Recently in my daughter’s schooling we’ve been discussing logic and fallacy and have been working through a book entitled, ‘The Fallacy Detective’.
So what is a fallacy and what does it have to do with intuitive eating?
A fallacy is defined as “a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument”.
On the flip side of that is logic whose definition is : “reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity”.
A fallacy would be considered the opposite of logic.
I was intrigued by ‘The Fallacy Detective’ and felt that so often we believe the lies and fallacies that diet culture feeds us.
‘There is only one acceptable body type.’
‘You have to look this specific way to be considered beautiful.’
‘This specific food type is horrible for you and should be avoided at all cost.’
‘This program is what you need to lose weight and keep it off.’
All of these are examples of fallacies. They are easy to believe (especially when the person saying these things is confident and possibly even a professional).
Over the course of the next few weeks we’re going to dive into ‘The Fallacy Detective’.
Part 1 : Reclaim the Joy of Exercising Your Mind
When we are young, we’re meant to believe what our parents and those taking care of us tell us.
As we grow up, we’re meant to learn how to think on our own and not simply believe what everyone says as truth.
Unfortunately, for many of us, we’re not taught to think on our own and to value curiosity and questions.
Maybe as a child you heard the phrase, ‘Just do it/believe it because I said so’.
If this is the case, when we get attached to diet culture, we’ve already had years of being told we can’t trust our bodies, we don’t know how to eat or the way we look is wrong.
And we accept it because we don’t know any different.
I want us to practice exercising our minds. This is your encouragement to have the courage to be curious.
Ask questions. Choose to not take everything at face value.
This doesn’t mean you have to be adversarial or rude but when it comes to our bodies and who we are as people, we have the right to ask questions and dig deeper.
Part 2 : Love to Listen
Another way we can avoid believing fallacies is to be humble enough to listen well and be willing to question our own position on an issue..
Be more interested in what someone has to say than having someone always listen to you.
Being open to new ideas and thoughts keep us from living inside a vacuum in our own minds where potentially harmful thoughts and ideas find their home.
Video Deep Dive
As we journey through The Fallacy Detective, you can purchase the workbook or chose not to. Completely up to you.
But please check out the videos below where we dive deeper into parts 1 & 2.
