21 May 2011 Eating in moderation: It’s not about the food
by Kellie Dye
The American Dietetic Association promotes the idea that all foods can fit into a healthy diet as long as we eat them in moderation. When you look up the word “moderation” in the dictionary, you will find such words as restraint, temperance and avoidance of extremes or excesses.
Most people struggle with the concept of moderation. For many it’s easier to think of food in categories of black or white, or in other words, good or bad. I find that when you look at foods through such a narrow scope, it makes the concept of moderation far less attainable. To me you can’t think about practicing moderation unless you think about your attitude toward food.
For example, if you tell yourself that chocolate is bad, then you have just elevated chocolate to a level of high importance. Once a food reaches that level it becomes hard to stop thinking about. Yet you avoid it and you pat yourself on the back for all of your willpower. Perhaps days and even weeks go by without so much as a chocolate nibble.
Unfortunately this doesn’t last, and as it often happens, you have an extra stressful day. Your office mate brings you a bag of bite size chocolates. Before you know it you have devoured three-fourths of the bag. Who can you blame? Your willpower? Your office mate?
Those are the obvious choices. Most people will blame someone else, or they will beat themselves up. Beating yourself up for overeating often leads to more overeating. Blaming someone or some circumstance takes the responsibility off of you, which only leads to helplessness and lack of control. Rather than blaming yourself or others, how about blaming your black or white thinking? Remember when you elevated chocolate to that level of high importance by making it a bad food? Perhaps that is what set you up for the chocolate binge.
Wouldn’t it be nice to eat just one or two pieces of bite size chocolates, and then go about your day without giving it a second thought? I’ve found that when people make certain foods off limits, these foods will eventually become problem foods that are difficult to control. People will blame the problem food rather than take a close look at their attitude about those foods. It’s easier to blame food rather than trying to change how we think about food.
Some people can actually eat just one piece of chocolate and forget about it. Those are usually the people who eat in moderation because they choose not to classify any food into good or bad categories. Unfortunately these people are becoming a minority. Because of all the fad diet crazes, quick fixes and the “eat this/not that” mentality, it has become harder to have a positive attitude about food, which makes it harder to eat all foods in moderation. There’s more to it than portion control and exercise. Fad diets and black and white thinking have contributed to a real obesity crisis.
Let’s face it, with two thirds of the American population classified as overweight or obese, it’s time we look toward changing our attitude about food rather than blaming food.
