All Foods Fit When You Have the Power to Choose
How often do we demonize foods? So frequently, we look at certain foods as “bad,” others as “good,” and associate those feelings with our own worth. These values are totally made up by us, by a society that pits foods against each other in an effort to promote nutritious eating, all the while just guilting us into temporary diets and flavorless food in the name of “nutrition.”
In a world where food is all around us—how are we supposed to not be distracted by so many sources telling us what is “good” and “bad” for us? Unfortunately, marketing campaigns to promote a food or product are never looking out for our well-being. These firms have but one job—to sell products—even if it means ultimately confusing the public.
The only thing that can free us of the whirlwind of messaging around food and nutrition is ourselves. We have the power to choose what is right for us. As nice as that sounds, though, knowing you have the power to choose is not the same as owning that power and harnessing it to create a healthier relationship with food.
It’s not easy to hit up the fast food joint you haven’t been to in months and simply enjoy the burger without guilt, right? But that is exactly what owning this power means. The benefit of owning your power is to be free of any feeling associated with choosing a certain food. So how do you learn to harness this power to the benefit of your health?
Listening to your body is not the same as trusting it.
Cravings are real. The food environment that we live in is literally designed to make us crave whatever is being presented to us. For me, pizza commercials always have me craving a slice or two, but, that does not mean we should go running to satisfy a craving every single time we have one.
To add further complexity to this, our bodies generally love consistency. Foods that contain sugar and fat tend to trigger pleasure-creating hormonal responses that make the body create cravings in an attempt at consistency. If someone is trying to eat fewer candy bars, for example, doing so is going to take a great deal of effort because the body will crave them more and more as it gets less and less. What is important here is that candy bars are not inherently bad, but eating them regularly doesn’t help drive us toward health.
With that said, if someone is not facing regular cravings, listening to the body’s needs is the best way to create a food environment free of guilt. This does not mean craving salt is a sign of needing sodium in the bloodstream—that is simply a craving. What this does mean is allowing yourself to occasionally enjoy a food that you want—for whatever reason—without feeling any certain way about it.
Food can be a reward, and the best part about rewards is that they are infrequent and so never taken for granted. You find yourself in the airport and wanting a bag of chips, go for it. And if you are going to “go for it,” you should definitely not feel bad about it. Many call this practice “intuitive eating,” but not everyone has that intuition naturally built in … especially when the food world can throw us completely off balance.
What is moderation, anyway?
As a dietitian, I am really tired of the phrase “eat in moderation.” This overused aphorism provides no context or tips on how this is achieved or even what it means. For those in the same boat, moderation simply means eating a variety of foods that may include a mixture of fruits, vegetables, processed snack foods, protein, whole grains, and sugary beverages, just to name a few. It means eating the foods that drive us toward health more often and choosing the foods that do not drive us in this direction less frequently.
For some, drinking three sodas per week is excess; for others, it is a significant improvement from what they may drink daily. We all have our own journey, and the key is acknowledging where you are creating a path to health that works for you.
Drive on your own road.
There is no shame in forging your own path. This frees us of the confines built by the food environment meant to drive us to make specific choices. Each choice we make drives us down one of two paths: health or disease. Making choices that drive us toward health more frequently means an occasional diverting path is no big deal.
If we generally eat foods that we know support our body’s health and wellness, there is really nothing wrong with enjoying a food you enjoy with no nutritional value whatsoever sometimes. More importantly, never feel shame or guilt about making this choice. Ultimately, each person has the power to choose the foods that fit into their life, and all foods fit in one way or another.
