably dealing with some excess body fat or overweight. Um. That's just how it is unless you are like a very intense bodybuilder with a huge amount of muscle on you. Um, so again, I don't think we should just be looking at the metrics of like, oh, you know, are they A BMI over 25 or are they BMI of like 27 28? But if you're a larger BMI, know that it does increase risk and I feel like Hayes kind of took the severity of it. Out things like instead it was like, no, no matter what, you can be healthy. Which I do think you can be at any size and be working towards health. I do think there's, you could be a larger body and be healthier than someone in a smaller, absolutely. Like the picture is goes way deeper. But I think it kind of told people like screw weight in general, screw all of that. You can be very healthy no matter how you, no matter what your body size is. And it kind of. Is doing a disservice to people because the leading causes of death in America are nutrition related diseases, lifestyle related diseases, all based off of how much fat mass and lean mass you have. And so just telling someone, Nope, you're never gonna have a heart attack. Being 300 pounds is like bad healthcare. You know what I mean? Like, and as dieticians, we're preventative healthcare. Like that's really what we are supposed to be. I know a lot of times we're just looked at as like healthcare.'cause people can only start coming to us and insurance covers us once they have disease, but dieticians in the itself are preventative. And so it's so hard for me to be like, no. You're, you're, you're never gonna have any sort of risk of disease. Like I have to lay out the whole picture now, what you decide to do with that and how you wanna approach it. Great. Like, I don't think we need to be weight centered for like our practice, but I think it plays a part in it.

Baylee: 8:54

And this is exactly where like the argument comes up. Yes, people deserve. To be, like you said, people deserve respect. No matter, even if you have excess fat, you should be respected as a person. Your percent of body fat should not determine your worth a hundred percent. But then it's like, okay, are we focusing too much on dignity and we're in that denial phase?

Brianna: 9:21

Yeah.

Baylee: 9:22

Here's the thing, you can love yourself and promote body positivity and still, I. Want to be healthier. You can fight fat phobia without pretending that obesity, again, not even just xx fat isn't a problem because thinking about the major health is issues associated with obesity, cardiovascular disease, obesity, increases the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol atherosclerosis, all of which are major contributors to heart attack, stroke, and heart failure.

Brianna: 9:55

Yeah.

Baylee: 9:56

Thinking of like type two diabetes. Um, excess body fat, especially around the abdomen, causes insulin resistance, though you have more insulin going on there too, which can lead to type two diabetes and long term nerve damage, kidney failure blindness, the amputation, and if it really gets bad.

Brianna: 10:16

Yeah.

Baylee: 10:17

I mean, there's so many different things, respiratory issues, obesity can physically restrict your breathing and increase the risk of obstructive sleep apnea. It's like what a 10% weight loss is gonna help sleep apnea. Is that what it is?

Brianna: 10:30

Yeah. Just because pressure, I mean, if you're thinking that like, you know, on your body. Yeah. I mean cancers especially like, there's like 13, what is it? 13 types of cancers.

Baylee: 10:40

Yeah. I think

Brianna: 10:41

Yeah.

Baylee: 10:43

Like breast, colorectal, uh, pancreatic, esophageal, liver, kidney.

Brianna: 10:49

Because fat is inflammatory, especially that visceral fat. It's very inflammatory. It's not what we want. We don't want ourselves to be in an unhealthy state.'cause that just leads to other cells being unhealthy. That is a very simplified way to ex to describe cancer. But you know. Is is,

Baylee: 11:09

like losing fat is just gonna be, you'll never get to get cancer. I don't wanna, I'm not saying that either,

Brianna: 11:15

yeah.

Baylee: 11:16

also like if you have excess fat and you do get cancer, there are indications of lower survival rates with this too. It's gonna be harder to fight it off.

Brianna: 11:26

Yeah, I mean, we see that with any disease, like we saw that with the vid. I don't even know. Can we say that word? We knew people in with much higher BMI had much bigger complications. Like that's just how it is with any sickness. And so I'm never gonna look at someone's weight and determine, oh, you're healthy'cause you're this weight or that weight. Like we like the whole picture. Right? Like that's why we like, I mean, I'm looking at labs, we're looking at a whole bunch of stuff because it isn't just the number on the scale. And I think that's what Hayes was getting at, was like, Hey, there's more to the picture. But then it turned to this like, now no matter what you do to try to decrease your body weight, now you're not being body positive and you're shaming people. And I think that keeps people stuck because women have always been at war with their bodies. And so yes, I want you to love your body, respect it, no matter what the size is, your body deserves that. Everybody deserves that. But then women get stuck thinking. Okay, I've accepted my body. I, this is what it is, but now I can't change it either because then I'm not being body positive. And then they're stuck with this dilemma of like, in their head, they really wanna change their body and then they think this is wrong. So I was wrong for hating my body and now I'm wrong for wanting to change my body. And it's always just this war within themselves when it's like. Like you said, you can have respect for your body. Love it, support it. Give it what it means'cause that's gonna be helpful for long-term. Just starving yourself is not helpful for long-term. Being malnourished as an underweight causes a lot of risk for things as well, but you can love your body, support it, and it's okay to wanna change it. That doesn't make you not love yourself. Does that make sense?

