Changing the language around food –
Food is FUEL
In Holistic Nutrition,
Food is real, unprocessed or minimally processed. Real food provides the body with energy for the millions of processes it carries out every day and nutrients to replenish cells.
Highly processed, packaged foods with additives are food substances. These are significantly changed from the original food. They often hold little or no nutritional value and may cause harm to healthy cells.
In the world of high-quality foods, no food is bad when eaten as part of a balanced diet
(with the exception of allergies or targeted dietary requirements).
BTW, “diet” simply refers to what you eat.
Psychology plays a big part of our relationship with food. It can explain our actions and shape our attitudes, perceptions and habits. Through language, we can overturn our whole outlook on food and health.
We can do this by tweaking routines to change habit loops and establish new ones. We replace actions, what we say and how we say it. By making a paradigm shift, we work toward a positive self-concept and healthy mind-set toward food.
One reason many people find new ways of eating hard to sustain, is that they make dietary changes, but haven’t addressed language around food, so the root of how they think about food remains the same.
Language is a powerful tool when it comes to changing habit loops. We can Change perpetuating (negative) statements into reaffirming (positive) statements. For example:
“I’m fat” …becomes “I’m going to be healthy”
“If I keep eating bad foods, I’ll get fatter” becomes: “If I eat healthy foods, I will improve my health and enjoy the benefits of feeling fitter”
I deserve. Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy a treat, the beer, the coffee, the cake. However, it might be time to change the language and be honest about the frequency.
Words like “I deserve” can create complex emotions around eating for some people. So it may be more useful to state: I’m going to eat and enjoy some cake, rather than somehow deserving it.
It may help you to think about what is going on in the body when the “deserved” treat is consumed, the following may be happening:
· spiking your blood sugar,
· exhausting the liver and
· stressing the hormones.
Your body deserves nourishment, so if you love a treat, also look at the quality of that food.
If you are going to have the occasional piece of cake, just have it and enjoy it. Rather than creating whirlpool of guilt, just own the moment.
Watch the self-talk. If you’re approaching the refrigerator at work, knowing your new type of meal awaits you today, instead of thinking “oh no, I have to get through this boring diet food”, replace your words with, “Great, I’ll have more energy after this meal”. Equally, don’t make negative comments about it to colleagues and do ask for their support to be positive too – or not say anything!
(PS – if the meal is really unappetising, let me know and we’ll find more appealing and satisfying foods to eat!)
Replace “I should” with empowering language…
Such as “I am”, “I will” or “I choose”
“I should eat better, or my diabetes will become worse” …becomes:
“I’m choosing to eat better so I become healthy and focused.”
Self-talk:
Avoid thinking or hearing comments such as food is “bad” or “good”, or suggesting that you are naughty, or good for eating, or not eating something. Replace thoughts which describe food as a reward or a distraction, with healthy images and self-talk. You’ll notice I’ve mentioned self-talk a few times. Self-talk is powerful and is the path to changing your outlook and habit loops.
Sure, we are visual creatures, and the look and aroma of food is how humans decide what to eat and when. We are hard-wired to seek out calories, since during Hunter gatherer times, humans didn’t know when the next meal was coming.
However, our natural instincts have been usurped by a bombardment of readily available food, which is laden with extra salt, sugar, fat and fake flavourings. These often take the shape of foods which are significantly changed from the way natured provided and trick us into wanting more, since many of these manufactured foods contain addictive ingredients.
During the last century, the food manufacturing industry has spent billions of dollars on ways to make us crave their product. Including vast amounts of money invested into university research to determine the ultimate “bliss factor” in foods. (See Michael Moss’s book “Salt Sugar Fat”).
The problem isn’t just the result of over-eating, it’s the fact that many of the processed foods have the ability to confuse our body’s hormones, so they can’t perform essential functions properly, such as metabolising fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
As noted below, there is nothing wrong with salt, sugar or fat, when consumed from natural sources and in the right proportions and quantities.
Craving. You may be in the habit of waiting until you’re really hungry before eating lunch, then crave calorie rich foods. If this sounds like you, try eating a healthy snack during the morning. Eg: a few nuts, berries, chopped veggies, dried fruit, 4 crackers and hummus, a 1 inch square piece of homemade sweet potato brownie, a green smoothie, 2 tablespoons natural yoghurt or a homemade oat cookie. (see recipe in the blog).
