UBCO Food Services

How many of us exercise just to make our bodies look a certain way?  What if we shifted our focus to how it FEELS to move our bodies?  Just like intuitive eating helps you to rediscover the satisfaction in eating, it also helps you to rediscover the satisfaction (and even joy!) in movement.  When you … Read more

Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness (without using food) Regardless of our size or shape, food usually has emotional associations (1). The comfort of a cookie after a scraped knee, ice cream to celebrate your team’s win, Sunday night dinner at Grandma’s house. Food is comfort, love, reward and connection – but the problem starts when … Read more

Fullness is a process controlled by hormones and your brain When you are hungry, your brain signals the release of hormones that trigger the desire for food.  When you are full, the brain releases hormones that tell you that you can stop eating (1).  It takes practice to identify signals from your body that send … Read more

Eating should bring pleasure and satisfaction!  Diet culture shifts the focus away from positive feelings and instead teaches us to fixate on guilt when we choose foods that don’t fit the “good”, “healthy” or “clean” labels.  Enjoying the eating experience means choosing the foods that you are craving in that moment … and by doing … Read more

What (or who?) is Food Police?  Food police refers to the beliefs or concepts – driven by diet culture – that say we need to place a value on the foods we eat (1). They label foods as “good”, “bad”, “clean”, etc. The food police can come in many forms including media, friends and family – … Read more

Making peace with food  The goal of this principle is to give yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods, whenever you’re hungry, and without feeling like you have to make adjustments or sacrifices if you “screw up” (1).  Take a minute right now, and think about foods that diet culture has taught you are “good”, … Read more

Keep your body well fed  What does this even mean? We need enough calories and carbohydrates to function and thrive, but counting calories is not the answer. From the time we are born, we are hard-wired to eat when we are hungry and stop when we are full. These cues are controlled by our brain and … Read more

What is diet culture?  Diet culture is the system of beliefs that idealizes eating a certain way in order to obtain a particular body shape.  It associates thinness with higher social status and moral value.  At the same time, it demonizes certain ways of eating, and attaches shame to “unhealthy” food choices and certain body … Read more