Good Food Versus Bad: Does It Really Matter?

I'm guessing you're one of those people who judge food according to good versus bad, in which case you're not alone.  And yet, food is really just food and has no caloric or intrinsic value until you and only you assign it to it.

Have you ever been accosted by the food police?  You know, that sneaky, not-so-nice voice that overwhelms you when you eat food you actually like to eat?  Or, simply when you eat – period?  I have, just like millions of other people.  

But whose voice is it really?

This past week alone I overheard at least two people demonize potato chips, feeling guilty for craving them in the first place, and utterly worthless for giving in to the point of eating the whole bag.  Despite my attempt to explain the physiological drive that can accompany a craving, it didn’t matter.  They both went right back to thinking they were bad, chips are bad and they should both have more willpower.

It was clear that somewhere inside they actually knew something was off, yet they still just blamed themselves, and of course, the chips.  What I want to know is, what's so wrong with chips? 

I eat chips, and I never knew they were so “bad” until others pointed it out to me.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a health coach, so I get that chips are not the most superior food on the planet, but what’s so bad about having a few chips with lunch, dinner or even breakfast?  And so what if it is the whole bag?  I can definitely say I’ve eaten close to half a bag in one sitting, mostly because I just worked out and needed the carbs for refueling, and they were close at hand.    

Guilt-free to boot I might add, because I love chips!  I mean, they're just flat out good.  But I don’t do it every day, and neither do they, so I still have to ask, what’s the big deal?  More importantly, have you ever asked yourself that question?

Your body is insanely smart, and will naturally cause you to crave something totally opposite to balance itself out when you carb load. I always pair chips, or any heavy carb, with some form of protein, which slows the absorption down so my system doesn't take too big of a hit at once.  That way I don't experience the roller coaster effect I would otherwise if I didn't.

People who are angry or stressed tend to thrive on crunchy food because it helps relieve the feeling, which is the foundation of emotional eating.  Sometimes we just need to get our crunch on.  But even if they’re Lays potato chips and not a healthier chip, like brown rice, in the overall scheme of things, does it really matter?

Try this perspective on for size.  Instead of judging yourself for wanting chips, or any other food that produces a guilt-ridden responsee, stop and examine where the feeling, or emotion behind it, is coming from.  Is it yours, or someone else’s?  In other words, is it a feeling you learned or one you decided to feel, for yourself?

It's likely it’s learned.  Perhaps as a child, from a parent, or a teenager, from a dieting friend.  Given the choice, you’d eat chips too every once is a while, but since diet centers warn against eating such “bad” foods, when you crave them, you label yourself the same.

If I were Lays, I’d be pissed that people were so prejudiced against chips!  It’s a free country, isn’t it?  I don’t necessarily like how much our food is adulterated these days, and yet to each his, or her, own.  The key is to educate yourself, and if you still eat the chips, so be it.

Sadly, it’s hard if not impossible to stop the food manufacturers from genetically modifying our food, so it’s even more necessary than ever to know what’s in it, and in all honesty, I'd rather have a few spuds drizzled with salt and oil every so often than factory farmed meat at McDonald’s.  

The time we spend as a culture on what food we should eat and what food we shouldn’t can be so tiresome.  Can’t we just eat?  Sometimes it’s more nutritious, and sometimes it’s less, but if you just simply ate without so much guilt over the very fact that you're feeding yourself, and just enjoyed whatever it is you choose to eat, you’d probably feel a whole lot happier and a whole lot less guilty.

Eating is a natural thing.  You have an appetite for a reason, so trying to suppress it is an exercise in futility.  If you have a tendency to feel guilty around food, then you're thinking more, in your head, and listening less, to your body, so that when you feed your craving, it feels unnatural and unholy.

HEADLINE NEWS: Your body knows what to eat way better than you do, even if it is bad food!

Try not overthinking so much next time you eat and just eat.  Do nothing more than savor every bite, no matter what it is, and see if it feels different.  I’m not suggesting eating something that will result in an allergic reaction, I just mean eating without insult, whatever suits your fancy, no judgment whatsoever.

[bctt tweet=”There is a lot more metabolic power in pleasure than pain, so don’t be afraid to feel good.”] It will do your body  good.  Our lives revolve around stress so don’t make eating a stressful experience on top of it.  Your body’s dying for your attention, literally, and getting in tune with it will help you feel better about yourself, and you'll drop weight too. 

Naturally.

Scolding it like an unruly child for having a craving however sets up a disconnect between your body and mind, and puts your body in a state of resistance that can persist for a lifetime, and ultimately take you in the completely opposite direction of where you want to be.

If you're still stuck and aren't able to lose weight, you just found out why.

Leave your feedback on the blog below, and we'll chat!  And, don't forget to pick up your free copy of 7-video eCourse on how to stop emotional eating here for more info on eating and natural weight loss: