Food Labels

I have encountered a school of thought in the weight loss world that says no food is off limits and we should not label food good or bad. The reasoning is that if you label a food good or bad then you might label yourself good or bad if you eat that particular food.  And that’s not productive when you are trying to make changes for weight loss.

Things that make you go hmmmm.  Or is it just me?

To me this begs the question “What is food?”

I checked the definition online, and this is what I found:

“Food is any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth.”

That seems like a good thing to me.

So tell me why I can’t I call food “good”?

Notice that there is no mention of food tasting good. I suppose individual tastes vary. However, I take exception to that not being part of the definition and offer my own: food is edible organic substance that has life giving nutrients and energy AND leaves me feeling full and satisfied (because it tastes good).

Maybe the distinction is not whether a food is good or bad but whether what it does to me, in me, for me is healthy or unhealthy.  For example, if I am allergic to peanuts and I eat a peanut and have an allergic reaction, that peanut is not healthy for me.

But isn’t healthy good and unhealthy bad? Hmmmm….

By the way, is soda food?  I really want your opinion on this.

Some things we include in the larger category of food don’t belong there and could actually be considered anti-nutritious.  Harmful even.

I can’t think of one nutritious or beneficial way soda supports life, can you?

And don’t get me wrong, I am not standing on any moral high ground looking down at people who drink soda. I was a soda drinker myself until my husband pointed out the harmful effects it was having on my health: headaches, fatigue, poor sleep, mood instability. At 72 ounces a day,  I was addicted. I loved everything about soda. The perspiring ice cold can, that crisp sound of the tab’s pop as I opened it, the first sickeningly sweet swig, the fizz tickling the back of my throat. Ahhhhhhh…….

I tried to go off soda many times. It was easy during my pregnancies. Because I was caring for another human being. But I went right back to it. And when my husband pointed it out to me and before I quit for good, I made many a secret rendezvous to the nearest vending machine under the guise of running a quick errand. Who was I kidding?

My kids knew exactly where I was.

I literally had to change the way I thought about soda to stop drinking it. For me, it was poison. Poison is bad for me. I would not drink arsenic, why would I drink any other poison?That worked for me. And I have not had a soda for seventeen years. Seventeen! And I have absolutely no desire for one. I am convinced soda is bad and bad for me.

But does that work for every body or for all unhealthy foods? Like cake or cookies or fill in the blank. Somehow we know that dessert foods are not healthy for us if we eat them all the time. And what is excess for one may not be excess for another.

The problem is that so much of our everyday breakfast, lunch and dinner foods have become unhealthy and can’t meet the criteria for food anymore. So can we just take the stuff that is disguised as food out of the food category and call it something different? Like food like substance? Or Frankenfood? Or ultra-processed food or junk food or unhealthy food?

Can we really call unhealthy food food? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Am I going in circles?

I suppose I am quick to label ultra-processed foods “bad “ because day in and day out I see the negative health effects that they have on myself and others.  I do not judge the people for buying and eating these food like substances, myself included. We come by this honestly.  For the past one hundred years our food supply has been hijacked and sometimes in the name of health. (Think margarine. Think cereal. Think food pyramid.) Since the end of the 18^th century, we have experienced an increase in sugars, processed grains, and processed oils. We have changed the way we farm plants. We have changed the way we farm animals.

With all the marketing, all the confusing messaging emanating from the USDA, ADA, AHA, etc, its no wonder people don’t know what real food is and think they are eating food. Food engineers get paid a lot of money to figure out just how much processed sugar, salt, and fat need to be put in their products to make them “hyperpalatable,” and “cravable.”  Ultra-processed food makes you keep coming back for more, never truly satisfying.

Real food does not do that. Real food provides the nutrients and energy you need, leaves you feeling full and satisfied and tastes good!

Let me suggest a different way of considering food without judging yourself, and ok, without labeling the food good or bad.

Is what you are choosing to eat helping or hindering you with your health and weight goals?

In today’s world, all foods may be permissible but not all foods are beneficial.