Ep.151 (Transcript): How to Make Peace With "Healthy" Foods Like Veggies

Welcome back to Rebuilding Trust With Your Body, I’m Katy Harvey your host. Today’s episode is about how to make peace with so-called “healthy” foods like fruits and vegetables.

We talk a lot in the early stages of intuitive eating especially about how to make peace with your formerly forbidden foods – those foods that you were told that you shouldn’t be eating when you’re dieting (e.g. things like nachos, pizza, french fries, ice cream, donuts, candy, etc.).

You’ve probably heard me talk before about how we sometimes need to “decharm” these foods to take the power away from them, and to neutralize them, so that those foods can sit in your kitchen or pantry without them calling to you, and without you feeling out of control with them.

The way that we decharm those foods is by intentionally including them in a strategic and intentional way. (As a quick side note, I am going to be doing a live workshop later this month on how to decharm Halloween candy, so if you want to find out how to get inside that workshop shoot me a DM. I’m really excited for this, it’s going to be hands-on where I’ll help you come up with your specific action plan for decharming Halloween candy this year, which is also going to benefit you as we roll into the holiday season and all of the special foods that are around.)

Anyway, we focus a lot in intuitive eating on making peace with the foods we have thought of as “bad/unhealthy,” and sometimes we overlook the importance of also making peace with foods that we’ve categorized as “good/healthy” as well.

Keep in mind that the goal of intuitive eating isn’t for you to stop eating “healthy” foods. It’s for you to make peace with ALL foods, and to be able to give your body what it needs with your eating, without it causing you a bunch of worry, guilt and stress.

So that’s what we’re going to be digging into today.

Before we dive into our main topic for today, you know what time it is…We’ve got some Wellness Woo to talk about.

Wellness Woo is the stuff that diet and wellness culture tells us we should do in the name of health, but it’s really based on pseudoscience, exaggerated claims, or just nonsense.

Today’s Wellness Woo is: Bravenly Gold Apple Cider and Turmeric Beverage – this was another listener submitted topic, which you know I always love, so keep the suggestions coming my way!

What is the Bravenly Gold Apple Cider and Turmeric Beverage, and is it legit even a little bit?

First of all, Bravenly is the name of the company that sells it. I had never heard of this company before, so I dug into it, and from what I can tell it’s just another MLM. So we have a red flag right from the get go.

The founder and CEO of this MLM, Aspen Emry, is a woman who says she she had success with network marketing (which is code for MLM) starting over 18 years ago with no experience, and she loved it so much she started her own.

What’s kind of funny to me there is that she’s talking about how she started in MLMs selling products without any background, credentials or experience and she’s bragging about this to show how far she’s come and what a great company she’s built.

For me though, all I hear there is that she’s completely unqualified to be selling nutrition and wellness products.

She has no health credentials, no background in any type of nutrition science, and absolutely nothing other than having been in a previous MLM that makes her “qualified” to be selling these products.

That alone should be troubling enough, but clearly it’s not because people are buying their products and putting them in their bodies. Ironically, the type of person who is going to buy something like this that is being marketed as “healthy” probably would say that they care deeply about what they are putting in their body – but let’s think about this for a moment.

If you truly care deeply about what you’re putting in your body, does it make sense to be purchasing it off the internet from a company run by a person with zero training in health or nutrition, and to be using products that fall under the heading of unregulated supplements?

It doesn’t make a ton of sense when we look at it that way.

It’s kind of like when these wellness influencers tell you not to eat processed food, but then sell you things like greens powders which are quite literally processed food.

Make it make sense.

Anyway…

Let’s dig into this specific product that a listener sent me. It’s Bravenly’s product called “Bravenly Gold” which they call an apple cider and turmeric drink. Upon closer inspection, it’s actually apple cider vinegar (which I already did a wellness woo on back in episode 66 called “what does reject the diet mentality mean and how do you actually do it – I’ll link to it in the show notes). I’m curious if they meant to call it an apple cider drink, or if it was an error on the website. Because to me, apple cider sounds tastier than ACV, so are they trying to make it more appealing? But I wonder if it’s an error because ACV is what everyone associates with alleged health benefits.

