Finding Freedom from Food Disorders

by Thomas Brenton

Liz Carrara is a registered dietitian nutritionist at Body Positive Works that specializes in eating disorders. She has helped clients from all walks of life heal their relationship with food. To help her clients achieve food neutrality, Carrara uses an anti-diet approach incorporating intuitive eating principles that assist her clients to attune to their own biological hunger, fullness and satiety.

Carrara has worked in different levels of care in eating disorder treatment and prioritizes collaborating with a team approach to wellness. Eating disorders typically fall under the aegis of behavioral health, so pairing nutrition services with therapy, primary care and psychiatry ensures an adequate, holistic approach to recovery.

“Early intervention with a consistent, full team approach is the gold standard approach to care,” says Carrara. “Our current society idolizes a diet industry that perpetuates the fear of food, often leading to eating patterns reliant on external rules versus our own biological drive to eat. This undoubtedly leads to overeating or bingeing later on. Through counseling, people can reconnect to their bodies and learn to self-regulate intake based on their needs, not an unsustainable plan.”

Carrara is passionate about eating disorder prevention and early intervention. In addition to direct patient care, she regularly hosts workshops in the community, speaks to students at the high school and college level, and is also an adjunct professor at New York University, teaching a Nutritional Aspects of Eating Disorders summer session course.

Carrara uses a weight-inclusive “health at every size” approach, meaning there is no weight requirement for being “sick”, and all body sizes and disordered eating patterns deserve treatment. She provides care through the lens of intuitive eating principles, ultimately working on permission to eat when hungry, stopping when full and ensuring preferred foods are eaten to achieve adequate satisfaction. These evidence-based approaches leave clients feeling confident in their ability to self-regulate their intake with all foods and limit compulsive eating.

“A great benefit to this work is ultimate freedom with food”, says Carrara. “Its normal to think about food about 20 to 25 percent of the day (roughly just before and while we’re eating), although if you’re experiencing more than that, it may be time to seek help.”

Body Positive Works is located at 96 E. Allendale Rd., in Saddle River. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 201-708-8448, email Info@BodyPositiveWorks.com or visit BodyPositiveWorks.com.

Thomas Brenton is a contributing writer for Natural Awakenings.