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Hey Shan Larter here. Thanks for joining me on my video today about the typical ways that
eating disorder clinics fatten us up and call us recovered. I am not attacking eating disorder
clinics but I am going to point out the truth. The truth is that eating disorder clinics
are completely overwhelmed. There are so many women who need help, who want freedom, who
need recovery from an eating disorder, and a lot of times we feel that these eating disorder
clinics are THE way we are going to get it.
I know I did. I often wished and prayed and hoped that some day I could just get in there
because I thought THEN I could be free. But I now realize from the sessions that I spend
listen to woman after woman tell me about the negative, toxic and difficult experiences
that they had at eating disorder clinics, especially surrounding the foods that these
clinics pumped into them in order to call them recovered, I realize that I’m grateful
for not having to GO through that experience.
The problem is that eating disorder clinics in North America typically subscribe to the
Standard American Diet, or S.A.D ‘sad’ as many holistic nutritionists refer to this
diet. It’s based on a pyramid that really calls for overeating of certain foods that
give you very minimal if any true nutrition, and doesn’t have the proper focus or emphasis
on the foods that can actually heal our bodies and our minds.
It sounds strange to say that food can have such a psychological impact on us. But I am
here to tell you from my own personal experience, and that of the women I coach one-on-one,
these foods are healing, both physically and mentally.
There is a mental clarity, a mental sharpness, an emotional calm, and an ability to really
dig deep into ourselves and discover where our eating disorders have come from in order
to dig them out at the roots… that can come from fueling our body with holistic nutrition.
So that’s why I’m here to share these principles with you today. I really feel it
is crucial to point out the errors being made by eating disorder clinics when they try and
fatten us up so they can get us out the door and get the next batch in.
Are they doing it on purpose? My guess would be that they are just misinformed. They are
basing their nutritional education on outdated science, on a food pyramid that doesn’t
work, and unfortunately that’s what we’re learning there.
One of the typical ways that eating disorder clinics rely on to really boost up our calorie
intake and hope that they can get that weight back on us, is by giving us nutritional meal
supplements. Now the three main ones that they rely on are Ensure, Boost and Resource.
NONE of these meal replacement supplements have anything to do with proper nutrition
or healthy food. First let’s look at Boost. The first three ingredients in Boost are water,
corn syrup solids and sugar. And if you keep looking down the label you’ll see a whole
whack of vegetable oils, canola oils, corn oils, these are the most highly genetically
modified grains that exist on the planet today, and not only that these grains have been refined,
concocted in a laboratory, and added into a drink as pure calories and blood sugar spiking
sweeteners.
Next they rely on Resource. The first three ingredients in Resource are water, corn syrup
solids and canola oil. Again highly genetically modified. And they also rely on preservatives
called BHT and BHA. You might be wondering what these are.
The National Institute of Health reports that BHA is reasonably assumed to be a human carcinogen
(that’s a cancer causing agent) because in studies performed on animals BHA caused
cancer. BHT is another controversial additive which they add to Resource in order to prevent
food spoilage. BHT is also added to things like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, jet fuel,
petroleum, electrical transformer oil and embalming fluid.
BHA and BHT are prepared in a laboratory, they do not exist in nature, they are not
a food.
Ensure, which is the third most popular supplement, starts off just the same as the other three.
The three main ingredients in Ensure are water, corn syrup solids and maltodextrin corn.
There are far more healthy ways for us to get nutritionally dense high calorie meals
into our bodies in liquid form besides buying these three toxic supplements. The main way
that I would suggest is to make your own smoothie at home.
There are so many amazing, plant based, raw foods, seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables
that we can add to our own homemade smoothies that don’t have nasty chemicals and preservatives
and that use foods that are rich in enzymes and nutrients.
Another typical way that eating disorder clinics try and fatten us up is by normalizing and
even requiring that any woman participating in their program will eat dessert several
times a week. This includes things like chocolate cake, cupcakes, cookies, pastries, and of
course ice cream.
Now am I a dessert hater who thinks we should never eat dessert? Absolutely not! In fact
I eat dessert several times a week because I love tasting sweet things. I do however
know that there are many far more nutritious ways to have something sweet after a meal
rather than indulging in all of these chemically and artificially made foods.
There is a way to have healthy, nutritious dessert. But unfortunately this is not the
dessert offered up at typical eating disorder clinics.