Feelings of deprivation. Cutting out foods altogether, especially without replacing them, can lead to a sense of missing out and feeling hungry, often resulting in increased thoughts about those foods and eating even more.
Put an appealing snack plate in front of you and it’ll be easier to stop thinking about the food you normally eat.
Instead of cutting out altogether, visualise and replace some of the foods with healthier options and use positive language in your own mind and outwardly to describe these foods
It may help to visualise food differently…
Fasting. The concept of snacking on veggies between or before meals, may go against some people’s philosophy on snacking and fasting.
If fasting works for you, that’s great. However, if you’re fasting until 3pm then craving takeaway food, with chips and gravy because you’re super hungry, then it might be time to re-address your mealtimes and attitudes to nutritious meals/snacks earlier in the day.
Crowd out or Add more! Start your health journey today, now, by adding one healthy habit or healthy food, or swapping the soft drink for mineral water. Add some veggies before meals and with meals. Add a green smoothie to the day sometimes. Allow yourself time to become used to the natural flavours in the foods you are introducing. Gradually your body will feel fresh and energised as more are introduced. I started introducing extra unprocessed foods throughout the day a few years ago. Being able to munch on some rocket or mini cucumbers anytime, took some adjustment, but it’s worth it, now I love the fresh flavour of nasturtium leaves straight from the garden, or some plain chopped cabbage.
If you’re not ready to give up the dinners you like, say steak and chips, or mac and cheese. Here’s some suggestions: Make a big batch of vegetable soup and have a small portion before each dinnertime. You will have nourished your body and enter dinner time feeling less hungry, so will be satisfied with a lesser amount on your plate. There’s no feeling of deprivation, just the sense that adding more veggies to the meal will aid nutrient uptake and lead to a healthier body.
Look for other ways to make your favourite foods healthy: Buy grass-fed steak, have baked potatoes instead of chips and add some salad. Add pesto, or herbs to mac and cheese. Use spelt pasta and pasture-raised cheese. Add veg gradually. For kids, add pureed carrot to the cheese sauce.
Visualise –
Instead of focusing on the way you look on the outside, picture the inside: the vitamins nourishing the cells in your body. Visualise oxygenated blood pumping around your body, bringing nutrients to the organs and strong healthy cells.
The language around food is also about body language and actions:
Habit loops. These come into nearly everything we do. The following are key areas for changes in habit loops to enable you to reach your health goals. Introducing one or 2 at a time is likely to lead to more long-term adaptions. Look for triggers – eg:
Changing the self-talk – it’s true! This works.
Changing the daily routine -E.g: add a 10 minute walk each day before breakfast.
Changing the food habit– E.g: start by changing one item: swap the 2 meat pies and soft drink for one meat pie, plus a piece of fruit and juice or mineral water.
Changing the routine for planning meals and times for grocery shopping-E.g: swap the grocery shopping to the morning if possible, or have a snack before-hand, so you’re not shopping when really hungry.
Changing the meal routine- E.g: Change the location or time to eat
Changing the meal setting: instead of placing the food on share platters, plate up the meal to manage portions.
Changing the language: This applies to self-talk about yourself and about how you perceive food- E.g: good or bad, if it’s deserved etc. Language is also a powerful role modelling tool. Your children and peers will be inspired if you use positive and nourishing comments about what you or others are about to eat.
Sometimes, there’s no need to say anything, just simply keep chatting about something else whilst you prep a meal then just sit and eat it, or hand it to your child without comment. There’s no need to anxiously watch to see if they eat it or use loaded comments such as, “the cucumbers are yummy, you know they are good for your weight”
Using reward of desert to eat veggies denigrates their status.
*See Book “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg
Goals. For most people, it works to tackle one health goal at a time.
Cutting out a large range of foods, taking up extra exercise and changing the daily routine all at once may work for you, however, for many people this has shown to be unsustainable.
List out all your long-term health goals, then ways for you to get there. Then choose the short-term goals. This may be simple like: Park further from the car to allow extra exercise or adding an apple a day at morning tea. Or more ambitious, like changing the daily meat pie for a salad and adding daily exercise.
Yummy – Yes, sure, we like the food to be appealing and YUM! However, this may seem a novel idea, but food doesn’t always need to be super yummy! Food is fuel. Rather than thinking, “what do I want to eat?” think “what do I need?” Think of the food as nourishment: healing skin, replicating cells, providing energy for millions of essential actions which are happening in your body every day!
