Intuitive Eating With Sydney Navid
Food relationships are a complicated and personal journey for many people. The stigma and guilt surrounding certain foods are difficult to overcome, but nutritionist and chef, Sydney Navid, is working to help others defeat their inner critic and rekindle their love for food. Growing up in the kitchen, Sydney learned how to make Persian cuisine with a family that loves to cook. However, like many young women, Sydney struggled with diet culture and the pressures of society to be perceived as “perfect.” In order to help dismantle the fears in her own life, she decided to pursue a career in nutrition and started a food blog, in the hopes that her experiences can help others and that she can impart a love of food to others.
Sydney sat down with Be More to tell us more about her inspiration, hopes, and goals for the future.
What inspired you to start your food blog?
Since I’ve been back in LA with access to a big kitchen, I’ve been doing a lot of recipe testing not only for my blog, but for some ebooks that I want to do, and also recipe testing for my cooking classes and then every month that I’ve been doing is I sell boxes of different treats locally in LA and I donate a portion of the proceeds to a different organization
I always loved cooking and food when I was younger. I would be in the kitchen with my mother and grandma cooking a lot of Persian food and just more plant-forward food, how to make plant-based recipes really delicious and satisfying.
I first started sharing recipes on an Instagram account when I was in college. When I was in the dorm freshman and sophomore year, I basically made it a little kitchen.
I used my microwave and my mini-fridge to make pretty full-on meals. I wanted to show people what you can do in your dorm, like how you can eat healthy as a college student. That’s what I would show on my Instagram account for the first two years, and then I would just start posting whatever I was cooking.
Then I became interested in nutrition and health, so that sort of inspired me to go to grad school for nutrition and exercise physiology. I loved sharing my recipes with everyone, and then I decided I didn’t really like just posting the recipes on Instagram and I wanted to expand the opportunity, so I decided to make a website to post my recipes and blog posts, and resources.
Since I’ve been back in LA with access to a big kitchen, I’ve been doing a lot of recipe testing not only for my blog, but for some ebooks that I want to do, and also recipe testing for my cooking classes and then every month that I’ve been doing is I sell boxes of different treats locally in LA and I donate a portion of the proceeds to a different organization. February I did my Valentine’s Day boxes and donated to Be More, so that’s really a fun thing for me to do once a week every month, so I’m just trying to keep busy I guess.
What do your classes look like?
In-person lessons were a short-term thing, right before COVID hit, so I was only able to do a handful of classes. Once we really had to start quarantining and social distancing, it just became too difficult. But now I’m actually doing online cooking classes on Zoom for all ages. I’ve had a few so far and I’ve been offering them every month. That’s my little side thing.
What do you hope people take away from your blog and lessons?
I hope to inspire my audience to incorporate more plants into their routine through my recipes, which I believe are approachable with elevated flavor combinations. It's also my goal to cultivate connections with my virtual community through and with food.
How do you think parents should foster a healthy relationship with food both with themselves and their children?
I think the best thing is for parents to do is model the sort of behavior they want to instill in their child.
Don’t make comments about diet culture or food rules and be flexible and show that all foods can fit. Don’t food as a reward. I think that’s really important. A lot of parents will say “okay, you can have this cookie after you eat all of your vegetables,” so it makes it seem like they’ll just eat the vegetables just to get this prize, but if you make cookies and vegetables on the same playing field, then the kids will know that the cookie is there, but let me enjoy these vegetables that are going to feed my body with nutrients. If parents really talk about food, the sensory experience of it, point out all of the different colors of it, the different nutrients, and get the child in the kitchen so they get hands-on experience cooking with them, they become more excited to eat and experiment and try new things and they gain an appreciation for what they’re eating.
I also think that that just being a good example and a good role model, and not fostering a restrictive environment is really important because the type of food environment that the child grows up in is ultimately going to dictate their eating behaviors and their future relationship with food.
So if you grow up in a household that has zero sweet, zero processed foods, whenever the child has the opportunity to go to a friend’s house or go out, what are they going to reach for? They are going to reach for all of the things they aren’t allowed to have. But if they know they can have it, then they are not going to feel like they have to overeat it. It’s the parents’ job to provide all the options and to give them the autonomy to choose how much and what they want to eat, so instead of saying “you have to finish your entire plate,” you really want to try and instill for your child to be aware of their internal cues while they are eating So if the child is full and doesn’t want to eat anymore, they shouldn’t be forced to continue eating.
I know you practice intuitive eating, how would you recommend someone start that practice?
I would first recommend they read Intuitive Eating. It’s written by two dietitians who have been in the field for decades, and that really guides you through the 10 principles of intuitive eating.
The first step is to recognize and acknowledge how diet culture and external rules are dictating your relationship with food. You want to disconnect from that and reconnecting with the internal cues of your body.
For many people who are yo-yo dieting, they really fall out of touch with their responses from their body. It’s a lot of unlearning and relearning, and developing more awareness of what your body is trying to tell you. It takes a lot of practice and patience and it’s a long process. In the end, though, it’s a lot more rewarding because you’re not just respecting your body, you’re nourishing it and giving it what it wants.
How can intuitive eating help someone heal from an eating disorder?