Anyway…I’m guessing they call it “Gold” because apple cider vinegar and turmeric have a gold appearance when mixed with water. AND we associate gold with wealth, right? Gold sounds like something to be desired, to covet, to treasure. Food and supplement marketing is so interesting when we analyze it.

And that’s the thing – marketing is the key for the wellness industry. Because so much of what they’re selling is pseudoscientific nonsense, so they need really good marketing to sell these things that often aren’t legit. And they’re so good at their marketing that they can sell it at a premium price – by doing things like calling it gold. You can purchase this product for only $70 for 30 servings.

Here’s what they claim this powder does:

Support blood sugar levels
Support healthy immunity
Gut health and digestion
Appetite control
Healthy skin and nails

And they say that it was created by a naturopathic doctor (which is also a wellness woo red flag that I covered back in episode 92), to reduce your hunger, increase fat loss, and boost your immune system (boosting your immune system is also a wellness woo concept that I covered back in episode 60). There’s so much woo happening here that we’d be here all day if we broke down each element of it.

If you scroll down on the website it goes on to talk about how it contains “hydrating coconut milk” (there’s nothing more hydrating about coconut milk than any other liquid BTW), and then they list off a bunch of “superfoods” (which is a wellness woo concept I covered in episode 102)

Let’s chat really quick about the main ingredient they’re hyping up in this product, turmeric, and then we’ll move on.

I went to the Office of Dietary Supplements website, which is run by the National Institutes of Health. They keep up to date research information about supplements available for the public, so if you’re ever curious about something I’d recommend checking there.

Here’s what they have to say about turmeric:

It’s a plant in the ginger family, and has traditionally been used in Ayurvedic medicine, and it’s a major ingredient in curry powder. That’s what gives curry powder it’s color.
According to the ODS, “Much research has been done on substances from turmeric, but their health effects remain uncertain.”
Turmeric and curcumin have a variety of interesting biological activities, but they’re challenging to study because curcumin is unstable (it easily changes into other substances) and has low bioavailability (not much of it reaches the bloodstream) when it’s taken orally.
In addition, curcumin products may differ in composition or contain more substances than expected, which makes the results of research on these products difficult to understand and compare. Because the actions of turmeric and its components in people are complex and not well understood, no clear conclusions have been reached about whether these substances have benefits for health conditions.
Turmeric and conventionally formulated curcumin products are probably safe when taken orally or applied to the skin in the recommended amounts.
Efforts have been made to develop curcumin products with increased bioavailability, and many modified products are already on the market. Improving bioavailability might lead to increases in harmful effects as well as desirable ones.
Turmeric may be unsafe for use during pregnancy in amounts greater than those commonly found in food. Little is known about whether it’s safe to use turmeric in amounts greater than those commonly found in food while breastfeeding.

Bottom line, turmeric might have health benefits, but we don’t know how to quantify them yet, and it’s probably not necessary or all that helpful to be taking it as a supplement, and some of these products could be dangerous – we don’t know. If you want to eat more foods with turmeric in them, like curry, that’s fine, but I wouldn’t waste my money or risk my health on a product like Bravenly Gold or any turmeric supplement.

If you have an example of Wellness Woo that you want to share, send it to me at rebuildingtrustwithyourbody@gmail.com.

Ok, that’s enough of that. Moving on to today’s main topic…how to make peace with “healthy” foods like veggies

This episode was inspired by a couple of conversations I’ve had with some of you recently. It came up in group coaching for Non-Diet Academy where one of my clients said that she wants to learn how to basically decharm fruits and veggies in the other direction, where they don’t have charm in the sense of her wanting to eat them all the time – they have charm in the sense that she has had a block against eating them.

I had another conversation with one of you listening in the DMs (you know who you are), who reached out and shared:

“I’ve been on the IE journey for about 10 months. I feel like I’m mostly off the diet mentality, still making peace with trigger foods. Or, desensitizing them. I still don’t have the desire to have fruits and veggies. Am I doing something wrong? Like I know why I should be eating them. But like I said, there’s been no desire for a while to eat fruits and veggies.”

