In this interview, Floris Gierman and guest Tawnee Prazak Gibson discuss the broad spectrum of disordered eating patterns that affect athletes, extending beyond classic diagnoses like anorexia and bulimia. They describe how modern diet trends—such as obsessive calorie counting, intermittent fasting, keto, and “clean” or organic eating—can evolve into orthorexia and other sub‑clinical eating disorders characterized by a need for control, perfectionism, and social isolation. Tawnee emphasizes that while certain dietary strategies may benefit some athletes, rigid adherence can dominate a person’s life and undermine well‑being. She urges athletes to engage in deep self‑reflection, ask hard questions about whether they are truly honoring their bodies, and recognize the overwhelming, often contradictory nutrition advice circulating today. The conversation underscores the importance of individualized assessment and a balanced, flexible approach to nutrition for optimal performance and mental health.
There's a variety of different disordered eating patterns out there. Can you talk a little bit more about this? Because it's not just anorexia or bulimia, it is also people being overly obsessed with calorie intake. It is people doing intermittent fasting who shouldn't be doing intermittent fasting, or like whether that is for a shorter period or for extended periods of time. Can you talk a little bit more about some of these differences that you see out there?
It's such a good point because I've had to even kind of put like a disclaimer on some of the shows that we do. You know, if we've talked about intermittent fasting or keto or, you know, clean eating and only buying organic and stuff, because you're giving— you're breeding this whole new kind of eating disorder, kind of this umbrella term of orthorexia. So I think it can really then start to take on its own unique traits in each person depending on like what they sort of start fixating on. So really, like, anorexia and bulimia are some of the worst and they're relatively like clear, like diagnosable conditions. But now we have this like spectrum of disordered eating patterns where you're not clinically diagnosed as somebody with anorexia or bulimia, but you're subclinically suffering from some unhealthy relationship with food, body, and exercise essentially. And you're fixated on these unhealthy habits. You're fixated on this idea of control, the need for control, perfectionism in your diet. You can't waver from XYZ. You know, again, like going back to that idea of like not going out to dinner with friends, like I hear this from people who are suffering from this idea of orthorexia, like where they will cancel dinner plans if they're not comfortable at that restaurant because that restaurant doesn't serve organic food or they only cook with canola oil and they don't cook with olive oil. And that's like a deal breaker for them. So I think to me then the question is like, it's okay for us to talk about the elements that, you know, consist of a healthy diet and approach to like nutrient timing or like how something like intermittent fasting can apply or when going low carb might make sense. But the key is not being overly rigid about it where it controls your whole life, really. And so I think that's where people have to like dive inward in their own journeys because this is unique to each person. Like we can't— that's where sometimes I even struggle with my podcast because it's like if we're talking about keto or something, I like— I'm like, "But this isn't for everyone," or something. You know, it's like you may hear apply for this person right here but you literally could be the opposite situation where I'd recommend literally something 180 degrees different. And so I think we— it's upon ourselves to dive inward and ask ourselves some hard questions of are we honoring our body's true needs? And often when you find disordered patterns, if you're real, you know, deep down, if you're really being honest and true with yourself, you've veered away from serving your best well-being. Like, you are in an unhealthy pattern. You're stuck in this mindset that you can't break free from. You feel this like level of guilt and shame because you know that like you're not honoring your, your, your true needs. Like you're just not being honest with yourself in a way. And so, yeah, I mean, it's, it's a hard thing to define because I think it manifests so differently in people. And these days, especially when you have one doctor over here saying intermittent fasting is the best thing ever and this other doctor saying like, don't ever touch that with a 10-foot pole, it's like, What am I supposed to think? But then meanwhile, I'm also not supposed to eat too much because I'll have high blood sugar, and it can be overwhelming. So I completely empathize that, like, also the information and the input that we're getting these days is a bit overwhelming, and we're like now like completely frozen when we open the refrigerator. Like, what the heck do we even do, right?
100%. I see it every single day between people going eating only meat to people going vegetarian or vegan, and Yeah, high fat, low carbs to, to like eating many carbs and, and left and right I see so many conflicting messages over there. Yet at the other hand, also realizing that there's no one-size-fits-all approach. What works for one athlete doesn't necessarily work for another athlete.
So yeah, so this is where I think it's really fun to work with athletes to figure out what they need. And this is where I think when my coaching career and even my, my approach to my own health took a next level step was when— how do we figure all these answers out for the unique individual who wants to pursue excellence in sport and do so? Like, if you're truly being honest with yourself and want to do this the right way, we look at your internal state of well-being right now. We do a gamut of testing. We see what's going on. We see how you're functioning from a hormonal standpoint. How is your gut health? You know, how is your stress balance? How's your HPA axis function? You know, how's your immune function? Are you getting sick all the time? Are you getting injured and broken down all the time? Like, If you were to see my questionnaire that I send athletes, whether through consulting or full-time coaching, like, it's incredibly extensive. And it's because I'm trying to get a good picture of where they're at right now.
