Its day 8 of our Love Your Food Series and we’re excited to welcome nutrition expert Amy Goldsmith, RD, LDN today. As a dietitian, Amy encourages people of all ages to improve the way they eat and motivates them to live the life they were meant to live. Her inspirational post will get you excited about eating your best and the benefits it can provide each and every day. For more inspirational Love Your Food posts, read days 1-7 here.
by Amy Goldsmith, RD, LDN from Kindred Nutrition
What did you eat at your last meal? How did it taste? Did you consider it nutritious? Are you satiated or are you still hungry? How did it taste or what was the texture like? Was the smell of the food pleasing to your senses?
I often ask these questions when meeting with clients and get two answers. The first answer becomes a well rounded conversation focusing on building and extending current nutrition. We work on building nutritious meals to fuel the body and help promote overall health. The second answer is usually an uncomfortable silence eventually eluding to the fact that there is a war going on with food and potentially the body.
Speaking of the second answer, associations such as the National Institute of Health, National Eating Disorder Association, and the American Journal of Psychiatry quote some pretty alarming statistics.
42% of children in grades 1-3 want to be thinner
50% of 8-10 year olds are dissatisfied with their bodies
81% of 10 year olds are afraid to be fat
50% of 8-10 year olds are dissatisfied with their bodies
81% of 10 year olds are afraid to be fat
82% of 9-11 year olds diet sometimes
80% of women do not like how they look
44% of men do not like how they look
80% of women do not like how they look
44% of men do not like how they look
Add to the above statistics that the average woman is 5 feet 4 inches and 140 pounds in contrast to the average model who is 5 feet 11 inches and 117 pounds and it is easy to understand why some people may have a negative body image.
If you can lump yourself into any of these categories above, how in the world can you love the food you eat? My guess is that your food becomes more of a reward or punishment depending on how you feel about your body that day. That’s a hard way to live and why I feel it’s important to work with professionals who can help strengthen nutrition and relationships with food.
Every day I see great strength in my clients. I see women who are celebrating their strength as they endure a pregnancy, create a child, and then claim their bodies back again. I see men who lose their first ten pounds and build the strength to extend their workouts or are celebrating because they can run along their children as they learn to ride their bikes. I see children who stop the consistent weight gain, change their body composition, and begin to get a pride that no one can bully out of them.
The interesting thing is that when I see the changes above, a funny thing happens. In addition to beginning and learning to love their bodies, my clients start a transformation with their thoughts on food. Food is no longer about good and bad. It isn’t about what one is allowed to have or what will fit into the latest fad diet. They don’t care about specific grams of this and that, a specific ingredient, or restricting an entire food group. It becomes about eating a variety of whole foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals, and energy producing fuel. Foods that make you feel good. Food that satiates through it’s smell, taste, and texture and provides the energy that is needed to feel the strength and love for their own bodies.
When you think of your relationship with your body and food are you confident? Do you love your body and food? There’s always a time to make a change and start something new. Maybe this is your time to rid yourself of unrealistic expectations that promote distorted body image and misinformation on food and to instead choose to find your strength and love for your body and find your way back to your love of food. What do you think? Are you ready?
Day 8 Homework: What does your relationship with food look like right now? Grab a piece of paper and write down one or two words that describe what that relationship looks like today. As you continue on your healthy eating journey, continue to reflect on your relationship with food and use those words you first wrote down to show you how far you have progressed.
So many fantastic points raised in this article! The relationship between us and our food is so often overlooked, which is such a shame! What a great article, thanks for sharing
So glad you enjoyed the article Julie!! This has been such a fun series for us and such a joy to focus on what a healthy relationship with food looks like. Hope you’ve been enjoying the rest of the series as well!
~Kati, Around the Plate
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