- Maddi Etxeberria is a nutritionist who works food from anti-diet because she does not believe in slimming diets: "We try to achieve general well-being through food."
Nutritionist Maddi Etxeberria shares plant recipes, reflections on diet culture, myths about food, etc. (Andoain, Gipuzkoa, 1998). Spread the content through the @beganonegin Instagram account.
More and more nutritionists denounce the culture of diet. What is it about?
It is a system of oppression that forces us to adhere to aesthetic standards in all areas to achieve social recognition.
Is it related to weight loss?
Diet culture leads us to lose weight on diet, but apart from that, all of these thoughts relate lean bodies to health and obese bodies to unhealthy living.
What influence can it have on the relationship with food?
There is no doubt a negative. This means that food is moralized, that is, that good and bad foods are classified on the basis of their possible nutritional contribution to our body or body. Many times I say we are much more than we eat. It is necessary to have the vegetables present in daily life, but since we cannot live by eating only vegetables, with other things not. When we moralize food, guilt appears in our food. Every time we eat it can feel guilt or need for compensation.
Does this also have a huge influence on mental health?
No doubt. Only aesthetic pressure seriously affects mental health. In addition, the system in general, but also the diet culture considers the individual guilty and responsible. Which makes you feel bad about not doing "what you should do." And it carries a lot of stress, anxiety...
Consequently, do myths arise about food?
The most widespread thing is that nuts get fat, and I always say that there is no food that gets fat or slimmer by nature. It all depends on context. But people still struggle to accept it. So we can't believe simplistic theories that today have become myths about the moralization of a food.
"Food is very linked to emotions and culture, we cannot separate from it"
Do you think the work of nutritionists is moving away from the concept of diet?
Yes. Fortunately, we are increasingly working more nutritionists from a holistic or global perspective. This makes the person considered as a complex individual and not as a body that feeds. I think that many times the specialization of the professions has made each one an expert in their field, but we are not just a body that feeds, we are much more. Food is very linked to emotions and culture, we cannot separate ourselves from it.
You also work against diet.
I think diet has acquired a very specific meaning, not so. Diet is all form of spontaneous feeding. Today we understand diet as a way to lose weight or lose weight. So I and many other experts define me as anti diet. We do not believe in the slimming diet, we seek a general well-being through food.
Defend 100% vegetable food. How can you do it so it's not understood as a diet?
Collectively, I don't know how to do it, but at the individual level it's common for us to focus veganism, like other currents, from the border or the restrictive model, and we have to decide from the election. Veganism is considered guilty of eating disorders because of its restrictive character. If you have decided to be vegan or have a 100% vegetable diet, where have you decided that? That is the important thing. If a person decides to move to a plant feeding, this will cause some foods not to be consumed and not to feel guilty, then you have to alert. The important thing is to see where and for what things are done and to make decisions accordingly.