Control Over Our Food: A Double Edged Sword
When I began writing my book, I had this nagging question: is my generation’s “obsession” with food unhealthy? My book argues that on the whole, it’s not — that actually, our generation’s “obsession” with food has the power to revolutionize the food industry. I still believe that, but I also still have the nagging feeling.
I tried to pinpoint what it was about my relationship with food — and that of others — that made me uneasy. The theme I keep coming back to time after time is control. Control of our diet is something that I would go so far as to say everyonestruggles with. We’ve all had days where we probably ate a little bit too much, or didn’t eat very much, days where we ate too many sweets or didn’t eat enough vegetables. But the thing is, I think that in the scheme of our overall diet, those ebb and flows are helpful. I think that if you’re truly doing a good job of listening to your body and eating intuitively, your hunger levels will fluctuate and you will end up eating a diverse range of foods.
Quick side note on eating intuitively– I feel like I’ve jumped on this bandwagon because it just sounds so smart. In reality, it’s not that simple. Not only does it take patience, care, and attention to become good at listening to your body and understanding its cravings, but when there’s a billion-dollar food industry that is trying to influence what, how, where, and when you eat, it feels almost impossible to block out the noise and simply listen to your body. My advice here is to make an effort to be aware; read the labels so you know what you’re actually putting into your body. Take your time and to eat when you feel hungry; try to actually taste the food you’re eating instead of scarfing it down and eat out of hunger, not boredom or complacence. And lastly, indulge occasionally; on a summer evening, when you’re craving an ice cream cone post-dinner, enjoy it. I’m not saying have an ice cream cone every single day, but I also think restricting yourself or eliminating certain things from your diet is going to take the enjoyment out of eating food. In the long run, it might do more harm than good to your relationship with food.
So, back to this dilemma of control. I’ve seen control manifest itself in detrimental diets on opposite ends of the spectrum. As a college student, I witness students who seem to have little to no control over what they eat. They tend not to grocery shop or cook for themselves, and instead order out most of the time. They might sleep until 11 am and eat frozen pizza for breakfast and then drunk-order mozzarella sticks that night after going out. Let me step back, I know we’ve all been there. I mean, if the night doesn’t end at whatever late night eatery your school has to offer, did you even go out? College is probably not the best time of someone’s life to be scrutinizing his or her diet. But at the same time, we should be aware of how easy it is to develop unhealthy habits. And in a country that struggles with sky-high obesity rates, we might want to pay a little more attention to the notorious “Freshman 15.”
At the other end of the spectrum, I’ve noticed more and more people, girls in particular, who are following elimination diets like veganism and paleo or restricting their diets to a point that is no longer benefiting their health but perhaps offering them the satisfaction of having ultimate control over one aspect of their life. I’ve watched friends lose weight at a rate that alarms me, while in their own minds, they are the healthiest they’ve ever been.
Yes, this newfound focus and concern for how our food is made and where it comes from is good. It’s unfortunately necessary because our food industry has evolved into an uneven playing field where the biggest, richest companies dominate, prioritizing their bottom line over the health of their consumers. For our own good, we have to be skeptical. The problem is that now the movement towards minimally processed, locally grown, healthier food has become a nationwide trend, and there are hundreds of thousands of voices talking about it. That can get both loud and confusing.
When you’re a perfectionist, searching for the healthiest option is now about as easy as searching for a needle in a haystack. So, what I’ve tried to keep in mind over the past year is yes, the food you choose to eat should be good for your body and your mind, but eating should also be pleasurable rather than stressful. One of the best quotes I came across this year was, “There’s no such thing as an unhealthy meal. There are only unhealthy diets.”
The way I’ve interpreted that phrase is that not every single one of your meals needs to be vegan or plant-based. Every dish you eat doesn’t need to include kale, quinoa, chia seeds and five other superfoods. You can still fit the occasional trip to the ice cream shop or a slice of birthday cake into an overall healthy diet — you probably just shouldn’t be eating those foods at every meal. I also think it makes thinking about food less daunting and more encouraging, because it insinuates that we have the ability to modify, shape, and refine our diets over time without demanding that we completely eliminate entire food groups or stay perfect on a daily basis. Diets can be flexible and they can also evolve — in fact, they should, just as we do.