Baylee: 13:04

I would argue to say like. I've seen some body positivity posts and it's like we just eat whatever we want and like there's just no cares.

Brianna: 13:17

Mm-hmm.

Baylee: 13:17

It's not respecting your body. That's kind of just getting rebellious and going, it's the grain because it's like, I'm not gonna confine to these.

Brianna: 13:25

Right, which I feel like is not taking care of your body, right? Like we can't just do whatever we wanna do. We can't be like, forget it, I'm gonna survive off candy and not sleep and never move my body. And like, you know what I mean? You do things, you can, but yeah, you're not, I would say that's not great body positivity. You're not supporting your body. That's not being helpful at, at any size. Like, and I think this is where like intuitive eating and other thing, like food freedom gets such a bad rap because then it's like, oh, you must just be eating whatever you want, whatever you want. It's like, well, food freedom and intuitive eating has is not that, but people think it is. Of the health at every size body positivity movement. I'm not just saying go out and eat pizza all day every day. That's non-intuitive eating or food freedom, but it, it's so black and white and I feel like both sides lose.

Baylee: 14:17

Yeah, and it's not, I mean, I don't know if you're gonna agree this or not, but you know, when you're trying to make more nutritious choices, you're working to build muscle or lose fat or whatever it is, you may not love everything you eat. I mean,

Brianna: 14:38

Yeah,

Baylee: 14:39

You may not be excited to do it either,

Brianna: 14:41

Yeah.

Baylee: 14:43

okay.

Brianna: 14:43

work with a lot of people outpatient who are. They are morbidly obese. Okay? We're talking DMIs of like 40, 45, 50. They have a lot of body weight to lose. They are doing habits and changing things, and they don't love it. Why? Because they've been in this routine of doing things a certain way and they're literally making over their entire way of doing things. Like, I have one. She's like, I've never had a vegetable. It kind of blew me away. I was like, no, yes you have. She's like, no, I haven't. Her family grew up on like fast food only. They did not have vegetables. They did not not buy fresh fruit or vegetables. And she's like, I'm an adult now, and I've always just assumed I don't like those things, so I've never tried them. So she's like, I'm literally relearning what I like to eat. And she's like, it turns out I do like vegetables. Not all of them, but you know, she's like literally like, I feel like a child needing to try all these new foods, which she doesn't always love because again, habit change is hard. But eventually you love how you feel and you realize when I do this for my health, it's better. It's like that with everything. Like people love to drink alcohol. Alcohol will eventually kill you. Tobacco eventually kills you, peop things that feel good eventually aren't very good for you. You have to rein it in. That's just the reality of it. And people will say, oh, well you're being, you know, whatever this, no, I'm not. I'm telling you the truth.

Baylee: 16:05

here thing, people are always like, well, something's gotta kill you at some point. I'm like, okay, but I don't choose death by Brownie every night like.

Brianna: 16:13

Oh, great. I was gonna say like I choose death by skydiving. I absolutely don't. And now I'm never gonna skydive ever again'cause I just jinx myself. But you know what I mean? Like I wanna be like, I want it to be where anything I can really control, I'm not dying from that because it is in my control, the things that I do. And you know, obviously genetics and environment play a huge role in obesity. We know that. To me, when I hear that, I hear, oh, I need to do a better job at helping my patients and clients who have such a high risk of disease because of that genetic factor, and tell them all the things they should be doing sooner in life. Right. I'm not writing, I'm not gonna look at'em and be like, oh, you're overweight. Oh, it's just you. No, I'm gonna be like, oh, okay. Maybe there's a lot playing into it. Insulin resistance at a much earlier age, all this stuff. Cool. But it's my job to be like, Hey, you're at higher risk. Whereas like maybe your parents or grandparents didn't really have to worry about this until 60, 70, or 80, but now you're in your thirties and forties and I'm doing you a disservice if I'm telling you you could do whatever you want and be fine, because I know that that's not true.

Baylee: 17:18

Like stop waiting till your health is in, in the gutter to make changes. Insulin resistance, like we can detect insulin resistance like 10 to 15 years for type two diabetes.

