Over the past year I’ve been taking a good look at my own health. Somehow, now that I’m focused on eating better and exercising on a regular basis, I’ve gained two and half pounds. I find this mildly amusing and yet unacceptable. In my defense, I used to be much more active with work – now I sit at my desk. So now that I’m watching what I put in my body, I need to focus on how much I’m putting in there!
My question for this post is why do people have such a hard time giving up certain foods? I know it’s not just me.
I was watching tv the other day – ET Canada, and there’s Ben Mulroney saying that he wants to eat better this year. He’s got his dish of pasta alfredo there in front of him and he’s saying instead of eating this, [another dish appears] eat this wonderful healthier Mediterranean-inspired dish. He gave a few examples and when his guest turns away, he sneaks a huge bite of the alfredo. Of course it was meant to be humorous, but what kind of message does it really send? First – who is he fooling? If he’s vowing to eat better then why sneak food? Being on television appealing to others who may be making the same vow, it may have had a better impact if he’d shown that not only does the Mediterranean- inspired dish taste WAY better, it’s better for you. Don’t even bother to look back, ’cause you’re not missing anything!
Somehow eating healthfully has gotten a bad wrap. Lots of people talk about eating great food, but when the conversation turns to healthful eating, people keep making excuses to continue eating the crap we enjoy. Why? It seems like I’ll never be able to go out for lunch and order a salad instead of poutine (aka heart attack on a plate). I call it a treat. But what kind of treat is that? I’m going to treat myself to a heart attack!! Hmmmmmm.
I’ve made food a pretty big part of my life over the past while. I’ve come across many interesting and disappointing facts about food every day. Some things I learn will stop my consumption immediately. Some things, I don’t seem to have a choice about. I don’t really like the what they’ve done with some products, but I don’t have an alternative yet. Does it really just come down to will power to knock our bad food habits? I think I thought that it was more about knowledge, but if that were the case, I’d have had my last poutine years ago.
Filed under: The Food Issue Tagged: | eating better, healthier choices, healthy food