I have recently started calling this block against certain foods “gloom.” So some foods have “charm” (metaphorical sprinkles that makes us want to eat them even if we’re not hungry), and other foods have “gloom” which makes us feel uninterested in eating them, or we might even have a block against eating them. These foods have the “blah factor.”

So first of all, I want you to know that this is a “thing” and it’s not just that there’s something wrong with you where you don’t want to eat them. It makes perfect sense that once you’ve stopped pressuring yourself to eat things that you were telling yourself you “should” eat or that you “had to” eat when you were dieting or trying to eat healthy, that with the pressure removed you might not want to eat those foods at all.

How do you go from gloom to bloom and reincorporate those gloom foods on your intuitive eating journey?

From Gloom to Bloom: Reincorporating Fruits & Veggies on Your Intuitive Eating Journey

I’m going to use fruits and veggies as our example here, because it’s the most common food group that my clients struggle with in this way, but maybe for you it’s about something else like getting in enough protein. Whatever your “gloom” type of food is (which, again, are the foods that you’re uninterested in eating, or you have a block against eating them and they feel “blah”) I want you to apply this concept to your “gloom” foods.

We want to go from gloom to what I’m calling “bloom.” So similar to how with “decharming” we are taking the charm away from those foods that have power over you, with “blooming” your gloom foods, we are opening you back up to them.

The word bloom is like a flower opening up. It represents growth, beauty, and enjoyment. I went outside this morning and my rose bushes are in full bloom right now and they are so beautiful and enjoyable to look at, even though they are some work to maintain, and they poke me when I prune them. I think that’s a beautiful metaphor here for the way that you’re trying to make peace with fruits and vegetables.

We are going to approach this with the intent to help you blossom, to help you feel open to eating them, to enjoy them in tasty and enjoyable ways, and for it to bring you pleasure because it feels good to be eating them.

Starting With Permission to NOT Eat Fruits and Veggies

I know this sounds a little backwards and counterproductive here, but it’s really important that we start with the fundamental understanding that you don’t have to eat fruits and vegetables. You’re not a bad person if you don’t. You’re not automatically unhealthy if you don’t. You aren’t going to die of a fruit or vegetable deficiency. That’s not how it works. (Now yes, of course there are wonderful nutrients in fruits and veggies, there’s no doubt about that. But if you never ate another fruit or veggie in your life that in and of itself wouldn’t kill you. There are other ways to get those nutrients.)

Am I suggesting that people shouldn’t eat fruits and veggies? No. I posted about this on social media once, and of course it got taken completely the wrong way as if I am one of those carnivore guys who thinks that fruits have too many carbs and veggies have “anti-nutrients” (which is absurd). That’s not where I am coming from AT ALL. In fact, I also did a Wellness Woo about the carnivore diet. And this just shows how hard it is to have these conversations in a world that has such strong and polarizing views about health and nutrition – and when a lot of these polarizing views are being made up and perpetuated by people who don’t actually have the credentials or training to be talking about it, and when they don’t have legitimate, sound scientific research to back it up.

So…What I am saying is that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t eat fruits and veggies. I had a colleague, a fellow dietitian, Tracy Brown, who talks about how she once went 6 months without eating fruits and veggies to show herself that it was fine. She talks about how it was an important part of her own healing in her relationship with food. You see, when we’ve gone too far the other way and put excessive emphasis on eating fruits and veggies, sometimes taking a break from them is a necessary part of healing. It’s the same thing if someone is basically addicted to exercise. Is exercise generally good for you? Sure, but if someone has an unhealthy emotional dependence on it, then it’s not good for their overall wellbeing, and for a period of time they might need to actively choose NOT to exercise in order to get healthier.

This fundamental understanding that it’s ok NOT to eat fruits and veggies is really important as the foundation for the rest of this discussion. I have had numerous clients over the years who told me that when I said this to them it was a pivotal part of their healing. They needed to have that pressure removed. And you know what? Most of them eventually came around to craving, wanting and liking fruits and veggies again. Our bodies like variety when we remove the rules, judgments and pressure about food.

