Dana James, a functional medicine practitioner, cognitive behavioural therapist and certified nutritionist believes that your body type is ultimately determined by your personality traits—and she’s dubbed her discoveries the The Archetype Diet. Through her work with clients, she identified that there is a very powerful link between women’s behaviour around food—even down to how they derive their self worth, which subsequently impacts their hormones and where they tend to store fat.
Here’s what you need to know about the four archetypes, and how to tailor your diet to each one.
Archetype 1: The Femme Fatale
She’s super into food and exercise, and can quickly become obsessed by her appearance. Her entire self-worth is based entirely off her looks, and she is almost always dieting. Needless to say, her relationship with food tends not to be a healthy one—and a mindset change is needed to enable the Femme Fatale to harness her innermost power.
Her body type is usually either curvy or underweight, and she thrives from a whole foods diet of fruits, legumes, vegetables and quality sources of animal protein.
Archetype 2: The Nurturer
As the name would suggest, a Nurturer bases her sense of self-worth on her ability to love, give and provide stability for others. She’s the very essence of a people pleaser, and often gets caught in a trap of saying yes to everyone else, and no to her own needs. She’s prone to comfort eating, and will often feel guilty after a binge.
The Nurturer often carries body fat all over her body and stores excess weight on her hips and thighs. Her dominant hormones are insulin and estrogen, and she needs to tailor her diet to accommodate these imbalances in order to avoid symptoms.
A Nurturer needs light forms of protein such as eggs and fish (avoiding red meat where possible) alongside healthy fats like seeds and avocado, plus cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts.
Archetype 3: The Wonder Woman
Guess what? She thinks she can do it all. A Wonder Woman archetype tends to be an over-achieving type A personality who bases her sense of self worth from kicking goals and constantly ‘improving’.
To the outside, she often looks like she has it all, but in reality she is overworked, unable to switch off and could do with letting go of some control—and sticking to a meditation practice. Because cortisol is her dominant hormone, a Wonder Woman tends to store fat around her belly.
When it comes to diet, a Wonder Woman benefits from structure (quelle surprise), and benefits from a very balanced diet, that incorporates protein, carbs, bitter vegetables to aid detoxification and an abundance of healthy fats.
Archetype 4: The Ethereal
An Ethereal’s worth is based on her spirituality and creative consciousness. She is highly intuitive, yet often scattered, disorganised and has a hard time focusing.
Weight gain is generally not an issue for an Ethereal, and she often forgets to eat. Digestion however tends to be the primary issue at play, and she often experiences digestive discomfort and mood swings.
An Ethereal’s body type tends to be willowy and lean and because of this, she benefits from food that help ground her, such as root vegetables, plenty of cooked foods and healthy starchy carbs that the other archetypes would do well to avoid.