Eating disorder clinics also rely on an overabundance of carbohydrates in their meal plans in order
to try and fatten us up. They love to offer us things like pasta, bread, potatoes, crackers…
There are many problems with this scenario. The first being that a lot of times what’s
given to us is white pasta, white bread, white rice which has absolutely NO nutritional value
whatsoever. The other problem is that even when we choose whole grain versions of our
bread, our pasta and even some whole grain rice, these TOO spike our blood sugar levels.
There are far more nutrient dense versions of these types of foods that actually give
us something instead of being what holistic nutritionists refer to as a negative return
food. What that means is that it actually takes MORE energy to digest the food, and
more vitamins and minerals to complete the food in order to digest it, than the food
offers us in return. So after eating the food we are actually depleted of vitamins and minerals
from our body.
Many of these carbohydrates are difficult to digest in the stomach, difficult for our
colon to properly eliminate, and can back us up making us more toxic, more tired and
even more depressed.
Eating disorder clinics also like to add senseless fattening condiments into much of our food
because it really jacks up the calorie value, but it doesn’t add a lot of bulk forcing
us to eat more food. So when they hide things in our food like lots of mayonnaise, crème
cheese, and fattening salad dressings on top of things they can really boost our calorie
intake quite quickly. The problem is that the weight we are adding to our body is not
a healthy weight and we are again further toxifying our body by adding things to it
that are not real food.
Clean whole healthy foods are much better for you in restoring your weight and adding
vibrancy and energy to your body, than these chemical ridden, pesticide covered gloppy
dips and spreads that get added into everything. Not to mention the artificial flavoring and
other laboratory concoctions that end up being part of these spreads and dips.
Clean whole foods taste much better and ARE much better for you.
Eating disorder clinics also offer conventional eggs, beef and chicken as much of their protein
sources. Am I telling you that you need to be a vegetarian in order to be free?
Absolutely not. But what I am telling you is that the sources of conventional eggs,
chicken and beef are not things that we want to be putting in our bodies. These animals
are injected with growth hormones, antibiotics to keep the sickness down, they’re fed genetically
modified corn feed, and they are kept under inhuman conditions, standing knee deep in
fecal matter thanks to our industrialized food chain.
It is critical that we choose our eggs, chicken and beef from farmers who treat their animals
with respect feeding them grass and proper grains, not keeping them in overrun fecal
ridden pens, and insisting on injecting them with growth hormones to grow them faster and
make a heftier profit. These industrialized farming practices are not good for the environment
and they are certainly not good for our bodies.
Well the first and main thing you can do is rely on nature and the food it provides to
fuel your body. I know that this requires a little bit more planning, but it is so worth
it. Once you train your taste buds to be able to taste real food again, and once your energy
levels and the way that your body responds to this food starts to give you such positive
feedback you will never return to eating all this toxic prepared food.
If you want a smoothie… make one! I have some great videos on my blog at www.shanlarter.com
and I’m even posting more on there to help you with your at home smoothie regimen.
The other thing you can do is shop for produce. Vegetables and fruit are so healing. And especially
the ones classified as SUPERFOODS. Anything like an avocado, anything from the coconut
family, any of the berries that are high in antioxidants. There are so many choices that
you can make, that actually exist in nature that grow from the ground or from the trees,
that are not fabricated in a laboratory by food scientists who are messing with our biology
and our minds.
So when we are making our meat choices lets go for organic meat.
So please don’t feel discouraged. Please know that I get it. I know what it’s like
to be in your shoes. I WAS YOU. I struggled with my own eating disorder for over thirteen
years and I get it.
I get you want food to taste good. I get that you don’t want to feel guilty
when you eat food. You don’t want to feel guilty when you binge.
You certainly don’t want to be purging. And the cycle is exhausting.
And I am telling you there is so much power in getting TRUE nutritional information to
stopping this cycle. It is not the only thing, there is much that needs to be done in the
area of mental, emotional and spiritual recovery as well as physical recovery. But physical
recovery is very ignored in typical eating disorder treatment and it is something that
we must get a handle on if we want total freedom.
So lets choose raw, fresh fruits and vegetables. Let’s put nuts and seeds into our daily
foods. So let’s rely on real food to fuel our bodies so that we can then take care of
our mental deprogramming and get to a place of freedom.
So keep watching my videos, keep leaving comments below my videos, so that I can get to know
you, support you and help you gain total 100% freedom from your eating disorder because
believe me I get it. I’ve walked your walk, I’ve worn your shoes, and I cannot imagine
going back to that life, and I refuse to leave any of you behind who want your own freedom.
So thank you for being with me today and I’ll see you soon. Bye.