Are you Actively or Passively Restricting your Food Intake?

Periods of inadequate or irregular eating can occur for a multitude of reasons, including food restriction. A common feature across many eating disorders, food restriction involves limitation of the variety, adequacy or regularity of the foods that we eat. Food restriction may occur as a result of active and deliberate attempts to reduce dietary intake, or it can arise more subtly - due to a lack of conscious attention to meeting our nutritional needs.

Active Restriction

Active restriction involves conscious, intentional efforts to limit or control food intake, often driven by specific goals or fears related to weight, body shape, or food itself. Common examples of active restriction include:

• Selective eating: Avoiding foods deemed ‘unhealthy’, often leading to rigid food rules and reduced variety of ‘safe’ food options

• Weight loss dieting: Following prescribed plans with a goal to lose weight, which often involves tracking and limiting daily intake to stay within a set target (eg. calorie counting)

• Fasting: Skipping meals or going extended periods without eating to reduce overall food intake

For people experiencing an eating disorder, active restriction is often associated with Anorexia Nervosa (significant and prolonged food limitation motivated by an intense desire to control body weight and shape). However it is important to recognise that active restriction is central to almost all eating disorders, including Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder, where restriction fuels reactive cycles of binge eating (and potential compensatory behaviours).

Passive Restriction

Passive restriction, on the other hand, occurs less intentionally. People who are restricting in a more passive way may not actively try to limit their food intake, but lack the drive to eat due to a variety of factors, such as:

• Forgetting to eat: Skipping meals unintentionally, often due to preoccupation with work, life stress, or distraction with other activities

• Lack of appetite: Reduced hunger cues, which may stem from psychological and emotional  factors such as low mood or heightened anxiety, or physical factors

• Health Conditions: Chronic illnesses, digestive issues, or some medications can reduce appetite and cause people to go extended periods without food

• Sensory sensitivities: Avoiding certain foods due to characteristics such as texture, taste, or smell, making it difficult to eat a balanced diet

While not always related to an eating disorder, passive restriction can be a characteristic of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), particularly when caused by sensory sensitivity. Passive restriction can also be related to other eating disorders - for example, when someone unconsciously welcomes opportunities to ‘forget’ to eat, or downplays their nutritional needs.

Food Scarcity and Restriction

Food restriction can also be influenced by external factors such as food scarcity. Limited access to adequate nutrition due to financial constraints or unpredictable food availability can lead to involuntary restriction. This is important to understand as a separate factor to other forms of restriction, as it necessitates strategies to improve food access and the consistent availability of adequate nutrition.

Can Active and Passive Restriction Overlap?

Although these forms of restriction can seem distinct, they do often overlap. Someone who initially experiences passive restriction (such as skipping meals due to low appetite) might develop active restriction over time, given inadequate dietary intake can be a trigger for the development of an eating disorder.

Similarly, an eating disorder can disguise itself as passive restriction, making disordered behaviours harder to recognise. For example, someone experiencing an eating disorder might frequently say they’re “too busy to eat," when in fact this has become a way to justify restriction.

Addressing Restriction in Recovery

It’s important to be curious about and to understand what’s motivating restrictive eating behaviours, in order to then decide on the best course of treatment. Both Psychologists and Dietitians experienced in eating disorder therapy can assist with this, and Dietitians in particular can assist in recommending strategies to focus on more adequate nutritional intake.

Active restriction often requires addressing thoughts, fears, and beliefs about food and body image. Passive restriction may call for strategies to support appetite awareness, manage sensory sensitivities, or to build regular eating habits. Both types of restriction can benefit from therapeutic assessment, strategies and support to change, which our team at Mind Body Well are able to provide.

'Wellness' Program or Diet in Disguise?

Intuitive eating and non-diet approaches to weight and nutrition have been gaining popularity as many people elect to step off the dieting treadmill and change their relationship with their body, and their eating attitudes and behaviours. As these approaches have gained momentum however, many diet programs, companies and influencers have begun to co-opt the language of ‘non-dieting’ to mislead people back into the diet cycle. A number of established weight loss companies have re-branded, and new ‘wellness’ programs have emerged, with strong marketing messages about supporting people to make ‘sustainable lifestyle changes’ rather than focusing on weight loss.

However, when you really look at many of these programs it’s clear that they have not really changed their focus, but have instead become traditional diets in disguise – the new breed of diet industry companies. These so called ‘wellness’ programs continue to promote restrictive eating behaviours, encourage people to monitor their weight, and hold at their core the false idea that thinness equates to health - only now with an added side-serve of ‘wellbeing’.

So how can you tell the difference between an actual non-diet approach and a wolf in sheep’s clothing? One of the main differences between dieting and intuitive eating is the focus on weight loss and changes to body shape which are integral to dieting programs. Intuitive eating however is weight neutral, and focused on healing your relationship with food and your body. Intuitive eating is not about weight loss, it won’t ask you to eliminate any foods from your diet, or to label foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Intuitive eating is a not a hunger-and-fullness diet but rather is about unconditional permission to eat all foods, building body trust and eating foods which feel satisfying and enjoyable. Another main difference between intuitive eating and dieting is that intuitive eating has a strong evidence base supporting its effectiveness, compared to traditional diets which are shown to be ineffective for 95% of people (especially in the medium to long term).

This re-branding of weight loss dieting to ‘wellness’ is dangerous and confusing for so many people. This new generation of diets aims to differentiate themselves from traditional diets by claiming that they are not ‘fad diets,’ that they value ‘wellness over weight loss,’ and some even use the language of eating disorder recovery as part of their marketing campaigns. Yet most of these programs continue to focus on food restriction, monitoring or logging what you eat, and weight monitoring. These programs now commonly offer self-care activities ‘on the side’, and may market themselves with health buzzwords or topics such as gut heath or inflammation. They offer a simplistic view of health and wellness, and a narrow assumption that weight loss equals health.

Studies show that weight loss dieting is one of the biggest risk factors for the development of eating disorders and disordered eating. Yo-yo dieting which is characterised by the cyclic nature of losing and re-gaining weight has been shown to have negative effects on physical health and how you feel about your body. Dieting also promotes the development of maladaptive eating behaviours. When our food intake is restricted, food often becomes our focus, which can cause obsessive thinking about food, and can result in either further food restriction, or episodes of reactive binge eating – where the body tries to gain back some of the energy which has become depleted from restrictive eating.

So how can you tell the difference – how can you differentiate a diet in disguise from an approach which is truly focused on enhancing health and wellbeing?

An approach may be a ‘diet in disguise’ if it:

• Encourages you to disconnect from your body by ignoring body signals (including hunger and fullness)

• Is focused on changing your body - weight loss or body shape/size

• Asks you to count points, macros, or uses approaches like a traffic light system

• Uses negative language around ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, classifying certain foods as inflammatory, detoxifying, guilt-free, or clean

• Recommends that you restrict or eliminate certain foods or food groups

• Acknowledges that diets don’t work followed by a BUT… (insert dieting behaviour here)

• Causes you to feel preoccupied with food and weight loss

• Recommends you buy expensive supplements or unusual foods

As an alternative to diet industry programs we recommend an individualised and therapeutic approach to understanding your nutritional needs, and changing your relationship with your body. If you’re ready to make this change, the team of Psychologists and Dietitians at Mind Body Well can assist.

Other relevant Blog posts:

• What is Intuitive Eating?

• Let’s set some perspective on ‘Food Addiction’

• What does it mean to be a Non-Diet Dietitian?

• Breaking up with weight loss