Incorporating Fruits and Veggies in Enjoyable Ways

If and when you’re ready to incorporate fruits and veggies, the way that we take them from gloom to bloom is by incorporating them in ways that actually taste good.

Diet culture has had us doing things like choking down celery juice, eating salad with fat free dressing or just vinegar, and eating steamed broccoli because heaven forbid we add any calories to it.

Maybe you’ve forced yourself to eat apples as a snack, or you put grapes in the freezer because you saw that trend on social media, and you’ve tried convincing yourself that they are sweet enough to constitute a dessert.

Perhaps you’ve eaten zoodles and tried telling yourself they’re just as good as regular spaghetti noodles, or you ordered a salad with dressing on the side so you can dip your fork in it at restaurants when what you really wanted was a burger or a wrap that comes with fries.

When we’ve forced ourselves to eat fruits and veggies in ways that aren’t really enjoyable or satisfying, OF COURSE we don’t want to keep eating them! Especially once you’re stepping away from dieting and you’re letting go of the diet mentality.

With intuitive eating you’ve been learning to listen to your body and to choose things that are actually satisfying. If you’ve been eating fruits and veggies for decades in ways that aren’t satisfying, then it makes perfect sense you wouldn’t crave them now that you’re practicing intuitive eating.

Maybe you’re somebody who does genuinely like the taste of fruits and veggies, but you still have a block against eating them. They just don’t sound good or appealing in the moment. Again, that makes sense when the way we’ve been programmed to think about them is through that lens of good/bad food.

As you’re looking at ways to reincorporate them, I want you to start with asking yourself why. Are you feeling like you need to eat more fruits and veggies to prevent yourself from gaining more weight? Or to secretly try and lose weight? Or is it in response to some type of concern about your health? Do you have a hunch you’d feel better physically if you were eating more produce?

There are lots of reasons you might be desiring to go down this path, and we want to make sure it’s not a sneaky form of diet mentality working its way back in.

Wanting to honor your health and feel better physically are wonderful reasons to explore fruits and veggies. But we also don’t want to create some type of magical thinking or diet mentality around it.

I want you to consider what would be some enjoyable ways to include fruits and veggies. Let me give you some examples:

Roasting broccoli with olive oil or putting cheese sauce on it
Dipping baby carrots or cucumber slices in ranch dressing
Putting your favorite dressing, cheese, croutons, nuts, bacon or whatever toppings you enjoy on a salad
Having apple crisp or peach crisp as a dessert
Putting strawberries on your ice cream sundae
Adding some extra veggies to a soup, casserole or stir fry
Having a side salad with your pasta dinner
Dipping apple slices in PB, Nutella or caramel
Eating canned green beans or canned fruit cocktail if you like it better than frozen or fresh

I want you to be curious whether you had a reaction to any of these examples I gave. Did you think, “What’s the point of eating apples if it’s in apple crisp?” or “Why would I put cheese sauce on my broccoli? That basically cancels out the nutrition.” Ding, ding, ding – that’s the diet mentality.

Incorporating fruits and veggies into our cooking or desserts doesn’t cancel them out. In fact, we could argue that it enhances the absorption of some of the nutrients, because there are certain vitamins that are fat-soluble and you absorb them better if you’re eating them with a fat source.

You’re still getting the nutrients from cherries, even if they’re in a cherry pie. You’re still getting the nutrients from green beans, even if they’re in a creamy green bean casserole topped with those crunchy fried onions.

I want you to consider ways that would taste good to include fruits and veggies.

Starting Small and Planning Your Fruits and Veggies into Your Meals and Snacks

I also think it’s important to start small. You don’t want to come in hot to go with this and try to eat 5 or 10 servings of fruits and veggies per day. That – again – is the diet mentality.

I challenge you to allow yourself to just include a fruit or veggie it once per day, or if you’re already eating them sometimes, to add one more serving than you normally have.

