How Dana James’ "The Archetype Diet" And Its Holistic Approach To Health Helped Me Recovery From An Eating Disorder
Eating disorders, restrictive diets, and poor self-image are unfortunately very common, and the anything-goes side of the body positivity movement has risen as a challenge to these issues.
Though many of us have jumped to extremes in both directions, often sacrificing physical and/or mental well-being in the process, there is another alternative: seeking a holistic approach to wellness. Nutritionist Dana James’ book The Archetype Diet inspires women to do this by simultaneously improving physical health and self-esteem, without sacrificing one for the other.
I discovered The Archetype Diet while in recovery from an eating disorder. While reading the book, I began to understand that full recovery included not just breaking restrictive patterns to reach a healthy weight, but also dealing with negative emotions and beliefs surrounding food, exercise, and self-image to reach a true state of well-being. James’ book encourages women to address issues around food and body image by understanding the four feminine archetypes that she identified through her work as a nutritionist. Though I don’t follow the Archetype Diet strictly, James’ approach and research helped me recover by understanding and counteracting flaws in my attitudes toward food and exercise.
The Basics
Through James’ practice as a nutritionist, she identified four basic archetypes for women’s behavior and body shapes. Each chapter covers information to help you understand your archetype, including the belief system that determines your source of self-esteem, which affects your eating habits, possible hormonal imbalances, and personalized diet and exercise advice. Your archetype can be found through a quiz that James designed.
The Archetypes
James’ four archetypes represent different expressions of femininity that have unique health struggles and dietary needs. According to a Goop interview with James, the four archetypes are:
The Nurturer, who finds value in supporting and helping others, but often neglects her own self-care in the process. Because Nurturers primarily struggle with estrogen and insulin imbalances, James recommends that they follow a paleo-style diet that prioritizes protein sources such as fish, eggs, and seeds.
The Wonder Woman, who seeks self-worth through achievements and struggles with high cortisol levels, anxiety, and fatigue. James recommends avoiding gluten and dairy, consuming red meat regularly, and eating a lower carb Mediterranean-style diet to balance the thyroid.
The Femme Fatale, who derives self-esteem from physical appearance and often struggles with disordered eating and unhealthy body image. James encourages them to repair their relationship with food (for instance, adequately fueling for workouts with starchy carbs) to break free from disordered patterns.
The Ethereal, who finds self-worth through uniqueness and often struggles with depression, emotional overwhelm, and digestive issues. James says that macrobiotic diets can work well for them, but they should include adequate carbohydrates to increase estrogen and improve mood, and should regularly consume red meat and nuts for hormone balance.
Helpful Elements of the Diet
The Archetype Diet acknowledges that our dietary needs are unique to us as women, but each woman’s specific needs vary depending on her archetype. James’ approach is based on understanding health holistically – meaning that emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well-being are interconnected parts of one system. According to James’ model, each archetype’s unique challenges with self-image are at the root of flawed relationships with food (and subsequent hormonal issues). James encourages women to understand and correct negative patterns we adopted when we were younger as a result of social pressures, family dynamics, body image issues, and more to correct imbalances in our mindsets, diets, and hormones.
I learned to accept the healthy version of my body and eat in a way that supported it.
The most unique part of the Archetype Diet is its embrace of femininity as an essential part of wellness. James prompts us to embody a healthy expression of our femininity by taking responsibility to repair flawed thinking patterns that twist our true nature. In addition, James not only encourages embracing the unique qualities of our archetypes, but she also promotes feminine exercise as a component of achieving health goals. For example, she recommends that Nurturers and Wonder Women try higher-intensity workouts, that Ethereals try lower-intensity workouts, and that Femme Fatales try a blend of both.
Most importantly, James emphasizes that weight maintenance, loss, and gain are holistic processes that should support the best versions of ourselves. The four diets and the recipes included in the book do not advise starvation or excess, but rather encourage us to eat in a balanced way that meets our lifestyle’s needs and our health goals. In addition, a significant portion of the book is dedicated to understanding and reframing mindset, not only around food and exercise, but also around core memories and relationships. This holistic approach was essential for me as I learned to accept the healthy version of my body and eat in a way that supported it.
Potential Drawbacks
While the Archetype Diet can be helpful if you’re looking for a new approach to health and well-being, there are a few potential drawbacks. Though James’ research-based recommendations for each archetype are helpful, the specific meal plans for each diet require significant meal prep and cooking. This factor can be limiting if you have a busy schedule, travel often, or are a college student who eats in a dining hall. Thankfully, in addition to these specific recommendations, the book offers general guidelines for each archetype that can easily be applied to your everyday diet.
Because The Archetype Diet is a diet book first and foremost, it focuses on recommendations for weight loss, which isn’t necessary for everyone. If you’ve struggled with an eating disorder or other body image issues, it may not be helpful for you to seek weight loss or adhere strictly to a diet. Even as I was recovering from an eating disorder, however, I found James’ commentary on the necessity of balancing protein, fats, and carbohydrates, her encouragement to enjoy food and occasional drinks, and her advice for healing unhelpful thought patterns to be a major positive factor in my recovery.
Tailoring the Diet to Your Needs
After reading the book, I took notes from the chapter about my archetype and assessed my own beliefs, eating habits, and goals in order to understand which principles of the diet would best serve me. After matching with the Ethereal archetype, I gradually started following many of James’ suggestions: including carbohydrates and red meat in my diet; trading my cardio-heavy workouts for yoga, Pilates, and long walks; and taking initiative to reframe my mindset. Over time, I noticed that the more I incorporated James’ recommendations into my recovery process, I not only felt better physically, but my self-image and relationship with food and exercise improved drastically as well.
Learning to value your unique expression of femininity can help you achieve greater self-esteem.
If you decide to try the Archetype Diet, remember that you don’t have to follow any diet perfectly to achieve better health. The diet’s system is based on tailoring James’ advice to your personal needs and goals. Because it offers both general and specific advice for each archetype, the extent to which you apply the Archetype Diet’s principles is entirely up to your assessment of your needs. And regardless of how closely you follow the dietary recommendations for your archetype, learning to value your unique expression of femininity can help you achieve greater self-esteem.
Closing Thoughts
Aside from helping me support my body through the foods I eat, The Archetype Diet also helped me heal the root cause of my self-esteem issues by embracing my unique expression of femininity. While diet culture and the body positivity movement compete for our loyalty, I believe that as women our well-being is best served by finding balance. Approaching health holistically means seeking wellness on every level: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. By doing so, we can counteract extreme mindsets and achieve true and lasting health.
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