Erin O'Hara: Naturopath and wellness expert reveals why restrictive diets don't work

It's a new year and people are looking to lose weight and improve themselves, but one expert is urging caution.

Restrictive dieting may seem tempting, but research shows locking off certain types of food as 'bad' can weaken our relationship with food - and result in more weight gain in the long run.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
So, with the new year, new you rolls around and
we all come up with some great sort of aspirations
for the year, and there is nothing wrong with that,
but I think sometimes it'd be a really good idea
to make things achievable, shall we say so? Joining us
now to talk wellness is Erin O'Hara, Good morning, Good morning.
He thought that you'd touch on something which many of

(00:33):
us start thinking about after maybe over indulging a little
bit at Christmas time, and that is aiming for a
healthier twenty twenty six, maybe shedding a few kilograms, and
people then sort of immediately start thinking about how they're
going to restrict their diets.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah. I think everyone sort of starts the MB like
and it hasten and raw with so much motivation to
kind of do more things to make them feel well.
And I think that diet mindset that's really quite toxic actually,
and most of the research studies show that actually most
people who do restrictive eating end up losing the weight
and then gaining the weight back over time, and usually

(01:11):
plus more so it's actually quite a toxic way of
kind of maintaining health. So if we can get out
of that yo yo cycling of I'm going to eat
really well and get the motivation and then stop and
do nothing and instead get a good balance for twenty
twenty sex, which I talk about so much, but actually
the foundations of healths are actually pretty basic. We tend

(01:32):
to make it so complicated and eating healthy, but if
we can get the basics right, we're going to feel good.
And instead of thinking about it as a diet going
into twenty twenty sex, instead of thinking about how to
feel your best and have the best energy and to
sleep well and to feel like you're really going to
do your best in twenty twenty sex, it really comes
down to how you're looking after your body as well.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, is it helpful to think of food as good
food and bad food and this you can have that
you can't have, counting calories things like that.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
No, those mindsets really work on sort of feeling like
you're deprived of having food, and we don't really want
that because without eating we can't survive anyway, so we
will really want to keep the joy of eating and
making good food and making it healthy, but making it
tasty as well. You don't really need to go on
a diet and have just chicken, rice and broccoli steamed.

(02:27):
Like who's going to maintain that? Probably no one, because
it's got no taste, it's so boring, and it's not
something that's going to be sustainable. So if we think
about food also bringing us joy, bringing us nourishment to
actually make us feel healthy, we can really focus in
on getting more nutrient density foods. So when I'm talking
about nutrient density foods, I'm talking about fruits, vegetables, whole grains,

(02:51):
lean proteins, healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, nut seeds.
So bringing in all those good nutrients through your diet
and getting some good recipes going is a good way
to get motivated. And being healthy is actually making tasty
food and making it not boring. But online and finding
some good recipes Maney, maybe looking at some Mediterranean style

(03:11):
recipes and Mimi salads and actually getting inspired to cook
because that's going to actually help you eat healthier as well.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Is it good for our body to start and stop
different ways of eating.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
No, because it actually just creates a toxic mindset. And
overall we're gonna sort of gain weight overall. So if
you can even just go with the basics of getting
three good meals a day and really watch all the
little snacks you have in between, because even healthy snacks
can be too much food for what your body needs.
So it might be that you're having a big handful
of nuts, which not so healthy. But if you eat,

(03:46):
you know, two handfuls of nuts in between your meals
as well, you're actually maybe eating too much for the day.
And so it's about maybe just looking at how can
you have less snacks through the day and more good
meals that are actually going to give you a good
balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats that nourish your body,
good amounts of fruits and beat vegetables, cutting back an

(04:07):
excessive sugar processed foods, and also trying not to skip
meals because quite often when we skip meals, we're more
likely to then over eat later in the day, and
that actually then creates that toxic patterning of having a
poor relationship to food too.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
It's amazing how quickly your taste palette changes right so
over over summer and away and Christmas and lots of
people around. There were lots of we had lots of chips, right,
it's a bit you know, it's a holiday, think packet chips,
don't need a lot of you know, normally ging I
like chips, and then you just think you just find
yourself craving sort of mind a few chips, sort of
four thirty five o'clock in the afternoon sort of thing.

(04:43):
It's amazing how quickly your taste buds can change and
you can crave something. How long does it take if
I then go have no chips for a week? Will
that have got yes? Okay, yeah, it actually doesn't.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Take that long. Like we can have these poor sort
of healthy aning habits that sneak in, whether it's sugar
cover hydrates or things like ice cream. But actually they
can phase out as quickly as they can come in
as well, if you really really focused for like a
good one to two weeks and getting good foundations going
not skipping meals, making proper food for yourself, skipping the snacks.

(05:17):
Knowing what your weakness is like for you, knowing that
you had too.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Many jobs, just got addicted to the green onion chip.
Had a few chicken chips as well, which I haven't
had for years.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
We call it good, but you just have to know
that that's probably your weakness and then go, Okay, actually,
I'm going to just cut that one out for the
next two weeks and before you know it, you've forgot
your light chips.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
I will come back to you on that one erin
Thank you so much, appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.