HEALTH
Diet is a Four Letter Word
For the Health of It
Published: Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Photo by Patrick Tregenza.
Dieting is a hard row to hoe. It’s not conducive to having a social life nor is it uncomplicated for those who prepare food for others. Few people embark upon a diet with glee, as it is rather a challenging means to an end that we strive for with much toil and focus followed by glee. The journey is not as rewarding as the destination. It’s an experiment in deprivation that we subject ourselves to with determination and resolve to “do it this time.” But the percentage of people who arrive at “the end” via denial and sheer willpower and who maintain this newfound image is small.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every strict diet, there is a sense of needing a reward for our hard work, to pat ourselves on the back with a previously shunned treat. After reaching a goal via rigorous restriction, there is a sense of, “Hey, now that I’m at the weight that I want to be, I can eat anything I want.” These scenarios, which are not only understandable, but also natural, cause for many folks a domino effect of reversion to the old ways of eating. The pounds return, making the dieter feel like a failure.
A Broken System
Diets don’t work. If they did, diet gurus and authors touting “the way” wouldn’t tumble from their podiums and fade into obscurity as most do. Assuming that diets work supports the false claim that each of us is identical, that each of us has the same ancestry, body type, activity level, metabolic type, blood type, and personal preferences. These factors all shape our matchless bio-individuality and make it impossible for any diet to be all things to all people. According to Joshua Rosenthal, author of Integrative Nutrition, “Nature created us as unique human beings who, while sharing many similarities, are more remarkable for the ways we differ than for the ways we are alike.”
Photo by Peggy Greb.
Internal Conflict
Dieting puts us at war with our natural selves, at war with our desires, our bodies and whatever foods we have labeled as being “bad.” This war is consuming, draining, and takes our focus away from the natural order of living. Marc David, visionary health and nutrition consultant and author of The Slow Down Diet and Nourishing Wisdom, states, “Often, in our attempts to rid ourselves of negative food habits, we adopt strategies that make the conflict about having the habit more damaging that the habit itself.”
By assigning foods moral values, we set ourselves up for perpetual anxiety and struggle. In labeling ice cream bad, we invariably desire it more, making it nearly impossible to resist. We then label ourselves bad for “cheating,” and the deprivation-guilt-punishment cycle perpetuates.
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