Rant Topic- We Need to Stop Demonizing Food!
In our society, we are trained to think of foods as good food and bad food or healthy and unhealthy foods in health classes, by our government and general diet culture.
These topics become such a big focus because of the “obesity epidemic” referring to increased weight status correlated with health problems rather than just BMI (although society is correlating BMI in this discussion, I am differentiating because a healthy body is not strictly related to weight and bodies can be healthy at any size!)
In efforts to try and promote “better health” our society is actually demonizing food and promoting disordered eating or eating disorders leading to guilt cycles associated with food, binge eating, restricting food as a whole or certain food groups, which is actually leading to more health problems!!
What we neglect to focus on is that all foods can fit into a healthy eating lifestyle. Therefore by reframing choices as less often and more often food choices, we can focus on keeping a variety of foods in our eating lifestyle and having our staple foods focus on those with nutrient dense options, while mixing in other foods that provide some nutritional value with the bonus of some emotional or social enjoyment. This way, all foods can truly fit into a healthy eating lifestyle with variety, balance, and moderation!
Please stop teaching our children that foods are bad or unhealthy, teach them how to incorporate these foods in a healthy way!
We are just scratching the surface here, so please let me know what questions you have about this and what about this topic you’d like to discuss further.
-Ricci-Lee Hotz, MS, RDN, LD
A Taste of Health, LLC
“The Dancesport Dietitian”