Dude, your generation is in bad shape.
When I ate this way, I felt like my body was levitating.
Vegetables are a waste of time.
Berries are the answer to curing cancer.
Anxiety and depression aren’t real.
These were just a FEW of the comments that my husband and I sadly, couldn’t help but overhear in a tiny coffee shop outside of Zion National Park last week.
We were trying to enjoy our breakfast when a couple started sharing their health opinions and recommendations to a mother and her adult son.
I could feel the heat of anger in my chest. My mind was debating; stay and politely tell them to be quiet or pack up our meal and leave? Instead, shocked and hoping the conversation would soon stop, we sat and endured. Not so coincidentally, my breakfast was tasteless and bland.
Our encounter with this over sharing health advice couple seemed a bit like taking a trip to Crazy Town.
We inherently know we would never tell someone who to vote for. Or where to pray. Those choices are personal and private.
When it comes to advice around food, things get sticky. We’ve been told that eating in a certain way can improve our health, and in some cases, cure disease. We’ve even seen documentaries on Netflix and bought the books of those that have increased their athletic performance, cured their cancer, and reduced symptoms of autism because of their diet. Wow! Receiving advice on what to eat doesn’t seem to be something to take lightly. Based on some accounts, what we eat may really change our life.
Yet, what happens to the majority of the people like you and I, that don’t necessarily need to cure ourselves from autoimmune or a thyroid condition, and just want to feel better?
The problem is that the majority of the health advice around food that we read in books, online and in our social feeds comes in the form of a diet. Please know, they may tell you their plan is just a lifestyle change, but, it’s still a diet.
Diets offer us rules to follow, like what to eat (hello, whole 30), when to eat (thank you, intermittent fasters), and how much to eat (like Weight Watchers and calorie trackers).
Our bodies and our minds are NOT designed to diet. When we restrict our caloric intake, our body reacts by demanding larger quantities of food and our minds are preoccupied with when our next meal will arrive. Thank goodness! We are designed to not let ourselves starve.
Diets result in long term weight gain, decreased metabolism, muscle mass and levels of leptin (the hormone that triggers signs of fullness).
Diets harm our bodies, but more importantly, when we can’t stick to the rules of a diet, we feel like we’re failing. We feel like we could be eating better. We feel disgusted when we get out of control around food. And because most diets are health advice in disguise, we may feel like we are failing at keeping ourselves healthy, fit and set to live a long life.
The truth is we’ve been living in Crazy Town, where diet culture barrages us with advice, rules and fairytale stories on how to improve our health by eating in a way that fights against the natural instincts of our minds and bodies. It’s very hard to recognize at times, but so important that we do.
At one point, the son at the coffee shop asked the man, do you always eat this way? He said, Oh no man, it’s so hard. I slip up all of the time. I have to work really hard at it.
We all want the same thing. We want to be healthy, happy and live a long active life. Getting there means we need to create our own unique path of vitality and wellness. Maybe this man, even though he’s sharing all of his Crazy Town health advice, also feels like he’s doing it wrong and that he’s failing at his health because he’s not doing it perfectly.
Crazy Town doesn’t give anyone a get out of jail free card. Our only immunity is recognizing it around us.
He (said he) had a breakfast burrito in a take out bag. I just hope he enjoyed the hell out of it.