Food Freedom

This week, I wanted to blog about something that I’ve become especially aware of lately. I’m sure many of you have heard the “fitspirational” saying “Do not reward yourself with food. You are not a dog” that’s been going around lately.

This really struck a chord with me because we are SURROUNDED by advertising that tells us that food is a reward (see photo) and live in a culture that accepts this approach.

At the gym, I recently overheard two women talking about how they “earned” a hot dog at the company barbeque because they worked out. A week later, they mused how they rewarded themselves with two glasses of wine after their workout. Even on a recent Jillian Michaels podcast (yes, my guilty pleasure is out: I listen to her podcasts and have even listened to one of her audiobooks!), she made a comment to someone about maintenance in which she described it as “being allowed to eat more.”

Do we live in a culture of such deprivation that we have to allow ourselves to eat? That we need permission to indulge in the occasional (well, what should be occasional) unhealthy food, and that we have to earn it?

We are so focused on what we cannot have that we overlook what we can have. Food and diet are choices. No one makes the rules about what we can or cannot eat! I think the idea of permission is bound to fail because we will instinctively want to rebel against it. If there’s something we are not “allowed” to have, we will gravitate toward it. Like the forbidden fruit, if people are forced into categorizing food as good and bad, eventually, they will give in to temptation (and it won’t stop at an apple!). This black-and-white approach to food sets people up to failure not just for this reason, but because it takes away a person’s control. If someone doesn’t eat something just because they feel they’re not allowed to, that person is not making the conscious choice to eat something that will benefit his or her body. How many times has someone declined a sweet treat with the words “I really shouldn’t” when the words this person should be saying are “I choose not to”? On a separate podcast (I may have a slight podcast obsession), I heard another saying that I think is so true (and I apologize for using so many quotes, but I think they can sometimes summarize my thoughts better than I can myself!):

Nothing tastes as good as free will.

This is a spin on the popular “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” (which I think it just anorexia condensed into a sentence). To have choice is to have power. This quote came up when discussing how to encourage children to eat their vegetables. Simply by giving kids the choice between eating carrots or broccoli (or whatever other vegetable), the kids were more inclined to eat a vegetable because they felt that they had some control over what they were eating. If simply told to eat carrots, kids resisted. If we, as adults, were to remove our restrictions around what we feel we “can” and “cannot” eat, would this not have the same effect?

Along similar lines, I constantly see magazines that claim to have recipes for “guilt-free” foods (see photo).

Why does guilt need to be associated with food to begin with? What purpose does guilt serve in someone’s approach to their diet? Can anything constructive come from feeling guilty? (With regard to diet or anything else in life, really) If anything, guilt simply depresses us, and for people who deal with emotional eating, all this does is spur on these out-of-control binges (which then leads to more binging, and on and on). The best-case scenario is that guilt encourages someone to make a healthier choice, but is this really the ideal motivation? Are people really happy making a choice based on avoiding a negative emotion? Wouldn’t it be more constructive to make a choice based on a positive outcome? Instead of “guilt-free,” couldn’t we use words like “fresh” or “healthy” to describe these foods? I know it sounds less sexy to the masochists among us, but let’s get rid of the negative associations!

I know the emotions associated with food run deep, but I think a lot can be achieved by removing these negative feelings from our food choices. Food should never be associated with guilt or shame, regardless of how unhealthy they are. Food should also not be seen as a “reward”; no one “earns” diabetes or hypertension, regardless of how hard the workout! Illness does not benefit anyone! We all have the free will to choose the foods that will nurture the body we have or are working toward. The freedom of choice removes the shackles of guilt and permission and gives us the power to control our own health. Eat for your own well-being because (last cheesy quote here!) you’re worth it!