The 5 Beliefs about Food that keep you Fat

1. Food should not be wasted

We have learnt not to leave food even though we don’t really
want it. If we cooked it, bought it, served it up on a plate or
ordered it in a restaurant it has to be eaten because “it’s a
sin to throw away good food”. So we use our bodies as a kind of
human waste disposal unit and pile unwanted pounds onto our
hips.

We learnt to clean our plates when we were kids, mostly from
well-meaning parents who wanted to make sure we got enough
nourishment and tried to make us feel guilty about all the
starving people in the world. We learnt to eat stuff we didn’t
really want or need to please our parents and sometimes we got
more food as a reward (“Eat your dinner or you won’t get
dessert”).

Now you’re an adult you can take a different approach. Buy less,
cook less, serve up less and order less but if it’s still more
food than you need, throw it out rather than down your throat.
It’s a greater waste to over feed your body than it is to throw
out excess food.

2. Food equals love

We learn from birth to link love and comfort from our mother
with being fed and that feeling is reinforced throughout
childhood. We equate food with being cared for. So it’s often
the first thing we turn to when we want to experience those
feelings of love and comfort again.

But food is not love. A double-chocolate chip cookie or plateful
of fries will never love you back. Only people can do that.

If you need love, you need contact with other living breathing
humans. Call up a friend and talk, don’t eat.

3. Slim people can eat as much food as they like

This one is actually true but not in the way we often believe
it. Slim people eat as much as they like but they don’t live for
food. They like to eat as much as they need and they do.
Sometimes they overeat. That’s when you see them eating
chocolate cake and pizza and you think they have it made. But
other times (more likely when you’re not seeing them on an
evening out) they’re satisfied with soup and a salad. It’s a
balance thing. If slim people ate too much all the time they
would be overweight too!

Even so, you may find that your friend can eat more than you and
not get fat. You may put it down to the luck of a fast
metabolism but actually the slight variances you find in
metabolism make very little difference. Naturally slim people
simply move around more during the course of the day even if
they don’t take regular exercise. They’re forever on the go.
They’re up and down more. And they fidget more. Studies have
shown that they use up more calories than others in that way.

If you eat and move like your slim friends you will have little
to envy.

4. Healthy food doesn’t make you fat

You can get fat eating anything – although, granted, it would be
difficult to overeat lettuce. But some natural foods are high in
calories – in particular nuts and seeds – so you can easily take
in too many calories with these. And fruit juices, smoothies and
shakes can really pile on the pounds. Too many complex
carbohydrates, whole grain though they are, will go straight to
your hips too. Healthy foods are great but they still have to be
eaten in moderation.

Having said that, true healthy natural real foods are not
generally the real problem. The main culprit here are those
foods which are branded as healthy by food manufacturers – the
foods that are “full of goodness” or low in fat or carbs or
whatever. They offer so-called healthy options for cookies,
cakes and pies that you could do well without eating. They just
tempt you to eat more because you think they are healthy or low
in calories. Check the labels and give them a miss.

5. Only unhealthy food tastes good

You may have spent years assaulting your taste-buds with fat and
sugar confectionary, salty snacks and fried foods and that is
what they have learnt to know and love. But actually many foods
that you eat have sugar and salt added to give them appeal they
wouldn’t otherwise have. Once you start tasting quality natural
foods and delicious healthy recipes you will never look back.
Become a true gourmet and learn to love good natural food in
moderation. Take the time to prepare and enjoy it properly and
you will find your taste buds dancing with delight.

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small

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