Food can just be food

Imagine a world where we didn't need to say the words food freedom or where intuitive eating would just be regular 'ole eating. Imagine.

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What if we started viewing food as food? What if we viewed it as something that our bodies need, but also something that can be joyous and social? I know you’re probably wondering why I am asking these rhetorical questions, and it’s because we make eating more complicated than it is. And now that I have written that last sentence, I have to give some disclaimers that I, of course, recognize there are indeed many factors that can make eating complicated, like allergies (hi, I have a ton of them), medical conditions, finances, and more. Yes, I acknowledge that these play a role, but when I say that we complicate food, I mean in treating food as merely medicine instead of recognizing the joyous and social aspect.

You probably have heard the phrase “food freedom” before, or at least heard it used within the nondiet space, and many are probably familiar with its counterpart, intuitive eating. What is it about food that we need freedom from? Well, mostly, what we are really seeking is the freedom to enjoy food. I say this because diet culture (and really society, for that matter) tells us the opposite. Whenever our taste buds are more than happy and we are enjoying our meal, a rush of guilt sets in because we must be doing something wrong. We are repeatedly told that food is fuel and medicine, but what about food being pleasurable and joyous as well? There can be many truths to this.

I will say this: we should eat for a variety of reasons that include our health needs, preferences, hunger, and pleasure. Yes, pleasure, as in pleasure. Heaven forbid we enjoy the food we are eating and even the activity of eating and socializing. I shared the NSFW post below on social media, and it’s something that I stand on to this day, “The hill I will absolutely die on is that we eat food for more than its nutrients, and that food is supposed to be social and pleasurable. Since everyone loves an analogy, I will say that believing we only eat for nutritional value is like saying that sex is only for procreation.” I know, so scandalous, right? I mean, there are many activities we partake in just for pleasure and not just socially accepted health benefits, activities like sex, yes, but also various forms of movement and exercise.

So, how do we get there, to this place of enjoying ourselves? Well, we’re human, and progress is never linear. I also believe that we need to accept and respect our predetermined genetics and other external factors (socioeconomic factors and social determinants of health). I might sound fantastical, I know. But imagine eating what you want to, in a way that is individualized for your needs. And I don’t just mean needs in terms of calories or nutrients. I mean eating foods that make you feel good, emotionally and physically.

Sounds sort of radical, doesn’t it? We are told that we aren’t supposed to eat what we want and that we’re supposed to follow diet rules because we have been taught not to trust our own bodies and desires. There are more than eight billion people on this planet, with radically different needs and body types, and yet we still somehow believe that there is one magical way of eating that will work for everyone. That there is some perfect regimen that we will all be able to stick to and that will get us all looking pretty much the same. But imagine if we didn’t have a thin ideal for what a body should look like and universally accepted the concept of body diversity. Imagine if we all ate for our own individualized well-being.

I’ve already talked about intuitive eating (IE), an approach that emphasizes food freedom, and I’ve said this repeatedly, IE is NOT the be-all and end-all of eating. The IE framework doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, and that is more than okay. The reason I tie food freedom and IE together so often is because you will see these phrases used within the same anti-diet space. I say this as an anti-diet dietitian, but I