Your Relationship with Food Says a Lot about Your State of Mind
Experimental write-up to check off several food contradictions
It’s a common saying that food is essential to living. Essentiality means we cannot live without it (needed to buttress that). But just like every other “myth,” food has become one of our worst enemies. We see food as something to run from or a poison eventually when we ingest it.
Your relationship with food says a lot about your state of mind and being.
Food is characterized in many ways. We have the trope of a balanced diet, good meals, healthy meals, and so on. No wonder food is as complex as it’s categorized.
Food was meant to be… just-food. But we have conceptualized it to mean different things so much so, people are generally afraid of it — as opposed to its essentiality as human beings.
Here’s how:
Food is what feeds the body, but affects the mind
The way we feed can affect the way we think. And vice-versa. This explains why there are many theories about the importance of healthy feeding to avoid negative effects on the mind. But the confusion lies with what we regard as healthy versus what the mind deems fit. Many times we are in a down state, it’s unreal to imagine anyone would pick an avocado pear over a bar of chocolate. Because at the moment, the serotonin levels are low in the brain, which can be derived from a chocolate bar antithetical to an avocado pear. Does it mean when one craves certain foods, it’s geared towards something to do with their mind away from what the general body system needs to keep functioning?
Food makes us feel better and worse concomitantly
If you consume that chocolate bar and feel good, how long does it last before you’re ridden with guilt and shame about your choices?
Here lies another means to figure out how we see ourselves. How does food help us determine our values, and practice mindfulness more? When we eat food for its sake, the body knows, therefore it takes in the food for that sake too. But the mind is what we should be wary of. How does it feel after ingesting the said food? Good, calm, or disturbed. Mindfulness will help us either do better or be aware of the good ways our minds feel after eating certain foods for certain things other than the usual fueling.
Our relationship with and mindset about food needs to change
Some people assume that eating at all makes them feel crappy. I know I feel that way all the time. There’s anorexia, body weight issues, fat shaming, and a lot of complexes and factors that affect our relationship and mindset about food. The negative connotations about food or feeding at times are what leads us to sometimes remove it from the equation (anorexia) or to have them excessively (hence, increased body weight). Other times in the bud to escape the dilemma, we settle for other types of food (snacks or junk) to rid ourselves of the guilt of eating a full-on meal.
I remember being advised severally during pregnancy to feed as often as possible. In the obstetrician’s words: “Eat up to 5 small meals a day”. I remember being perplexed so much about that advice as I thought adhering to such would mean more baby weight to lose plus…the extra shaming that may come with it. I thought no! But it is a piece of worthy advice, not just for pregnant women, but everybody. We need food to survive, specific meals for special purposes, healthy meals for reasons best known to us, and “good” food in general to live a little. But that is if you ask me.
An awkward relationship with food can lead to other addictions
Some causal factors of an awkward relationship with food are debilitated mental health, past or childhood trauma, and internalized concepts about what food means from social groups.
I know people who can smoke up a chimney and eat very little. I also know about people who would rather stay indoors and have unending sexual romps than give in to their desire for food. This type of awkwardness relating to food can lead to some (and more) of these calibers of addiction which must stop. It’s okay to search for food for the soul in the form of sexual intimacy but determine why it is a “low-key” substitute for food for the body. What is your mind telling you? What is your state of mind as you consume food?
#mentalhealth #food #body health
