As the media continues to push diets, the alleged ‘weight epidemic’ that they are trying to combat (which I do not believe is the problem) only continues to grow.
Surprising? Actually, not really.
We know from decades of research that diets don’t work, and that in fact diets are linked with long-term weight GAIN as opposed to LOSS.
The reason(s) for this are numerous. Humans are inherently demand-avoidant, the body is hard-wired to resist famine, metabolism is adaptive, dieting is biologically unsustainable… the list goes on, and I will leave a more in-depth explanation to the experts themselves.
What remains true is that assigning ethics to food has the potential to cause a lot more harm than good.
Absolutely, knowing how to adequately fuel our bodies is an important part of life. But the human body is far more intelligent than we give it credit for.
At the end of the day, all foods serve the same purpose – to give us energy to move our bodies and to engage in the parts of life that we love. Our bodies will not know if some of that energy came from a <99% fruit juice (a listed ‘red’ item), a 99% fruit juice (an ‘amber’ choice when under 300ml per serve), or a 99% vegetable juice (one of the few ‘green’ drink options, alongside water and plain milk).
It is my belief that if we let go of the reins and focus not on what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, we wouldn’t spontaneously combust but would actually be better off for it. I believe that if we didn’t drill into society that eating a burger is morally sinful, it would hold no more power over us than a salad. If we viewed all foods neutrally, it is far more likely that while sometimes we may choose and enjoy a cookie, other times we might prefer a juicy piece of fruit.
Perhaps what we often see labelled ‘balance’ is nothing more than natural intuition that comes with a neutral approach to body image and nutrition.
