Who here has asked that question? I know I have. In this day, age, and geographical location (United States) we have been faced with the blessing of plenty to eat and physically non-demanding careers. What this means is that we are primed and ready to let our bodies find a state of excess energy resulting in weight gain (See my post on body composition!). As a culture, we are at a disadvantage for healthy living. We are surrounded by fast food, do most of our work sitting down, and don’t prioritize self-care as a society. Is it hopeless? Absolutely not! We just have some work to do on prioritizing healthy practices. For this post, I want to talk about the food side of things, and the huge problem with diet culture.

We fluctuate a lot in our weight as we age from babies to adults, adults to geriatrics, there is so much change that happens with our body physiologically. However, it’s between puberty and middle-age adulthood that we see the biggest push for looking a certain way and weighing a certain amount. This is poppycock! But society today enforces these ideas and follows them up with marketing ads for diet pills (harmful), juice cleanses (pointless), curated meal plans(expensive), and numerous diets that “will make you lose all the weight.” The problem is that people are desperate because they think their worth is defined by how they look (or feel) and they jump into this culture trying to cure themselves of an ailment they don’t have.

You may want to change your body composition, become healthier, and increase your fitness, which is excellent! But the way to do this is through well-rounded wellness, not some sketchy “cure-all.” Diets are excellent at creating and encouraging eating disorders and food eversions. They do this by making a person idolize and focus on the food they eat before anything else, and it can easily become someone’s identity. Now, I don’t say this to frighten or overwhelm you, but to make you aware of what you are up against.

Everyone has a health journey they are on, every single person is going to take a different approach, there’s beauty in that! The diets that you see in the media and trending throughout the country should be carefully evaluated before you try to include them in your own journey. If a “diet” is not grounded in nutritional needs, it’s worthless. This may sound silly, but I’ve had people tell me that the item they are eating or drinking is “healthy because it’s gluten and sugar-free.” For the record, this person was drinking a soda. Obviously, there wasn’t going to be gluten, and they’ve replaced naturally occurring sugars with fake chemicals, not good! Unless you are sensitive to gluten, there’s no reason to avoid it! Natural sugars are not bad in moderation, they are much better for you than chemicals!

You can see how easy it is to be fooled by the labels and ads that we see all over the place. But, this is not the only area we are challenged. With labels like vegan, keto, and anything “weight watchers approved,” the belief is that they must be good for you. This simply isn’t the case. Your meals should be balanced and full of nutritious content! Not skimpy, boring, or just because the label says so.

The best way to start looking at your food is to pick up a book or take a course on the basics of nutrition. The goal is to learn where you find carbohydrates, fats, and proteins and learn to make meals based on balancing the content of your foods. From there you can learn about the vitamin and mineral contents of your foods and learn how best to support your health and wellbeing! Alternatively, talk to a nutritionist, they can give you a place to start and a meal plan that can fit your needs!

You can do this! Keep your mind alert to the scams out there, and invest a little bit of energy into learning about how food works in our bodies. It’ll be way easier than trying to follow the latest trend!