Week 6: Food Isn’t Medicine (And You Consume Way More Than What You Eat)

Hippocrates once said, “let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food.”

I’m sorry, Hippocrates, but food isn’t medicine. 

This might sound a little extreme but stick with me. 

Saying that food is medicine is problematic for a number of reasons:

1 - Simply looking at food as medicine fails to recognize the other important roles that food can play in our daily lives. Food is cultural, food is social, food is enjoyment, food is fun. 

2 - While food can be used in specific therapeutic interventions, it’s often in combination with other lifestyle changes (like stress management, movement, getting adequate sleep, and more) and modern medicine that it’s most impactful. 

3 - This mentality can get in the way of people seeking adequate medical care in the face of illness, or lead to feelings of shame when unable to change the prognosis of a condition through diet. 

Now, that’s not to say that food can’t be healing -- it most definitely can. There are a number of conditions that can benefit from therapeutic nutrition interventions as I mentioned, and food can really contribute to helping us feel good.

But this preoccupation that diet culture has with eating the “perfect” diet is harmful, and it often leads to an unhealthy obsession with food. I’d also argue that the stress of trying to eat perfectly all the time is much more harmful to anyone’s health than any particular food. 

Despite preaching this message everywhere I go, I still often get asked “what can I eat to be healthy?”

It’s funny because I can’t tell you how often I’ve answered this question without naming one food. 

My answer to this question isn’t so much about the what’s as it is the how’s. 

And before we even get into that, for people deeply immersed in diet culture, getting enough food should hands down be number one. 

Some other things that you might consider to support feeling your best. 

• Enjoying food regularly throughout the day

• Snacking in between meals

• Balancing your plate with all the macronutrients -- protein, fat, and carbs!

• Variety, when you can, to make sure your body is getting its needs)

• Sitting down to eat your food

• Eating food with good company

• Drinking water (REMINDER: Drinking water isn’t an appropriate response to hunger!)

• Not stressing out about not getting enough veggies or eating more food than makes you feel comfortable

And the number one thing you can do to support feeling your best: Listen to your body. Your body is constantly giving you feedback about what it wants, what it needs, what feels good, and what doesn’t feel so good. You just need to listen (more on this next week!). 

Oh, and if we’re going to talk about being “healthy” (again, in quotation marks because I really don’t like this word), there are about 101 other things we could talk about that have nothing to do with the food on our plate:

• Connection and maintaining healthy relationships

• Sleep, sleep, sleep! 

• Giving your body adequate rest (yes, on top of sleep!)

• Moving your body in ways that feel good

• Lowering your stress

• Meditation and/or prayer 

• Spending time in nature

• Practicing gratitude, affirmations, positive self-talk

• … and so much more!

But we’ll save that for another date ;)

We can’t wait to hear what you think about this week’s episode and continue the conversation during our group call, Wednesday, December 2nd at 8pm EST. 

As always, we’re still looking to answer your questions! If you have any questions you want us to answer on an upcoming episode, submit them here. 

To help support you this holiday season -- we’ve got:

• A new podcast episode this week for practical tools, tips, food for thought (best served along with the food you’re enjoying this holiday season).

• The private group in our online community for questions, venting, advice, and more

• The BALG Instagram page for journal prompts to learn, reflect, and grow

• Connect with me (Kayla) here on my Instagram page if you’re looking for more on your journey towards ditching diet culture.

And if you haven’t yet, join our online community where we post the weekly journal prompts, share our a-ha moments, listen to our struggles, give advice, celebrate our wins, support each other every step of the way. It truly is a special corner of the internet. GET IN HERE! 

Cheers,

Kayla