Mastering the Pleasure of Food
A recent post (Weight Management: Why It's Not Easy) examined the challenges of changing one's diet. One of the reasons we eat certain foods is because we enjoy the taste and sensation. When we change our diet - we are depriving ourselves of these foods.
This isn't just about an obese person who wants to lose weight. Anyone who has a desire to improve their eating habits - whether thin, fat, tall, or short - may face the issue of deprivation.
Master or Slave?
We eat food for different reasons: nourishment, boredom, convenience, pleasure, pleasing others, acquiring energy, habit, and, of course, to sate hunger.
When we regularly enjoy foods of little nutritional value - say French Fries - we are faced with a dilemma. Banning those french fries means self-denial. Easy for some. For others - the sacrifice is too much - and they won't even bother. For another group they apply all the willpower they can but still hit a point where they "fall off the wagon" - which often ends in a binge.
Rather than avoiding pleasurable foods at all costs - let's look at embracing pleasure - and ultimately mastering it - rather than letting it control us.
Embracing Pleasure
Just today I was browsing a health forum. One user made these comments:
Think of food as medicine.Ironically the user ended their post by promoting a particular diet. I used to agree with all of these points. However I have come to change my mind. Why shouldn't food be fun or pleasurable? Many parts of the diet industry thrive on the concept of on/off food restrictions. The underlying message is "If one is going to eat healthy food, then one cannot dare think about pleasure". Of course, many of us have faulty ingrained beliefs that so-called health foods cannot be pleasurable.Food is NOT about fun, or pleasure, or treats, or games, or judgements about whether we've been "good" or "bad". Food is NOT a luxury, or an indulgence.
Taking The Time
Pleasure takes time. Our modern lives are highly-paced, stress-filled, and tightly programmed. This drive to be efficient and busy is present in our attitudes to food. We eat fast food. We eat in the car, at our desks, on the run.
Food can be enjoyed. Slow down and draw out your dining experience. Chew the food slowly - savoring the taste of your choice.
How often do you find yourself stuffing down the "forbidden" foods like there is no tomorrow? Sometimes the faster we eat, the more we eat.
Taking the time means being mindful of the foods we eat each day. Being mindful is one small step to learning moderation.
A later post will explore the concept of conscious indulgence .
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I really think food should taste good even vegetables. I feel the Whole Nothing Tastes better Than Thin way of thinking is harmful. There are thin miserable people out there. It was much easier for me at least to put the pounds back on and then some by deprivation.
ReplyI find out some foods might be worth a bite but not a plateful.
I absolutely agree that food should taste good and eating should be a good experience. What helped for me initially, when I started losing weight, was eating less. I used to eat a whole bag of potato chips a day. Now I measured one ounce. I did not feel deprived, and I did lose weight.
When I started reading more about health and realized how unhealthy potato chips really are, I found I craved them less and less. For me, understanding more about nutrition was key in starting to live healthier. I used to think that potato chips were just potatoes and oil, not much wrong with that, right? I did not realize just how many calories I ate in what I thought was a snack, I did not realize the effects on my blood sugar, the acrylamides, the type of fat the chips were fried in, etc.
I gradually started looking for healthy replacements for when I craved something savory. I find this works really well for me now. I like dry roasted papads, boiled peanuts, dry roasted chickpeas or nuts and seeds. Of course some of these are not exactly great for your health (there is quite a bit of sodium in papads), but they are all much better than chips, and they really work for me. I can honestly say that I never crave the things that used to be problematic for me anymore (chips, soda, french fries).
I actually do not believe that most people really enjoy all that fast food. I know I certainly didn't, though I thought I did. Good tasting food is a lovingly prepared meal, not some engineered product.
ReplyI feel the urge to eat fast food all the time ever since become a healthier eater and exercising a lot more. But reading this post I know that a little of those foods I love can be eaten but I must control the amount.
ReplyI used to have awful cravings for fast food and I did eat it 2-4 times a week due to my stressful and hectic situation in life. I also replaced one meal 7 days a week with sweets. I gained 22 pounds in only one year. I really thought junk food and sweets tasted heavenly and felt I could not stop eating them.
Since starting my diet 4 months ago I have eaten fast food twice (and lost those 22 pounds). Those times it tasted awful and I got an upset stomach. I still eat sweets 2-3 times a week, but substantially smaller amounts than before.
I really don't know what has happened. I do not have any self discipline so that is not the reason not to eat junk food. I just seem to be craving smoked salmon, steaks, mozzarella salad and vegetable soups nowadays. Sweet jellies etc. taste awfully sweet to me. My taste buds seem to have been re-trained. It think this applies to drinking soda vs. water as well.
ReplyLulu it sounds like we are a lot alike in that once I stopped eating fast food I found that I didn't crave it any more. I find it tastes gross when I eat it now. I prefer baked chips to regular ones now (the regular ones seem SO greasy) and large amounts of oil and grease used in food preparation actually make me sick at my stomach (not pretty).
ReplyAnd the thing about sweets tasting sweeter? Also true for me. I used to drink a lot of regular pop, and now I rarely even have diet pop, and almost never regular pop. Sweet things taste sweeter now- just today I had some sorbet from Cold Stone for the first time in probably a month and it was so sweet I couldn't believe it! I think our taste buds do change.