It should be simple, we need to eat to survive. We need the energy and vital nutrients to live long and healthy lives. So why does it feel like food and eating are so complicated? If it’s a matter of eating to live, why do we eat more than we need? Why do we choose some foods over others? The reality is that we moved past eating merely to survive a long time ago.
Slow evolution, fast culture change
Thousands of years ago an obsession with food made sense. It was difficult to get, often in short supply and frankly not of the best quality. When your survival depends on something you put considerable focus on it. Now in much of the world the availability of food on demand is not an issue. We no longer have to eat everything in sight or plan for the next meal because so much choice is readily available but food is still top of mind. Why?
Evolution moves slowly and food availability and cultural changes have far outpaced the small adjustments that evolution can make over the same amount of time. So our basic obsession with food persists. We think about our next meal as we eat the current one; we sort food into good and bad; worry about having the “right” food on hand and chastise ourselves for eating too much. Thinking about food never stops. Beyond the basic survival needs why are we so centered on food?
Food Experience
Food is more than just fuel. It is part of our routine, emotions, celebrations and mourning. It’s ingrained in our memories and life experiences. It is part of the fabric of our lives. We eat when we celebrate or mourn, when we are sad or happy, because it’s lunch time or simply because a smell reminds us of times gone by. Our external senses wake up the desire to eat, tell us when to start, when to stop and drive our satisfaction. We eat with our eyes, nose and brain; the stomach is just the end point.
Ultimately our food choices are driven by many factors, some obvious and others less so. Many inputs determine when, where, what, how and how much we eat. In the end our eating habits are all tied to one thing “Food Enjoyment”. We seek enjoyment in our eating experience. Food connects our past to our present and can affect our future. Be it taste, smell, company, occasion, feeling or anything else, the process of eating is really about bringing enjoyment to our life. Yes we eat for physical nourishment but with so much choice if there is no enjoyment in the taste, sensation and process of eating we will make other choices.
Making Changes
We often overlook intimate relationship between our life experiences, life style and food. We make drastic changes to what, how and how much we eat then are surprised when we struggle to stick to them. Ultimately drastic dieting rarely works because there are always other choices; choices that have deep roots in the very fabric of our lives. It is possible to make healthful changes that will stick. The key to success is to understand the pattern of your life and make changes that work with it rather than against it. It takes more work than simply picking a prepackaged plan but in the end it’s likely to be more satisfying, enjoyable and long lasting while delivering results. I think we all deserve to enjoy our food, don’t you?
Check out my previous post on “Finding the best diet for you” for more ideas. If you have questions about finding the best eating pattern for you I would love to hear from you. Contact me at [email protected] . I also encourage you to check out the EVENTS page for the latest in online and local in-person offerings (CT, MA)