Our diet-obsessed culture

caperchick78

I don't know if food is the problem, but rather diet culture's and the billion dollar weight loss industry's demonization of food. You're born with the ability to eat intuitively, until you're told that what you want eat, when you eat, how much you eat, etc. is wrong or bad. You're taught that if your body is bigger as a kid, you need to be put on a diet, even though you eat the same or less as siblings or friends who eat the same or more. You begin to assign moral traits to food, good or bad, and restrict then binge, then restrict and binge again, or worse....purge. eventually you mess up your body's innate sense to eat, and spend money thst puts extremely large profits in the pockets of one of the hundreds or thousands of diet companies, or jump on the bandwagon of ABC and XYZ diet, until you can't make decisions that once came naturally. It's so depressing, and I've found myself in this awful cycle that has stolen my life, my money, my time, my pleasure, my self-confidence because I never thought I was good enough. I didn't think so when I was 120 pounds in my 20's and don't think now at 42 and 365 pounds. Diets are life thieves, but I'm learning to love my body for what it does now. I lost 85 pounds here in 2015 but gained it all back. Here's to more mindful eating, and less obsessive habits in tracking everything. Those are just my thoughts.

mjglantz

"Why is food, which should be a normal source of fuel and a source of enjoyment, become such a source of trouble for us all? And how do all of you see your relationship with food and wellness now?"
I can't answer the first question and wish I could!
As to the second, one of the things that helped me lose the weight (85 lbs) and keep it off was to stop looking at food as "good" or "bad" or that I was a good or bad person based on how I ate. Food is food and some is healthier than others and some isn't so healthy. I decided to start eating healthier and moving more because I wanted to be healthier. knew I would lose weight and I did. Staying healthy is now just a part of who I am.

Congrats to you on your weight loss!

wunderkindking

nossmf wrote: »

wunderkindking wrote: »

...I can get a whopper or 6 ounces of blackberries for roughly the same price.

Price is a huge factor. On a military base I where I used to work, the cafeteria offered a large gamut of food offerings. Now, this is a military base, where the bulk of the people living/working there should by definition be physically fit and ready to respond on a moment's notice to defend our nation. Yet eating healthy was almost discouraged; you could get a lean roast beef sandwich, apple and water for $10, or a double bacon cheeseburger, fries and soda for $7.

Yep.

It is a big, serious, issue. I was grocery shopping this morning. A pound of pasta is a dollar. So is an apple. One of those two is going to feed more people and make them feel like they've eaten than the other one. If I'm relatively broke and need to feed my family of four for 5.00 it's going to involve pasta, rice or potatoes as the bulk of the food. In order to then cut calories enough for weight loss, the serving size is going to shrink to the point of misery.

And that's not even talking about HEALTH.