Brianna: 17:30

I tell somebody that, they're like, how come nobody didn't tell me? I'm like, like why? They're in my office. And they're like, why am I learning about this now? And I'm like, it's just not the standard of care, which. Needs to change. And it's like my doctor's always just been like, you need to lose weight. And it's like, okay, yeah, true. But you probably had a harder time losing weight. You probably needed other tools to help you so that you didn't get to this point. Like that's the missing piece that I think everyone's trying to get to. But it's just this big back and forth about like you're really unhealthy if you look a certain way, you're never unhealthy, no matter how you look. It's just. Individualized approach, but I can't say. You could do whatever you want whenever you want, and live a happy healthful life.

Baylee: 18:13

like look further into your future and I mean, decide what you actually want. If sure, Ronnie makes you happy, but you know, it's probably a lot more enjoyable being 70 and independent and getting to go out and do things. And like people, I mean, I've heard people say they're scared to live forever because they don't wanna be a vegetable living. I'm like, but that, like

Brianna: 18:35

You get paperwork for that, but I know

Baylee: 18:40

Like if they don't want to just be like existing

Brianna: 18:43

we wanna have good quality of life.

Baylee: 18:45

That's why I'm like, okay, do these things now. So you can have that quality of life. You're not just sitting there at 80, 90 years old. You can be up and moving at 80 or 90. You're setting yourself right up right now. And so I guess to kind of close this episode out, let's talk about how to be body positive while making healthy changes. Number one, I would say you have to start from a place of self-respect. Not self hate. So not thinking like, I need to change'cause I hate my body. Maybe you just do you want to feel better, move easier, have more energy, have more sleep, be able to go up the steps without needing to like take a break. So to say body positivity isn't about never changing, it's not never needing to hate yourself in order to change,

Brianna: 19:37

Yeah.

Baylee: 19:38

I think is a better way to look at it.

Brianna: 19:39

And I feel like when I look at body positivity, I'm thinking like accepting and loving your body for like the natural aging kind of process. Like what season of life you're in. Like stretch marks are normal, freckles, wrinkles. Like you get a little looser in some areas. Like you know, that to me like, okay, that's body positive, loving your body and whatever season you're in, there's certain things you can't really change. And it's just being okay with that and being like, Hey, this is my body. I'm choosing to like it. Right. I don't really think that that has much to do with weight, to be completely honest. And so I feel like I've met so many women who feel bad. So if you're listening to this and you're like, well, I really am working on being body positive and loving my body, but I also wanna change it, and I feel bad about that. Separate the two, completely separate the two. They're not, they're not together. And I would say have the mantra of like, you know, and checking in with your intentions like. Are you doing something today to fully support your body and have longevity? Or are you doing it to torture yourself because you wanna lose weight? Right. Because any, anything that you do can be negative, right? Anything that's health promoting can be negative if your intention is bad. So like have a mantra of, respect my body and I'm working towards having the body that I feel very comfortable in, or that I really enjoy. You know, like, think of like some sort of mantra like you can, and that's gonna help you make that habit change. Then you just get stuck in like, well, then this is what it is and I have to be happy about it. And then you're still unhappy with yourself?

Baylee: 21:03

Stop settling. Not just accepting things for what they are. Like, if you don't feel good, do something about it.

Brianna: 21:09

Mm-hmm.

Baylee: 21:10

And I see this happen all the time where we get stuck in this rut of like, woe is me and how it is. And then I'll be like, well have what? What have you worked on?

Brianna: 21:20

Mm-hmm.

Baylee: 21:20

What some this for about two weeks and it didn't work. So I'm back to square one. It's gonna take more than two weeks. I mean, not that you should always have to be hyperfocused on. Changing your habits. Habits, but I mean, you should be intentional every day about what you are doing to fuel your body, to move your body, to allow your body to get rest, to feel your joy, mint cup, or whatever it is. My advice is just stop settling and life happen to you.

Brianna: 21:52

Yeah, you have to be the adult in your life and ask yourself, does this make me feel good? Does this get me where I wanna be? Do I like what I'm doing?

Baylee: 22:00

Mm-hmm.

Brianna: 22:01

And be honest about it.'cause sometimes people be like, well, I hate working out, so I guess I shouldn't. No. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? But yeah, so I don't know. I think it'd be interesting to see what everybody thinks about this. I feel like we don't usually do super controversial things. I feel like this is a little controversial and I think, you know. If you've worked with Baylor and I, you know that like, yeah, we help people lose weight, but we also, our main goal is to make you feel good and have longevity. So yeah.

Baylee: 22:29

All right, everyone, feel free. Let us know your takes on this episode.

Brianna: 22:35

And you could be mad too, like if you're like, Ew, I hated this, send me a mean DM, and like, let's chat about it.'cause it probably struck something, you could also send me an nice dm, that'd be cool too, but. But yeah, us know what you.

Baylee: 22:57

We hope you have a great week, and we'll be back next week. Bye everyone.