Yummy is so commonly used as a prerequisite for any meal! - I am guilty of saying this too!
We can re-train our palate and attitude, whilst re-defining what yummy means. Most of us screwed up our face at alcohol for the first time, but we kept trying it and soon became used to it!
There’s kind of 2 things going on with the “yummy” thing. One: for many of us, it’s taking so much more salt, sugar & flavours for a food to taste yum and for us to feel sated.
The other aspect is actually learning to taste and enjoy simple whole foods and enjoy their raw flavour, so these become yum too.
We need to get in touch with basic, real food again. Sometimes, it doesn’t have to be super delicious, sometimes, the meal is there to provide nourishment.
Eat some plain steamed veggies, salad leaves with no dressing. Pop bright fresh veggies on a cheese & biscuit plate. Describe the food in words such as “fresh”, “crunchy” & “yum”. Instead of mumbling something under your breath about eating rabbit food!
This applies often when we are in a hurry and takeaway food is sought out. When you’re very hungry, the food covered in extra salt, sweetness & flavourings are instantly satisfying. Unfortunately, the palate gets used to the stronger salty, sweet or fatty flavourings, so wholefoods in contrast can taste bland to some people.
The good news is that there are plenty of healthy, real herbs & spices to add flavour when you need the taste buds to be tantalised.
As noted above, there is also nothing wrong with sugar, salt or fat, when consumed from quality sources and in the right proportions.
Aim to use the word yum to describe plain veggies as well as the treats.
Rather than thinking “what do I fancy for lunch”. Try saying “what fuel does my body need” and “What nutrients will replenish and repair cells” & “Will this food I’m about to eat, nourish, or damage my body? Will it keep my hormones happy so they can do their job?”
Look for satisfying food, so you’re not feel deprived or fishing around for snacks an hour later, with enough healthy fats, low GI carbohydrates and protein to sustain you for longer.
Culture. We may have been taught to eat everything on our plate…
Maybe in your family there was a treat to reward or placate every moment – ice-cream after school for a good result, donuts at the weekend because it’s a rainy day. A lolly at the grocery store for good behaviour, or for just being there! As an adult this may lead to reaching for food to cheer you up: Sometimes these treats are fun, but sometimes they are too much.
Role-modelling. Your children and peers will be affected by the type of language you use about yourself, others and food. If you talk positively about yourself and self-image, it will have an impact on how others see you and see themselves.
Say something nice about the food in front of you, or about someone’s appearance, or stay quiet! Remember, sometimes there’s no need to say anything about one’s appearance. Practise the positive self-talk to yourself too.
Words to describe food:
You can enthuse yourself or others about simple prepared veg by saying “how delicious, or you can choose to not describe it at all sometimes. Food doesn’t always need a description. Simple statements such as “let’s chop some carrots up for dinner” or “the casserole is in the oven” are enough.
Treats.
What is a treat for your body for your child’s growing body? By providing regular sugary treats for behaviour, we are training children that veggies are somehow a punishment or at least a dull part of the day and that sweets are revered.
Think about the enthusiastic look on your face as you offer the treat, “wow! Look at this, yum, aren’t you lucky” as you hand over the doughnut.
Although the odd sweet treat will give us a boost, too much sugar depletes the body and gives rise to free radicals and cell damage. It can interfere with the absorption of the amino acid tryptophan, reducing serotonin, which is the mood regulating hormone.
Whole plant foods and high-quality proteins -nuts, seeds, meat, fish, eggs & dairy will nourish and repair the body.
We all love treats and of course, we all appreciate a stunning meal, prepared with extra effort or enjoyed in a fine restaurant. Most of us love a desert too.
So, what is actually a treat for the body? A treat for the body is nutrient rich wholefoods.
If you like treats, aim for at least real food.
Full cream ice-cream from pasture-raised cows, with natural flavours and colours.
Real Fruit flans and deserts – think how the French create beautiful deserts with real fruit and cream & they just eat a small portion. Enjoying it slowly.
Dark chocolate,
Home-made slices with nuts, seeds, coconut, honey etc
Flavourings from herbs and spices.
Cakes made with almond meal, pumpkin, zucchini or avocado
Keep it natural and enjoy real food.
You can do this! Contact me for a consult via the contact page here, @ _The Natural Space_ on Instagram, Facebook
Comments