If you equate eating bad foods with being “bad,” that’s a problem. Whether or not you eat certain foods has no bearing on you as a moral person.
But let’s be honest. There are foods that are bad for us!
Why can we call cigarettes bad without thinking someone who smokes is bad, but we can’t do the same with things like ultra-processed foods?
It’s not that one Oreo or one hotdog causes diabetes or heart disease. Just like one cigarette doesn’t lead to lung cancer or emphysema.
It’s that a steady stream of eating bad foods is wreaking havoc on our health. (Calley Means contends that “11 out of the 12 leading killers of Americans are caused by or worsened by processed food.”) And when we’re told not to demonize foods because it’s the same as demonizing ourselves, we let the bad foods off the hook!
And we say things like, “all foods in moderation.”
Is anyone promoting cigarettes in moderation?
Now, whether you use terms like good/bad or healthy/unhealthy to describe foods isn’t important.
What is important is to decide which foods nourish your body and bring about the health, strength and energy you want. And that you make decisions about food that are deserving of you as a healthy hottie.
I recommend (just like I do with my clients) that you adopt food standards that you’ll follow, no matter what. And when you go off plan, you do the mindset work to figure out how to get back on plan. Remember that eating bad foods doesn’t mean anything about you. If you struggle with that or you notice a moral tinge to the way you talk about your food decisions, look into coaching with me. It’s the best way I know to achieve the results you want and to feel better faster.
