Reader Question: Mindful Eating

I had a reader ask "could you speak about how you integrate your nutrition knowledge into your own life without venturing into a disordered/obsessive mentality?"

I think this is a really pertinent question in the field of eating behavior at the moment. The health community is very focused on the idea of mindful eating; but when does mindful become manic? Health-minded communities, often focusing around what not to eat, have become quite zealous with their endeavors, leading to movements like "thinspo"/thigh gap glorification. There's the term, 'orthorexia', that I've seen thrown around a lot in reference to some of these restrictive health movements, although it is not considered a mental disorder in the DSM-V. However, it does get it's own page on nationaleatingdisorder.org (1). Concern over hyper-restriction of foods and its detrimental psychological outcomes has been talked about for a while in dietetics (2), though not researched as extensively as I'd like. Feel free to comment if you know another field/body of literature where this gets covered. I'd like to note that I am not a psychologist, or a registered dietitian focusing on those with eating disorders - nor do I feel that there is a consensus to how to approach these topics, largely because each individual is different and will respond to different dietary regiments differently.

But back to the original question - how do I integrate nutrition into my life without venturing into a disordered eating mentality?

For me, I came from a background being overweight/obese, and initially, dieting led to a definitely unhealthy, restrictive relationship with food - I go back and forth arguing in my head over whether that was a necessary intermediate step for myself and my psychology at the time. I think what really made me take a step back and be sane about it all was trying to be more empathetic. Seeing things from others’ perspective, regarding their own eating habits and why they do/don’t eat restrictively, allows you to gain a sense of perspective on your own eating habits. Diversity of opinion/perspective tends to be a good/humbling thing. What isn’t humbling is when you’ve convinced yourself that your dietary dogma is right, that others are wrong, and it is your divinely inspired duty to evangelize all non-believers out there - that overly religious sentiment runs deeply in alternative viewpoints on nutrition, and I always find the parallels very interesting between the guilt they feel, and the guilt the religious often feel about specific prohibited things. Foods are not sins, and I think it's a shame to see people feeling guilty about foods, any foods. And by foods, I'd like to state- anything that contains calories. Not this obnoxious 'real foods' term that pervades the foodie community (please, do some reading on global nutrition issues and tell me what you think real food is).

I think the biggest component to maintaining a healthy mindset is to get busy, with something you are passionate about- besides food. It’s good, to some degree, to actually not have time to cook all of your meals, run everyday - to not have time to do whatever one obsesses over doing to maintain their perception of 'perfect' health. When I first began to lose weight, I used to run 5+ miles every single day (obviously not great for my body/mind) - I think it took getting really busy with classes I enjoyed, friends I cared about, a job that took up a lot of time, and research I was interested in to not have time to run, and realize I didn’t become unhealthy, or overweight, and by missing a day or two a week, I could adjust my caloric intake to fit my needs, while still seeing progress in the long ‘run’ (pun ✓). If your demon is obsessive eating/exercising, sometimes it’s best to face that demon, with a day off and an imperfect snack (mine is whole foods’ cornbread and a glass of rosé). 

For many, the better focus is thinking long and hard about who you are doing this diet/lifestyle for - it’s good to question and challenge your motives, in my opinion. Are you trying to reach some standard of beauty - what influences that and why? Are you searching for purpose and meaning through the foods you eat? Are you searching for acceptance from like-minded individuals that ultimately leads to tribalistic dietary standards? Are other things in your life out of control, and diet is one thing you feel you can control? Why are you religious about food - what makes you want to evangelize: empathy or ego? Why don't you trust the group of PhD's that determined the dietary recommendations for those with your lifestyle? Why do you focus so much on what not to eat instead of what to eat? They’re not always applicable questions, but when they are, they aren’t always easy to ask.

In general, I kind of ignore the obsessive eaters. It’s not to sound harsh, but more so to 1) leave that kind of anxiety out of my life 2) lead by example. I’ve never been one to actively go for something, save a few examples. I think there’s a lot of power to passively showing others, via your own actions/demeanor, that you can eat well, enjoy it, not stress about it, be healthy, and not look too bad doing it. Whenever I speak with someone about nutrition who is clearly more interested in proselytizing, I tend to see that more as an insecurity or lack of confidence - if your cause isn't evidently righteous enough in and of itself, and you feel the need to try to convince me, your cause has some shortcomings. Nutrition is about research - you respond to questions with the evidence that is there from research and leave it at that - very little convincing necessary (at least in the everyday non-academic conversation). Trying to openly address the issue of obsessive/religious eating with people who are not in the mindset to address it is generally not too fruitful - it’s like when I see Bill Nye debating Ken Ham. Both people are set in their views, and neither is going to really budge with the evidence that’s available - is there a point to that conversation? Do you really want to ruin your night out getting heated over saturated fat/grain intake? 

As a last note, I think it’s easier for me to live without anxiety because I do understand a lot about the science of the metabolism. I fell subject to the sugar is poison, GMOs are toxic, pesticides/milk/meat/aspartame are giving you cancer internet dogma that was out there when I first got into nutrition, and I think that’s where a lot of anxiety stems from. People love to say food is medicine - but in a short-term sense, it’s not, and we should be thankful for that. If you overdose on a drug, you will die, or harm your liver, quite quickly. If you overeat sugar/fat/salt/most vitamins/minerals, you will be fine. You won’t be dying any time soon. You won’t suddenly gain a belly. Your summer shredded body goals aren't all lost. Your liver isn’t going to be overloaded with toxins. You won’t be insulin resistant. You’ll be fine actually - hell, you may even feel better cause you finally had that brick of cornbread you’ve been pining for; I know I do. Too often I see people with anxiety regarding specific food products, because they're focusing on what not to eat; change that paradigm and focus on what to eat (assuming you do not have a medical condition that prohibits you from consuming certain food items). Refrain from asking "is this healthy?" and start asking the better question, "are you healthy?".

Ultimately, for me, obsessive eating takes the joy out of food. Food is an integral part of our day, our health, and our cultures - when Food's turned sour, that has a pretty far reaching effect. Take food seriously - and by all means, make what you perceive as healthy eating changes + have fun making more nutrient-dense versions of your favorite foods - but I would tread carefully when you stop controlling the food and the food start controlling you. 

1. http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/orthorexia-nervosa
2. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002822396001617