Changing my relationship with food

I love pizza.  I'd marry it if I could.  Seriously, pizza's one of my greatest temptations.  It's also really unhealthy, and that really bums me out.  Portion control?  Come on.  Just one slice?!

The first resolution on my New Year's list is to change my relationship with food.  I have to.  It's arguably the single most important thing I can do.  It's also one of the most confoundingly difficult things to start and then sustain.

When I first set out to select some of the links in the right column, under "thought for food," I planned to feature some of my favorite books on nutritious, healthy eating.  I also wanted to include a newsletter I love, one my nutrition teacher (now friend) turned me on to.  It's called Nutrition Action Health Letter, published by Center for Science in the Public Interest.  I always learn a lot about nutrition, healthy choices, and processed foods from it.  There's not a single ad in it, either.  Then I remembered how much I love reading what Michael Pollan has to say, so I wanted to include links to some of his writings.  Before long, I got really worked up and decided that it's not enough to change my personal relationship with food.  It's bigger than that. 

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but there's a lot more manipulation going on than we may be aware of.  Also, our children are getting bigger and bigger.  What's going on here?  It can't all be because of video games and the Internet.  I need to keep food on my radar socially and politically. That's why the 2010 TED winner / chef Jamie Oliver and his Food Revolution is included, along with the documentary FOOD, INC. The way food is produced and sold to us in this country should turn us all into food activists. 

Okay... shifting away from food activism, back to personal food issues...

We all know what we are supposed to be eating.  So why is it so difficult?  Part of the problem is that the majority of us are eating foods that are energy dense (high in calories) but not nutrient dense.  So we always feel starved for something we don't get from the foods we choose.  The Full Plate Diet, published by Lifestyle Center of America is a great book for giving you information on the benefits of high fiber and many other nutrients in fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and whole grains.  It's a beautiful reference you could turn to for a lifetime.  I especially love the Top 5s chapter.  This book alone would go a long way towards addressing the nutrient and satiety pieces of the overeating problem.  Once those issues are addressed, portion control tends to take care of itself.  People rarely "OD" on good, nutritious, satisfying foods.

Still, I feel frustrated and fascinated by the emotional and physiological pieces of the puzzle.  To truly get my arms around this thing, I can't neglect the piece that a lot of folks chalk up to gluttony, weakness of character, or lack of willpower.  You know, the stuff that makes us feel so much added shame and self-loathing (esp. if BMI's too high)?  I've learned that those aren't the reasons most of us overeat.  It turns out that brain chemistry is a major contributor. The End of Overeating (by David A. Kessler, M.D.) helped me to better understand what's going on there. Kessler goes into the science of things in a way that is interesting and accessible to anyone.  Then he suggests approaches to effectively override the chemical responses in our brains that drive us mindlessly toward temptation and reward.  He also offers the wide angle view on how the food industry exploits that hardwiring we all have by making its products even more difficult to resist.

So, time to get serious.  As much as I'll miss it, I gotta kick that pepperoni pizza to the curb, along with some of the other foods I can't resist.  Lead me not into temptation!  If I can get a handle on my own eating first, all the while keeping my eyes and ears open to opportunities to have my voice heard on the wider stage, through petitions and what not (ever mindful of how the food biz sets us up to fail, and what we can do about that), things could begin to change.  Eating right could end up being something that's manageable, rewarding even.  What a concept!  Then one by one, example by positive example, as individuals and as a global family, we can take back control of what and how we eat.  We do not have to accept that we are hopelessly hardwired to fail, that we are fundamentally flawed and doomed.  We can be change agents, each in our own way. 

Okay, whew, got dizzy up there on that soapbox.  So there's a lot more to food than one post on one silly little blog could possibly cover.  I mean, I didn't even begin to talk about organics, farming, ranching, vegetarianism, cooking, fats... the list goes on and on.  It really IS a big deal.  You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous... I think I'll grab some water and end for now.