This week is the second annual Eating Psychology Online Conference, and I absorbed as much of it as I could yesterday. Here are some of my favorite quotes from some of the presenters:

Mark Hyman: A Doctor’s View of Food,  Nutrition and Health

“The majority of diseases that doctors who are graduating today are seeing are diseases that are caused by food, and that only can be cured by food.”

“The food companies are acting like a parasite that’s going to kill it’s host.”

Amy Pershing: Psychology of Binge Eating

“The presence of weight stigma in our culture is fundamentally damaging.” (Referring to a survey of people with eating disorders, in which 75 percent of respondents said that weight-related bullying contributed to the development of their eating disorder.) 

“For so many in this culture, women in particular but increasingly men, we’ve spent so much of our lives either on a diet, or off a diet, or thinking about the next diet, there’s been so little time just being a person who eats.” 

“Our goal in recovery from binge eating disorder is to ultimately be in a space where our drive, our motivation is to take the very best care of our body, to cherish our body as a home, not think about our body as a billboard to gain approval, because that doesn’t motivate change…that motivates shame.” 

Regarding health at ever size: “Absolutely every body, right now, in this moment, deserves the best of care. That is fundamentally contrary to shame.”

Thomas Moore: A Soulful Approach to Food

“Can you really take care of your soul if you don’t cook? I’m not sure.” 

“Whenever you get prepared food from the supermarket, your soul suffers. …If you’re going to get fast food, be sure you give something to your soul that day in some other way.” 

“Eating healthy food is extremely important, and that can be part of the joy of eating.” But: “[Healthy eating] can get out of hand to the point where people forget what pleasure is.” 

“It’s important to pay attention to other reasons for eatinglike nutrition and healthbut pleasure is something that we often make secondary, if at all.” 

“Human beings can do more than one thing at a time…they can eat healthfully and for pleasure.” 

“Having deep pleasures that feed your soul is one of the most important things in life.” 

“Let’s be healthy with food instead of against food.”

Lindsey Averill: FattitudeAn Empowering Look at Fat

“My body’s perfect, and it’s not thin.” 

“When I look at food, I think to myself, ‘Is that symbolic food that I’m engaging with on a level of emotional desire, or is that actually nutrient food that’s feeding my body and making it stronger.”

On a somewhat related note, I came across this Beauty Redefined blog post this morning: “Your body is powerful. Use it as an instrument, not an ornament.”

Good stuff!