By nutritionist Miriam Pollak
I recently engaged in an online chat about coconut oil with my colleague, Naomi Abeshouse. It went something like this:
Am I going to get fried for saying this in our health-conscious community? … I am really sick of coconut oil! I don’t like its aftertaste, and it feels heavy. I know it’s blah blah good for me in blah blah ways … but I’m finding it… kinda blah. x Naomi
Followed by:
Ditto…
I’m not a fan either…
I agree. I feel like all my food tastes like a failed pina colada…
Coconut oil is the current popular oil. Although some of the hype has started to die down, people have been left confused by its benefits versus other oils. The result? We find ourselves eating foods because we think they are good for us, rather than because we like them.
Eating is more than just fuelling your body. Of course, there is absolutely a physical component to food that includes its nutritional and chemical effect on our bodies. However, there is also an emotional and social side to food that is equally important.
Let’s look at a case study.
Joan decides she wants to change her diet to feel better and maybe even shed a few kilos. So she turns to the internet and her friends and decides that she has found the perfect diet. It looks like everyone is losing weight on it and feeling great.
Unfortunately, to stick to that diet she has to cut out a food that she really loves eating. It may not be something she eats every day, but it is a food or a food group that she enjoys eating regularly.
The first two weeks go really well. Joan has lost some weight, is generally feeling good and proud of herself. She’s not completely enjoying some of the foods that she “has to eat”, but it’s all in the name of good health. Unfortunately, when she goes out with her friends for dinner there’s not a lot she can eat, so she’s been spending more time at home.
Week four comes along. Joan is desperately craving that food she isn’t allowed. She holds off for another week and then binges and feels bad about herself. Joan has a few cycles of this before ditching the new diet completely and shortly thereafter she returns to her original weight.
What went wrong for Joan?
Diets that are restrictive or highly prescriptive, without medical justification, are not sustainable. They lead to weight loss and weight gain cycles, poor self-esteem and the enjoyment of food is ruined. Even on a less extreme scale, eating foods because of perceived health benefits when you just don’t like them ruins the enjoyable side of eating and, ultimately, your relationship with food.
It is completely ok to eat foods you enjoy regardless of how healthful and nourishing they are. If those foods make you happy, they are still serving an important purpose. A nice guideline to follow is the 80/20 rule. If 80% of the time you are eating a nourishing diet (of foods you like to eat) and 20% of the time you are eating foods purely for their pleasure, then I believe you are onto a good thing. This is a guideline I follow in my own life, and when I work on meal planning with clients it’s a principle we follow together.
It’s also ok to avoid specific foods you dislike, even if they are widely thought to be a miracle food. Sometimes their flavour makes them simply unpleasant to eat. Not a fan of coconut oil? That’s understandable – in some dishes it just tastes wrong. Olive oil is a healthy all-rounder so drizzle away!
Be kind to yourselves ladies. Love your food, love yourself.
Miriam
xxx
Miriam Pollak is a university-qualified nutritionist specialising in and passionate about women’s health. Contact us to make an appointment with Miriam today.
Grateful to hear the voice of reason Miriam! All this puritanical self-flagellation about foods we should/should not eat – not to mention the epidemic of food righteousness in general – I’m over it. It’s a silly one-size fits all approach, similar to what Western medicine has been pushing for years. Righteous Foodies need to get with the program that’s now pushing the frontiers of medicine – what works for the individual? It pretty obvious that some things should be avoided, particularly if they don’t make you feel good. But I do love your approach that if it makes you feel good it’s OK about 20% of the time. That works with anything we do – we need to find a balance between doing the right thing and pleasure, since pleasure is as healthful as any practice – as long as we recognise the difference between self-indulgence and pleasure… Personally I use a lot of coconut oil in cooking and stuff, but I recognise that great spoonfuls of it in smoothies and so forth doesn’t taste or feel good… I also find that it’s not as great a skin care product for me as it’s touted to be. We have to each find our own balance… thanks for the great article!
Thanks Sheridan! I’m so pleased that my post resonated with you. The nice thing is that for most people, being able to have that balance of 80/20 means that they can make sustainable and healthful changes to their lives. And that is what I get up in the morning for! xxx