We want to take a baby step and solidify that as a habit first. We can even stack it as a habit with something else you’re already routinely eating. Here are some examples:

If you like to eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, you could add some blueberries or banana slices to your cereal.
If you enjoy eating yogurt, add some fruit to it.
Throw in a side of bell pepper strips and hummus with your lunch.
Put strawberries on your ice cream.
Have some grapes with your afternoon snack.

I encourage you to think about adding these in, and not about taking away other foods.

One of the best ways to do this so that it becomes a habit that sticks is to intentionally plan it in so you don’t space it off and forget (and so that the gloom doesn’t take over and you aren’t able to bloom in your relationship with fruits and veggies).

I have some meal and snack planning templates that you can download for free. It comes with a step-by-step guide for how to use them, and what you can do is plan in the fruits and veggies you want to incorporate each week. You can grab them at nondietacademy.com/menuplan.

Don’t go overboard and buy a bunch of produce that you now feel pressured to eat, and then you feel like crap when it goes bad and you have to throw it away. That’s part of starting small. Just buy one, or a couple more things than you usually do, and write down when and how you’re going to work them in.

I also encourage you to be open to using frozen and canned produce too. Those options have just as many nutrients (in some cases more), and then you’ll have less spoilage and waste.

I like to keep a combo on hand. I’ll buy fresh fruits and veggies that I know we’ll use in the first part of the week, and then canned and frozen options for the end of the week (and to have on hand just in general).

Gathering Data and Noticing Now it Feels

As you’re incorporating fruits and veggies again, I want you to be curious with yourself. While you’re eating them, do an experiment where you are pretending you’re a taste tester on one of those food competition shows.

Fun fact – I was a trained, paid taste tester when I was in college. My specialty was pork products, and when we would do the taste testing, we had to mindfully eat the pork and evaluate it on certain characteristics such as tenderness, juiciness, toughness, and flavor. (In fact if you want to see me in action, the sensory analysis lab I worked in at Iowa State University was featured on an episode of Modern Marvels on The History Channel. The episode is called “The Pig.” It’s my claim to fame. This is completely off topic, but one day, years after this show had first aired, it must have been rerun on TV because a guy I graduated from high school with messaged me on FB and was like, “Katy! I saw you on TV!” It’s one of those things that cracks me up.)

Anyway…

Eat the fruits and veggies mindfully to figure out how you like them. What tastes good to you? You might also play around with different ways of cooking and eating them. You could try broccoli raw with a veggie dip, and you could try it roasted with olive oil, and you could try it steamed with cheese sauce added or mixed into a casserole.

With apples you could try red, green, yellow apples, and try them raw, with a dip of some sort, or cooked.

When you give yourself permission to experiment, you’ll find what you actually enjoy.

Then I want you to get curious about how your body feels. Some people actually don’t tolerate a lot of roughage very well. I don’t tolerate onions (they upset my stomach), so I stay away from them. If salads or raw veggies upset your stomach or give you GI issues, that might mean you’d do better with cooked versions that are softer and more broken down.

One thing that I have found is that I feel better after a meal if it had some veggies in it. I like the feeling of a higher volume food like a vegetable (raw or cooked, I like them both), alongside the heartier and more dense part of my meal.

Another thing that I’ve personally noticed is that I like to have fruit with my snacks, but if I just have fruit on its own it doesn’t stick with me at all. So I need to have it with something like yogurt, or cheese, or nuts or PB.

Now, your experience might be different. That’s part of the beauty of this journey. You get to decide what is satisfying and feels good to YOU and YOUR body.

Wrapping Up

Let’s wrap up by recapping what we covered here today.

Bloom = an opening up, growth, beauty, enjoyment with foods that have “gloom”
It’s ok to NOT eat fruits and veggies. You’re not going to die of a f/v deficiency.
Focus on incorporating them in enjoyable ways that actually taste good.
Start small, and let yourself experiment. Don’t pressure yourself to all of a sudden start eating a ton of fruits and veggies. (Don’t forget to grab my free menu planning tool.)
Stay curious: How does it taste? How does your body feel?

In case nobody has told you today – you are worthy just as you are. We’ll talk again soon.

Resources Mentioned:

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