Today I'm thinking a lot about food. I don't mean that I'm craving foods, or obessively thinking about eating, more that I'm thinking about the ways that food is presented, used, abused, and thought about by society--and by extension, by me. I just watched Natalie Jill's video on gluten-free and unprocessed diets, and it got me thinking on these lines:
- How society, and in specific, advertising, influences what we eat and how we think about food.
- How fad diets, cleanses, and ideas about nutrition come and go -- and how we decide what to 'buy into'.
- How food is often more than fuel for the body, and whether that's a positive or a negative thing.
Ads for food and restaurants run the gamut -- from promoting healthy foods to the emptiest-highest calorie items available. Ads try and convince us what to eat, when to eat, who to eat it with, and how much to eat. Portion sizes have grown over the last 50 years, in part because of the restaurant business (getting 'more for your money' or 'good value'). While waiting in line the other day, I saw "sharing size' packages of candy -- and I wondered how many people buy them to share, and how many people eat a package alone. What was wrong with sharing the "normal" size baggie of candy? Did we need another size, somewhere between the alleged single-serving (though who knows if the label's serving size will match perception) and the 'family size'? How have ads made me see food in ways that are and aren't healthy? Am I aware of when my ideas are being influenced?
Over the years, I've tried many fad diets. The earliest one that I remember was when I was about 10 and my step-mother decided we were going on "The Stewardess Diet". It was a week of following an exact meal plan, measuring, and feeling extremely cranky and hungry... and since then, I've noticed how many fad diets or diet trends there have been. Low-fat, high-protein, cut out all ____, eat only this color, eat for your blood type, cleanse with this, cleanse with that, gluten-free.... and many have some merit, but what is the best way? (Disclaimer: this is not referring to specific health issues, like diabetes, celiac disease, and other conditions that really do require specific dietary changes -- I am only talking about weight loss, not the diets that truly have been proven to be necessary medically for specific individuals!) My lingering question here is: What is worth taking away from any given of-the-moment way of thinking? There are good, sound, healthy premises at the core of many here-today-gone-tomorrow ideas -- am I smart enough to find those pieces and use them for my benefit while not getting sucked into the things that can be bad for me? How do I make those decisions?
Finally, food as comfort, social event/bonding, and status (or whatever else) instead of fuel. We are human and food isn't just fuel - there are foods (Grandma's cookies), meals (Thanksgiving), and places (the restaurant we had our first date) we eat where it isn't just about food as fuel. Sometimes eating has emotional connections or is about exploring new tastes or about bonding with loved ones. Again, that's not inherently a bad thing... but it's something to be mindful of, in that moment. Why am I choosing something - what other than fuel am I getting? Is the caloric intake worth it?
Food, like most things in life, is complicated! I have to stop and think about the layers of the food choices I'm making in order to make wiser, healthier, real choices. What are you thinking about food?