I am going to be a prude about something - which means I am serious because I am not a prude about many things! Next time you start to post a joke or meme about how much weight you’re going to gain, or that you need to stop eating, or ANYTHING that is guilting or shaming yourself or anyone else about our bodies or food choices… STOP. Stop and ask yourself if it is in anyway helpful to anyone or if it is perpetuating a culture that is already packed to the tilt with guilt and shame - even if it is done with humor. 

 

Words matter.  They are indicative of feelings, and ultimately our behavior and action.  And that’s why they are so important when it comes to our food and our bodies. Just think about that: food and eating - things that actually sustain our life! We need food and we need to eat in order to operate, function, perform our daily life’s functions, eating keeps us alive! Food has the power to make us well, to give us energy, to bring us joy! Yes, I said it - JOY! 

 

Last year in the U.S. 43 million people went on a diet - meaning they restricted what they were eating in some way; and 41 million people suffered from food scarcity - meaning they did not know where their next meal would come from.

 

In the U.S. we also have a habit of believe that the chronic diseases that are epidemics here are epidemics around the world. I don’t like to over generalize and at the same time I feel confident in saying our culture in the U.S. doesn’t have the greatest relationship with food, our bodies, and health.

 

France, for example, has a beautiful relationship with food. In general the French eat for pleasure, they don’t label food ‘good’ or ‘bad’ unless of course they are discussing their taste palette. The French also have a lot less chronic disease than we do. It is true that chronic illnesses as well as our overall health is impacted by food and nutrition. That does not mean that eating for health and eating for pleasure are mutually exclusive. Deeply ingrained beliefs cannot be dislodged simply by introducing an opposing idea so we begin by being mindful and intentional with the words we use in regards to topics like food and our bodies.

 

Our words and relationship with food is so important that they can actually alter the way we absorb nutrients and our metabolism. In 1965, Roger Williams, a famous biochemist, published Biochemical Individuality, which revealed that just as we all look different on the outside, we also function differently on the inside and have different nutritional needs.

 

In the spirit of redefining healthy let’s chat about words commonly used as weapons against our minds and bodies: calories, metabolism, and metabolic rate. A calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. Calories in food provide energy in the form of heat so that our bodies can function. Our bodies store and "burn" calories as fuel. Read that again: calories PROVIDE energy and our bodies burn calories as FUEL. Calories = good. Metabolism describes how our individual bodies use the energy provided by calories. Metabolic rate is the overall speed at which you (as an individual) carry out your metabolic process.

 

“Tricking” our metabolism is quite literally not a long term option. There are so many factors that go into how our individual bodies vary. Hundreds of genes play a role. Nutrients from the foods you eat can turn genes on and off, and change the speed at which they work. Activity, stress, sleep can also change and regulate how your genes are expressed. Certain medications, disease processes, the bacterial makeup of your intestines, and environmental toxins all account for variations in how we absorb and use energy.

 

How you FEEL about the food you’re about to eat, and stress-related gut troubles, can indirectly impact metabolism through altering absorption. Words matter.  They are indicative of feelings, and ultimately our behavior and action.

 

As we continue to navigate this lockdown and life in general I think we can all agree we are tapped out on guilt and shame and as hard as we’ve tried guilting and shaming have yet to solve any of our problems. Next time you start to post a joke or meme about how much weight you’re going to gain, or that you need to stop eating, or ANYTHING that is guilting or shaming yourself or anyone else about our bodies or food choices… STOP. Stop and ask yourself if it is in anyway helpful to anyone or if it is perpetuating a culture that is already packed to the tilt with guilt and shame - even if it is done with humor. 

 

Your patient, loving witness,

 

Melissa

www.melissaromano.com