Food isn’t fuel: you don’t have to make every meal healthy

How is it March already! Time is flying, but that doesn’t stop diet culture from making us think we need to change how we eat. One thing that is often pushed is the idea that food is fuel.

It assumes that everything you eat needs to be a perfect balance of calories and nutrients to power our bodies. But food is so much more than that. It also encourages us to try and make everything that passes our lips to be ‘healthy’. Whether that’s protein pancakes or lettuce burgers, we’re told we need to fix everything we eat.

Food is more than nutrients: 

As I mentioned in my post last year about calorie counting here, food is so much more than nutrients. It has such greater meanings and reducing it to fuel or energy takes away all of that. Our bodies are not engines that need X number of calories and nothing else. Of course, we need energy to survive but food is more than that.

Food is emotional: 

Food has an emotional component that can't be denied. Think of when you reach for a chocolate bar when you're stressed, those celebratory drinks when you get a new job, or those crisps you munch on when bored.

We eat due to different emotions all the time, and likely don’t realise. We are emotional creatures after all. Food can be a comfort blanket when things aren’t going so well but it can also be a reward for happy occasions.

Thinking about food only as a fuel source ignores the emotions that we all experience.

Food is social connection: 

Food also has a social and cultural aspect. Think birthdays, Christmas, or meeting your friend for a coffee catch up.

Food plays a special part in so many occasions and traditions. It’s a given to have cake on your birthday, and you wouldn’t think twice about it. The same with Christmas, the whole day revolves around having a roast dinner (and all the chocolate you can eat). It’s a key part of the celebration. We also use food to socialise when we meet up with friends or family for a meal/drink.

Again, food has more meaning than just energy. Thinking about it as calories in vs calories out or by tracking macros takes out the human aspect.

Diet culture: 

Diet culture is the idea that thinness and appearance are of extreme importance. And we should desire to be thin at any cost, as thin equals healthy. But this simply isn’t true, and weight is not the only measure of health.

Examples of diet culture is labelling foods as ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ or doing extra exercise to ‘make up’ for eating something. Another way that diet culture creeps in is by trying to tell us that we should make every meal healthy.

You don’t have make every meal healthy: 

I see posts all the time with ‘tricks’ to make foods healthier. Things like adding black beans to brownies or using lettuce instead of burger buns are examples of this. It reinforces the idea that you shouldn’t eat anything unless it’s packed with nutrients or made with vegetables. It also enforces the idea that you can’t have food for enjoyment.

I’m sorry to say it, but spiralised courgette is not pasta. It never will be. There is no need to play pretend with vegetables, eating normal spaghetti is absolutely fine. You also don’t need to add a few scoops of protein powder to your pancake batter, to justify eating pancakes. You can eat a protein-less pancake and enjoy it.

Different foods provide us with different things. Some foods provide protein. Some foods provide comfort. And this is all okay. Food is so important to all of us and enjoying what you're eating is a key part of this.

Diet culture tries to tell us that we can only eat for nutrients but please don’t feel pressured to do this. We have taste buds for a reason!

Key points: 

• Food is more than fuel, it has an emotional, social, and cultural meaning.
• Our bodies are not engines that need X number of calories and nothing else. We can eat for enjoyment too.
• Diet culture is the idea that being thin is the most important thing in the world.
• Protein pancakes, black bean brownies, courgetti, and lettuce burgers are all examples of diet culture. We don’t have to make everything we eat healthy.

 

I’ll be doing a follow on post exploring diet culture in more detail. I hope you enjoyed this blog post! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Bye for now!

References:

Emotional eating: https://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/ and https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938419301787