Common misconceptions around food neutrality
I’m a huge advocate for what’s known as ‘food neutrality’ - the belief that foods don’t hold any moral weight, and that you can include all types of food in your diet and still be healthy.
Some foods might be more nutrient-dense than others, so it would make sense to include them in your diet more frequently. But even the ‘healthiest’ of foods can still be over-eaten. You wouldn’t want your diet to consist purely of broccoli and brown rice, the same way you wouldn’t want your diet to consist purely of pizza and doughnuts.
Different foods provide different benefits for our health. Foods containing carbohydrates provide us with energy, fuel brain function and feed gut bacteria. Protein is important for the repair and maintenance of tissue in our bodies. Fat is important for hormone synthesis and vitamin absorption. Fibre assists the digestive system, slows the release of blood glucose and can be converted to anti-inflammatory compounds that benefit multiple systems in the body.
It can all sound like a lot to remember, and it only makes things worse when we come across headlines of ‘new discoveries’ claiming that what you once thought was good for you is apparently bad now.
I get a lot of questions along the lines of, ‘Is bread bad?’, ‘Is tofu bad?’, ‘Is eating after 6 pm bad?’
Which kind of makes me laugh inside, as if eating tofu after 6 pm is really associated with rebel status.
Bad to the bone, baby.
I think it’s more unproductive to label foods or eating behaviours as ‘bad’, than foods or eating behaviours themselves.
When we label something as ‘bad’, it creates a feeling of shame around that behaviour, but it doesn’t necessarily stop us from engaging in it.
We can also develop anxiety around eating those foods, meaning we may avoid social occasions, eating at restaurants or any scenario involving different food. Food becomes the forefront of our minds, affecting our ability to be truly present with other people, enjoy the moment or even just use our brain for more interesting purposes.
Essentially, we’re missing out on the potential for joy, connection, spontaneity, creativity and adventure - due to a belief that we’re doing something positive for our health - when longevity research tells us that close relationships and minimising stress are key fundamentals in living healthier, happier lives.
Of course, the big question is - how do we find the balance of eating for joy while still eating for health?
I think the concern many of my clients seem to have is that ‘eating for joy’ will get taken to the extreme and the next thing you know, they’ll be eating ice cream and cake for breakfast and candyfloss and Skittles for lunch and dinner.
In my experience, in order to avoid not eating like a toddler who’s been let loose in a pick’n’mix, if we ask ourselves the question ‘how will eating this make me feel afterwards?’ we can slowly break away from the black-and-white mentality around foods that can keep us from finding a more balanced middle ground.
If we ask ourselves ‘how will I feel after eating this?’ when we’re deciding whether to get that petrol station pie - we can decide in that moment whether we’re going to feel stodgey and lethargic afterwards, or whether it’s going to be the pick-me-up we need after a rough day or week. The pie itself isn’t ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but it could make you feel better or worse depending on how you’re already feeling.
Knowing that ahead of time empowers you to make that decision with confidence, and removes any food guilt that you may have otherwise had about eating something which probably won’t affect your health in the long term.
Another way to do this, and this may seem obvious, but it’s to stop making your ‘healthy’ meals so depressingly unflavourful in order to keep them as low calorie or high protein as possible.
I completely went off salads for ages, because I thought the only way to have them was with exactly one teaspoon (no more) of olive oil and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Now I realise that there are far more delicious ways to get vegetables into your diet, and whilst they might add additional calories or involve ingredients that are more processed, consuming vegetables and making them taste good equates to a net positive if the alternative is avoiding them altogether.
In short, if we recognise that all foods can be beneficial for us - even if that benefit is psychological - we can adopt an ‘all foods fit’ approach to eating, and still eat in a way that supports our health.
By mindfully eating foods that bring us comfort or joy, and making the foods that bring us nutrients a little more enjoyable to eat, we won’t find ourselves falling in and out of phases of ‘being good’ and ‘being naughty’ so much as we might do otherwise.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Lx
