Diet Mentality vs. Fuel Mentality
We have contradicting mindsets about food. On one hand, we think too much about it. We’re constantly judging food as good for me or bad for me. That is modern dieting culture. On the other hand, we don’t think about food enough. We stare at our phones and forget to pay attention to what we eat, not noticing how our bodies respond, treating food as fuel to be guzzled. Some “solutions” have arisen as a result of this, like tasteless Soylent.
This isn’t surprising. We know a lot more about nutrition, genetics, the environment, and our bodies than we did 100 years ago; this allows us to make supposedly “smarter” choices as evidenced by the barrage of corporate ads. We also live in a fast-paced world and are always on the move, so food falls into the “I can optimize this” category, much to the satisfaction of our bosses. While this may be the pattern we’ve fallen into, I’m willing to bet that this has not made us healthier nor happier.
The flaw of dieting is the all or nothing nature of it. We chase after diet as if it’s the answer to our lives, but it often turns into the problem of our lives (we focus too much on food), even though it’s as natural and necessary as breathing. It’s the mindset that “I want to have the optimal body/health”…but this comes at the expense of…
