Are you struggling to make peace with food while simultaneously grappling with food scarcity? Is poverty and food insecurity contributing to feelings of deprivation? Listen now for ideas on how to navigate this food peace challenge. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace. Sign up now to get on the waitlist for the next enrollment period in January 2018, and receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how. Episode's Key Points: I just got back from BEDA! I had the honor of presenting at the conference, as well as meeting previous Love, Food guests and listeners!! Lack of food access is a real food peace problem! When our body doesn't have consistent access to food, food gains a lot of power in our lives. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Only once our basic needs are met (food, shelter, oxygen, etc.) can we can reach higher levels. The Hierarchy of Food Needs by Ellyn Satter: If someone doesn't have access to food, you can't work on changing eating patterns to support health. Living in poverty causes oppression, and oppression physically harms our health. PCOS is connected to many health markers that we KNOW are connected to oppression and poverty (high blood pressure, insulin issues, high triglycerides etc). Struggling with both simultaneously exacerbates the problem! Poverty, living in an oppressed body, and experiencing chronic microaggressions sets us up for living in a fight or flight response. This can make conditions like PCOS MUCH worse! Being pushed to diet long-term ALSO causes these negative health outcomes due to increased inflammation. Most people who diet and lose weight with regain that weight in the long run, and most people who regain weight will actually regain more weight than they lost initially. This means that weight loss efforts are actually weight cycling... and weight cycling ALSO contributes to inflammation, high blood pressure, high insulin levels, high triglycerides, etc. PCOS, poverty and discrimination, dieting, and weight cycling ALL contribute to inflammation, high blood pressure, high insulin levels, high triglycerides, etc. in the long term!! You probably aren't addicted to food... your body is just telling you after years of chronic dieting that you need food!! Make sure you're eating enough, especially if you're in a larger body and people are shaming you for your food intake, and that feeling of addiction will likely decrease. Access to healthcare is also a problem here... we need equal access to health for ALL bodies!! 25% of health is determined by behaviors, and 75% of health can be attributed to genetics and the social determinants of health... this means that poor access to healthcare, food, and resources will impact your health negatively. So we need to promote health EQUITY if we want a healthy population! Practice permission and cast aside shame. Show Notes: Julie Dillon RD blog Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Food Peace Syllabus. Christy Harrison's Love, Food episode Judith Matz's Love, Food episode Aaron Flores's Love, Food episode Rebecca Scritchfield's Love, Food episode Deb Burgard Jes Baker's Instagram and book, Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition Eating Disorder Dietitian Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com.  Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.