SYDNEY, N.S. — Registered dietitian Ann Marion Willis is still going through all the messages she received before, during and after the holidays. January being a resolution month has only added to that flow.
“Honestly I was busy right up until Christmas,” said Willis, who works in Sydney and North Sydney.
She said New Year’s resolutions, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, have pushed healthy eating to the forefront of people's minds, who might not have otherwise considered it in a normal year.
“I saw a huge increase of people inquiring, looking for services, looking for webinars, looking for classes, things like that, as they started to come out of their homes a little bit more … because of the stress of the situation.
“If they were (previously) seeing a diabetes clinic or seeing practitioners, well a lot of those services closed or were slower to reopen,” adding many people who had health and weight concerns then looked to dietitians to fill that gap.
Have the many food-related pandemic trends, such as baking bread, contributed to that interest?
“Yes. I think it’s a little multifaceted in that eating as a coping mechanism for a lot of people has always existed. But really, being home 100 per cent of the time brought out those behaviours in people who otherwise wouldn’t have really noticed it,” Willis said.
“Food shortages or food scarcity or just inability to get our typical foods also kind of changed eating habits as well.”
Bruce Sweeney, co-founder of Simply For Life health consultants, agrees.
“In the Maritimes, food cost is going up … Well, how can I convince you to eat healthy when you can have a pizza delivered at home for less than $12?”
Sweeney said the cost of meat, grain, fruit and vegetables has increased on the East Coast, particularly since the start of the pandemic. Price increases, he said, have a big impact on food choices.
The Cape Breton Post spoke to Alice, a member of the Nova Scotia group of Overeaters Anonymous. Her name was changed to preserve her anonymity.
“I have noticed that prices have gone up somewhat. They seem to have gone up anyway," adding she still tries to commit to eating fruits and vegetables, however expensive they may get.
Sweeney said food is being used as a coping mechanism “more than ever” in the stressful, complex situations people have found themselves in as a result of the pandemic.
“It’s a domino effect,” Sweeney said. For many clients, anxiety and stress lead them to sweets and junk food, and then they get stuck “in that rut.”
Nicole, another member of the Nova Scotia OA meetings, whose name was changed for this story, said that for many members, food “is a solution to their inner turmoil.” Pandemic-related isolation has only compounded this.
Nicole said she has personally seen an increase in interest in OA during the pandemic. The meeting she attended in Cape Breton stopped happening in-person in March, but there have been online meetings over Zoom since.
“Some are doing well (during the pandemic) and some aren’t.”
She says she has noticed some friends and family members excessively eating through the pandemic, especially with online baking and cooking trends.
Willis said it’s important to take the focus off weight loss or returning to a particular body size and instead focus on mindfulness, forgiveness and body acceptance in a way that puts the focus on health.
She advises to find “mindfulness in (our) relationship with food that’s sustainable,” rather than looking at the numbers on a scale, “which is an outcome we’re not always going to be able to control.”
Jessica Smith is a reporter with the Cape Breton Post.
