Rethinking Food Rules
A Guide for Food Freedom Dietitians
Stop the food police!!!
This is a typical call to action by dietitians who follow intuitive eating and anti-diet principles.
And I generally agree, the policing of others food consumption is uncalled for and counterintuitive. Telling people what they can and cannot eat might not lead to long lasting change, can start a disordered relationship with food, and might not be informative.
People online love to demonize certain foods and food groups. All of a sudden donuts are "toxic", seed oils are "inflammatory", and having a slice of pizza leads to an automatic heart attack. The idea of demonizing foods into categoiries of "good" and "bad" rather than a complex spectrum is what the wellness industry is all about.
How would influencers sell you on their advice, coaching, books, and supplements if there wasn't something to fear? Fear sells and it sells well, which is why the demonization of foods and food groups won't go anywhere as long as people make money from it.
However, we also need to consider the fact we should have less of certain foods and more of other foods. Americans tend to overconsume added sugars, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat. But there is a lack of consuming fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and omega 3 fatty acids in this same population.
What is going on?
A lot of it has to do with socioeconomic factors constraining peoples food choice. The reality is private industries are the driving force behind public health nutrition especially in the United States.
Actual Food Rules
This is where food rules come in. When we talk about "food rules" I know the anti diet alarmbells are sounding off, but listen before commenting. We need rules, not only from a individual level, but on a societal level to function.
Why would nutrition be any different?
We lack rules on mandating food manufactures reformulate their products. There are no rules against advertising certain foods or food groups towards vunerable populations. Food pantries often lack necessary supplies, equipment, and funding to give out nutritious foods.
Where are the rules garanteeing safe and nutritious food for the food insecure?
Considerations
Public health nutrition needs to be a greater part of the conversation. We are too focused on individual level nutrition we tend to forget about overarching societal and psychological factors which impact nutritional choices.
But there are strategies on a policy level goverments can inact which could have an impact on overall public health.
These strategies include:
Reducing or stopping the advertisement of high fat, high salt, and high sugary products.
The reformulation of food products such as sugary foods.
Improve the system of food banks, food pantries, and other organizations which provide food to the food insecure.
These are all “rules” involving food, aka “food rules”, which society should implement to better address greater nutritional concern.
We should rethink our idea of food rules from being something bad to empowering people to make more healthful food choices.
Jae’s Weight Management Journey
Outside of today’s topic I wanted to discuss my own journey with weight, weight loss, and my perceptions of both.
Each week I will cover a small part of this journey with my coach and our progress.
This week its been a bit hard to eat more healthful foods like fruits and vegetables because I moved to Philadephia to attend university.
However, I am making it my business to go to the grocery store and buy some frozen veggies, bananas, romane lettuce, kiwi fruit, and strawberries (my go-to’s).
I am also making it important to buy some high protein foods like eggs, greek yogurt, protein bars, and chicken.
I haven’t been on track these past couple of days but I will be coming back to a regular routine shortly. Life is often chaotic and throws us around, but we need to get back up and try again.