Ok friends, now we get to talk about hard stuff: Food. GAAH, I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH. My indiscriminately joyous palate and hedonist tendencies conspire to make me positively fat, and I have spent decades resisting that outcome. I feel an internal truce developing with age, though. I wrote my post on leading vs lagging indicators of health back in February, and share it regularly with patients. Each conversation reinforces my thesis: that numbers, be they body mass, body fat, glucose, or cholesterol, do not tell a remotely complete story about our overall health.

After reading Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison at the recommendation of a therapist friend, I can own my insidious internalization of our cultural obsession with thinness. I diverge mildly from some of the author’s opinions and assertions. I still greatly appreciate her understanding and validation of the complexity that is body weight, and the reality that we do not and cannot necessarily control it. Despite what many say, body mass does not simply equate to calories in minus calories out. Metabolism takes myriad inputs and outputs, both intrinsic and extrinsic, always in flux. Genetics play a large role, more for some than others, in body habitus changes over a lifetime. Sometimes acceptance is a healthier, more peaceful strategy than resistance.

Reconciling body mass and shape to health and well-being, especially for folks like me who are not naturally thin, costs loads of psychic energy. It can cause layers of stress and discomfort, much beyond moving around in a heavy body. I focus on weight/body mass and appearance in this post on nutrition becuase when my dietician colleagues and I talk to patients about food, a majority of the conversations are centered here. If American culture is obsessed with exercise, then we are brainwashed about thinness. I can think of few domains where both collective and individual judgment is more harsh and destructive. And when we judge weight, judgment of food and eating follows closely behind. Let’s see if we can shift this, shall we?

When I look at my eating habits today, I nod approvingly. Not because they are perfect or even admirable, but because they are so much healthier than in the past. This year especially, I’m able to practice mindful eating:  More often than before, I ask myself:  What’s driving my eating at this moment?  If it’s not truly hunger, will the calories be worth it?  What else do I need (water? sex? laughter? connection? movement?), and is food a good enough substitute?  I understand my non-hunger eating drivers (eg visual cues–never watch Big Bang Theory after dinner–and omg stress) and can anticipate them farther in advance. I can take precautions like not keeping ice cream in the house, and buying sweets in easily portioned units (thank you, Trader Joe’s frozen macaron varies!). I know my sleep requirement threshold below which mindless eating easily takes hold, and make strides to get to bed on time. My snacks are healthier–I pop blueberries as I write this–and I attune to my saiety much better with age–just ate my last blueberry of the writing session.

Here’s what I’m still working on, the mantra I have yet to integrate: “Enjoy every bite!” Whether it’s mac ‘n’ cheese or pecan pie, mashed potatoes or Haagen-Dazs, I am sure to indulge when offered. The visceral and limbic pleasures of flavor, texture, and sharing with friends act like jet fuel accelerating utensil to mouth oscillation speed. The greatest potential food joy quickly and easily devolves into an automatic race to consume, and it’s over before I realize. Not only have I then obliviated a peak plesaurable sensory experience, but I have also likely overeaten, and the sadness and guilt compound. “Enjoy every bite,” if I can remember and repeat, reminds me to slow down and attend to the full experience. Temperature, texture, flavor, aroma–just thinking of it all now relaxes and uplifts me. Good food, enjoyed mindfully in real time and especially in good company, connects and delights. I will continue to practice this not only for the most indulgent foods, but also the most mundane. The simplest foods can make me positively giddy: a poached egg, buttered toast, watermelon. Holy cow I just realized: If I truly enjoy every bite this way, how much more amazing could my sensory life be? Could I even stand it?

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So what’s already good about American nutrition? Let me put down my cynic hat for a moment…
—The United States is self-sufficient in food: we can produce enough to feed our own population (though 17 million households were food insecure for some part of 2022).
–Many of us have access to non-local, non-seasonal food, which we often take for granted (though economic and ecological costs are high).
–Information about healthy eating (though not necessarily healthy food) is more and more easily accessible.. though misinformation and fads cost us millions of hard earned dollars every year.
–Oh here’s a good one: Reasonably healthy meal prep and delivery services are increasingly available for busy families…. who have the funds to outsource planning/shopping/cooking.

Okay let’s just skip to what could be better.. no holds barred here, full fantasy mode engaged:
–Portion options at restaurants, with coinciding pricing scale. This prompts diners to assess and decide more mindfully when ordering. Or offer to present takeout container when entrees are served, so diners may save leftovers at the beginning of the meal and eat mindlessly thereafter (I try to bring my own boxes)
–Elevate nutrient quality of meals served in schools
–Effectively incentivize purchase and consumption of locally produced plants and animals by both individuals and businesses
–4 day work week. This could actually solve, or at least improve, intersecting problems in all 5 reciprocal domains of health: sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress management, and relationships. See evidence for benefit from The World Economic Forum, the Wall Street Journal, and the UK/EU
–Cultivate a collective mindset of slow, selective activity and connection, both personal and professional, rather than the frenetic, competitive, have-and-do-it-all mentality that drives us all to the brink and over the edge of burnout and insanity

Huh. At a collective, cultural, societal level, turns out I feel pretty pessimistic about meaningful positive changes in nutrition patterns. So it’s basically up to us individuals and small groups/organizations to continue swimming upstream against forceful currents of hyperprocessed food supply, agribusiness, and thinness obsession despite all systems trying by default to make us fat and sick.

HA! I’ll think more about this. I’m not hopeless or sad, more just fascinated. How are you feeling about it?