InstagramEver since we were kids, we’ve been taught right from wrong. We’ve been taught that there’s good and there’s bad and over time as we grew older we developed this black and white outlook towards everything in life.
And while there certainly is good and bad and right and wrong. It doesn’t really apply to realm of nutrition. But we did it none the less. We took the concept of good and bad and applied it to nutrition and as a community began labelling foods as “good and bad” – “healthy and unhealthy”.
It’s time for this to change. The only thing that happens when we put labels to food is that we create stigma, restrictions and an unhealthy mindset or outlook towards food. Which in most cases probably leads to some kind of eating disorder. There are a lot of us out there who probably have some kind of eating disorder and we don’t even know it. Me included.
A lot of it stems from putting these “labels” on food. I’m here to tell you that we need to drop this reductionist outlook of good (healthy) and bad (unhealthy) food and move to a critical outlook where we see food as “more nutritious” and “less nutritious” food.
The aim with doing this is to remove the negative vibe from food all together. Which is what it should be, all food is a gift and we should be able to enjoy all of it guilt free while applying the concept of moderation.
A huge goal of mine is to make you guys understand that there is no such thing as an inherently “bad food”. What makes something bad is when there is no control to the limit of consumption. Did you know that too much of exercise or drinking too much water is bad for you? Did you know that you can still gain weight if all you ate was chicken and broccoli all day? Shocker, right? Things that everyone knows are good for you, can suddenly become harmful when you overdo it.
I want to let you guys in on a rule known as the 80-20 rule. The 80-20 rule states that you should get 80% of your food from “more nutritious” foods like grains, legumes, lean meat, vegetables and fruits (avoiding processed foods) and then you can get the rest of the 20% of your food from “less nutritious” foods like your hyperpalatable “junk food” that we all love so much. Basically, what we’re doing here, is not placing a restriction on any kind of food while simply putting a higher emphasis on “more nutritious” foods.
Using the concept of moderation and the 80-20 rule you can achieve all your fat loss and health goals so as long as you monitor your portions and consume food in moderation. It’s really that simple.
It’s time to ditch the mentality of restriction.
It’s time for us to remove these “labels” from food.
It’s time for us to understand that you can lose weight and be healthy while eating all the food we love.
It’s time for us as a community to be smarter.
It’s time for this to change.
