Being a 20-something female growing up in New York City and in the Theater Business, I am constantly bombarded with the topics of food, fashion, and diet. As the years go by, the word food has developed such a negative association for my generation. It doesn't help that every five minutes there is an advertisement on the computer screen or TV promising this new diet will help you feel confident on the beach. The constant weight and food control ads are seeping into this generations' subconscious, which is why every other conversation I overhear has to do with a calorie count or deprivation.
My question is: when did food start to constantly have a negative association?What happened to Julia Child, who celebrated food, and "Top Chef" where people wanted the best tasting dish to win, not the lowest calories? Sure, the media has a lot to do with it; Special K commercials are granting us permission to deprive ourselves only if they eat their cereal. (She clearly had a whole inner monologue in this commercial stopping herself from taking one doughnut.) This puts the ideas in young peoples' minds that a single doughnut will always lead to a binge and we must deprive ourselves and eat cereal, otherwise, we fail. What a terrible way to look at a harmless doughnut which is, honestly, just sugar and dough.
Today, it is as almost as if the quality of the food doesn't matter as long as it is low in calorie. I am all for eating and living a healthy lifestyle and I think we should be aware of what we put into our bodies. To an extent, we must stop making food negative. Food is how we stay alive and obsessing over calories is no way to live.
A few days ago was World Eating Disorder Day of Action. Not everyone who watches what they eat has an eating disorder, but they do have a start on an unhealthy, depressing relationship with food. As a society, we need to pledge to make food a positive topic. Here is how you, as an individual, can start.
1. Stop associating food with calories.
We need to start thinking of it as energy. How much energy do you need today? After all, calories are energy. They're needed to stay focused and on task. Why is that a bad thing?
2. Stop looking at the calories and start looking at the nutrients.
Surprise! A serving of almonds (a natural food) has more calories than your Special K snack bar. However, which do you think has more benefits nutritionally, and which one will keep you focused longer? The answer is the almonds. Point proven: the number game in calories is meaningless.
3. Stop talking about food negatively while you're eating, especially around growing minds who will start to associate every food group as negative.
4. Stop teaching about fad diets in school.
Working at a camp last summer, 8-year-olds were concerned about calories and started talking about weight watchers. I asked them how they knew about that and I was told they learned about it in school. That is a damn shame.
5. Just because you may be trying to lose weight doesn't mean everyone else around you is, too. Be conscious and aware of others.
6. Deprivation is not the key to health. Treat yourself.
7. Stop associating exercise with weight loss. Make it about getting your muscles, heart and brain stronger.
Together, we can start to take the negative stigma out of food we need to survive and we must start enjoying life.
*drops mic*
