Do you have a mental list of “good” foods and “bad” foods?

                         

           GOOD FOOD                     BAD FOOD                             

I’d really like to have some discussion about this. 

Do you think about and crave the bad foods more because you tell yourself that you can’t have them?  

When you eat the supposed “bad” foods do you truly enjoy every bite? 

After you eat the bad food do you feel good about allowing yourself the indulgence or do you feel guilty? 

Food is not inherently good or bad it is neutral.  We label a food either good or bad based upon our programming by the media, so called experts, our own experiences, etc.  Think for a moment about a food you label as bad.  Do you fear it, fight it, sometimes crave it and maybe even label anyone eating this bad food as a bad person?  For me a bad food is chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven.  I would say I fear it because I know I can’t just eat one.  After I eat one the craving for more kicks in and I give in.  Then I feel guilty and I won’t make them at all even though my husband loves them.

I have been reading the book Nourishing Wisdom by Marc David where he talks about the implications of labeling food as good or bad.  He states that when we do this we “instantly suppress the natural flow of biological information.  We cut off the rich and complex messages that the body would otherwise feed back to us about the food we are eating.”  He uses the following example to illustrate his point.  “Say, for instance, that a person you have never met walks into the room and I say to you, “Avoid that man.  He is a bad person.”  Chances are, you will believe me.  You will never get to know him, understand him, or experience his depth simply because of this initial judgment.  The same is true with food.”  

I want to suggest that you take a food from your bad food list and eat as much of it as you want for a week without any judgments.  That you enjoy every bite of the food while remaining open to what your body tells you.  Here are a few suggestions for questions you may want to ask yourself after eating the so called bad food.

How does this food affect my energy level?

Does this food give me a headache?

Do I feel bloated after eating this food?

Do I feel drained an hour later?

Does a certain amount of this food work well for me but anything more than that cause undesirable effects?

Does the food work well for me on some days but not on others?

My hope is that this experiment will help you to release all your rules around good and bad food and begin to rely on your own body’s feedback rather than blindly following a book or diet expert.  Let me know if you are going to try the experiment and then comment your experience.