ComScore

Is Your Body Type Determined by Your Personality? Here’s What You Need to Know About the Archetype Diet

three women on the beach different body shapes

Raise your hand if one of these scenarios sounds familiar: You mostly subsist on coffee and energy bars all day and then treat yourself to a giant takeout meal and a glass of wine at night. Or whenever you get emotional, you immediately turn to a pint of Ben & Jerry’s finest. According to certified nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner and cognitive behavioral therapist Dana James, there are four archetypes that define women's behavioral patterns—including how we eat. 

In her book The Archetype Diet, she explains that these different types are tied to the way we derive our self-worth (achievement, giving to others, physical appearance or intuition) and how it affects our hormone levels and eating habits. And this, in turn, determines how we store body fat. Intrigued? Find out more about the four different archetypes below.

The Wonder Woman: This archetype is all about success and achievements, and she expects the best from herself and those around her. She’ll often skip meals because of her packed schedule. Her dominant hormone is cortisol, which can lead to belly fat, fatigue and anxiety. For this archetype, James prescribes a Mediterranean-style diet with a limited amount of starchy carbohydrates (like brown rice and chickpeas) and no gluten or dairy. She also recommends bitter vegetables and fresh herbs to help restore adrenals and thyroid function. 

The Nurturer: This woman is loyal, thoughtful and always cares for others. She often reaches for fast or comfort foods because she’s tired or for emotional reasons. She tends to store fat all over her body but especially the upper thighs and arms. The dominant hormone is insulin and estrogen and a Paleo-style diet (keeping red meat and nuts to a minimum) can help address this. Nurturers also need to learn how to start asking for help and expressing their own needs rather than prioritizing other people, says James.

The Femme Fatale: This woman is “sensual, alluring, playful and passionate,” writes James. When it comes to her self-worth, the femme fatale values her physical appearance, which is why she’s constantly on a diet. Her body type may look like any of the other archetypes, depending on her eating patterns. The femme fatale needs to learn that starchy carbs are not to be feared. James also advises digging deeper into childhood memories to uncover why the femme fatale relates her appearance to her self-worth.

The Ethereal: “Feminine, whimsical and enchanting,” the ethereal woman is creative and places a high value on intuition. She can be very sensitive to food and may suffer from allergies or negative reactions. Women of this archetype are often lean and slender, and James suggests a macrobiotic food plan to remedy low levels of estrogen and boost gut microbiome. She also advises that this archetype learns to adds logic to their ideas instead of just relying on intuition. 

Interested in finding out more? Take the archetype quiz to discover which one you are.

5 Diets That Actually Work (and 3 That Don’t), According to Nutritionists



img 0936

Executive Editor

Alexia Dellner is an executive editor at PureWow who has over ten years of experience covering a broad range of topics including health, wellness, travel, family, culture and...