How Can You Foster a Better Relationship With Food?
Seeking to cultivate a healthier relationship with food, we turned to the expertise of dietitians and nutritionists for their top recommendations. From the importance of abandoning dichotomous food thinking to the encouragement of experimenting with healthy foods, here are six transformative habits these professionals urge their clients to adopt.
- Abandon Dichotomous Food Thinking
- Adopt a Lifestyle Eating Approach
- Remove Moral Judgment from Food
- Listen to Hunger and Fullness Cues
- Stop Vilifying Foods
- Experiment with Healthy Foods
Abandon Dichotomous Food Thinking
I strongly encourage clients to abandon black-and-white thinking when it comes to food. Dichotomous thinking creates categories of "good" vs. "bad," or "healthy" vs. "unhealthy." Although there is a difference between foods that might be more health-promoting than others, the purpose of this behavior/mindset shift is to remove the stress of decision-making and encourage flexibility, adaptability, and therefore improved functioning in their lives without food having this 'power' over them. For example, if we only associate one kind of food as "healthy" and another kind as "unhealthy," it will severely limit one's ability to engage in holidays, social events around food, afford the cost of groceries, and promote variety in the diet and in recipe execution.
Adopt a Lifestyle Eating Approach
I ask them to think of their food as a lifestyle versus a diet. So many have the initial reaction of dieting when making healthier choices. Taking a lifestyle approach to eating can quell the diet-dogma thought process!
Remove Moral Judgment from Food
Improving one's relationship with food can be a long, multi-step process requiring lots of patience. One of the first steps is attempting to take the moral judgment out of food. When people stop thinking of food as 'good' and 'bad,' they stop judging themselves for eating or not eating certain foods. This opens the door to listening to and trusting your body's wisdom about what and how much to eat, instead of the conflicting messages we get from our brains about what we 'should' and 'shouldn't' do. No one likes to be told what to do, even if the message comes from our own brain.
Listen to Hunger and Fullness Cues
A good habit to foster a better relationship with food is to listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. To do so, remove distractions and pay attention to your food and the process of eating; this helps you notice such cues. Paying attention to when you are hungry or full helps to make better decisions for weight management. Be aware of signs when you're full, such as the enjoyment of food fading, fullness in your stomach, and no longer feeling the urge to eat. Alongside, also be aware of hunger cues, which include stomach growling, moodiness, an empty feeling in the stomach, and dizziness.
Stop Vilifying Foods
I recommend clients stop vilifying certain foods. This creates food avoidance and can develop into disordered eating. All foods can be incorporated in some way into a healthful eating plan. A better relationship with food can be fostered by practicing "mindful" eating - listening to and respecting your body's natural hunger and satiety cues, and practicing moderation, to enjoy an indulgence from time to time without feeling guilty over it.
Experiment with Healthy Foods
It's nice to have organized experimentation with food once in a while, such as trying out various healthy foods in an organized manner. This can include making a new healthy recipe every week, practicing with various types of vegetables, or trying alternative protein sources. Doing this approach not only opens up their taste buds but also adds to their nutritional intake, and keeps mealtime fun and interesting.