When I was in college, I would just not give myself permission to eat a lot of foods. If I was going out to like an Italian dinner, then the entire breakfast and lunch before I would try to eat mostly vegetables to compensate for the high calorie or high carb dinner I was about to eat. In the past year, I have been really trying to adopt the perspective that all foods are equal, and that really allows me to eat the slice of bread with avocado without feeling any sort of guilt.
For so long I associated my body with my appearance and worth and how other people perceive me and value me. Now I’m really trying to shift my perspective to understand that my body’s true purpose is to spread love to the world and to allow me to be creative and do all the things that I want to do in this life. I’m really cultivating a mind, body, spirit approach.
I think that it’s also really important to go through your social media and unfollow any accounts that are triggering for you or are putting out content that no longer serves you. You need to follow positive people that enhance your happiness and that help you on your journey. I’ve been following a lot of accounts that post affirmations, which I found to be really helpful.
Speaking about Instagram, the app is filled with seemingly “perfect” Insta-models. How do you silence that critical inner voice that makes you feel less worthy than the models and bloggers we see on Instagram?
It’s really hard, to be honest, it really is. It’s about developing self-confidence and self-esteem and realizing that everybody is different. You’re not going to be able to do the same things other people are doing and that’s okay. You have to recognize bio-individuality and try not to compare yourself to others and understand how special you are.
Instagram is not reality and even though someone may come off as having this “perfect” lifestyle, they’re honestly probably just projecting their insecurities onto Instagram.
It’s really important to remember that what you see on Instagram isn’t what’s happening in real life, and that’s why it is so important to follow people who show you all parts of their life, the good parts and the bad parts. I don’t follow any accounts where I see someone eating “perfectly,” whatever “perfect” means.
On my account that I make very healthy, plant-forward foods, but I also bake a lot of cakes and I eat a lot of desserts, and I eat bread and I eat everything. I want to show that a healthy lifestyle doesn’t just mean that you are eating well. It means that you are having a fulfilled life where you are focusing on your mental health, your spiritual health, you’re surrounded by people who make you happy, you’re getting enough sleep, you’re trying to minimize your stress, so it’s really a more holistic approach to how you want to live your life.
How do you hope the way we view food relationships change on social media?
Now that everyone is using Instagram as a platform to make money, they are doing a lot of partnerships and sponsorships, and they are promoting all these products. A lot of their followers will buy into it, and you don’t know if these products are really effective or if the blogger is just selling them because they are making money off of it.
So I think we really need to start understanding, what is the purpose of food? The purpose of food, yes, is for health, but it is also for joy and pleasure. I’m hoping that through Instagram and social media we can really start to rediscover food’s intrinsic purpose, which is to make us feel good and give us energy and to rejuvenate us, and just bring back the pleasurable experience that food can offer.
Do you find there is a relationship between learning to cook and recovering from eating disorders?
I think when someone has disordered eating they become so fixated on what they are eating, and I think that by getting into the kitchen they can shift their concentration from the nutrition composition of the food or how much they’re eating and really gain an appreciation for where the food is coming from.
Experimenting with different techniques and cooking methods, trying new flavor combinations, buying a few cookbooks that interest you, can help open you up to all food has to offer. Get into the kitchen with a friend or family member or significant other and share that experience. Really observe what you ate and just become more mindful and intentional around food. That all begins by cooking in the kitchen because you are becoming more present in the food experience. I think over time it will just help you appreciate the food you are putting into your body and that will hopefully help you heal from what you’re dealing with.
Eating disorders have such a range in terms of intensity, and it means something different for everyone. I think a lot of this is easier said than done, but you have to find what works for you and be gentle and kind to yourself.
Remember that it all takes time because you’ve instilled all these harmful habits, and it takes that same amount of time to strip back everything that you’ve learned. That’s what I remind myself, that it isn’t going to change overnight. Every day you’re making small steps towards healing your relationship with food, and it’s not a linear path. You’re going to take two steps forward and circle back and that’s okay.
How can someone best support a loved one who is suffering from disordered eating?
Everybody has different ways of coping. Some people like to be really closed off, some people like to be really open, and for me, it was really important to be open with my family about what I was going through. Being able to express myself and share what I was dealing with helped ease a lot of my anxiety.
I think being there to listen in a supportive, non-judgmental, compassionate environment can make all the difference, and it’s so powerful. Just to have someone to talk to who is present and genuinely listening and caring about what you’re saying, and to have someone to help figure out what is the best way to go about this right now, so maybe that means working with a dietitian who specializes with eating disorders, or it means seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist or journaling, whatever is going to sound good to that person. I think just showing your support and telling them that you’re there no matter what is the best thing you can do.
What is something you wish you could tell your younger self?
Not to take life so seriously and say yes to everything. Because when you’re young you have time and flexibility. When I was growing up I was so strict, especially academically, and I wouldn’t allow myself just to experience life and be happy. If there is something that I want to do, I just do it, because there is no point in waiting until there is a “right time.” Do what you want and live your life to the fullest potential is the best advice I could give my younger self.
What is one thing that you are striving to “be more” of?
Just to be more confident. From a young age I exuded confidence, but in the past year or so I’ve lost that sense of confidence and that sense of self, and now I’m really trying to reclaim that, and know how amazing I am and how much I have to offer.