Welcome back to the normal routine of eating thrice or for some people even more each day, after Ramadan. I hope that you grew in spirituality and stayed on track physically.
I thought that I will connect with you all at this moment, to motivate you to keep the healthy stride going, to help you keep defining and redefining your health goals and to help you to choose the RIGHT foods.
But, I stopped in my tracks, there and then, because the very common notion of eating the “right” foods, point out to another aspect that there must be some wrong foods out there.
Right vs Wrong
We categorize foods and hence their consumers in these two sections. Wrong food eaters, might find it really hard to transform their life with a 360 degrees turn. The right food eaters are under constant stress that they might cross the thin line.
Due to this judgemental attitude towards food, we as nutritionists are considered some super humans or food police, and people tend to say “Please don’t look at my plate”, or “I usually don’t eat all this”, or people might look at our plates with skeptic eyes if they see a hint of any WRONG food there.
In this crusade of pushing people to eat the right foods only, we forget that human nature doesn’t like to be controlled or to be pushed. We put bans on food, but that wrong food still finds way to the plates. We endorse the healthy choices as the right thing to do, but people detract or loose motivation real quick and go back to what they are comfortable with.
So, I would like to change this idea of “eating right” to “eating better”.
We can improve our life skills, our behavior patterns and of course our food choices and quantities towards a better path. We can enjoy the food that has been our first love but with this urge to be better, we can put portion barriers on such foods. We don’t need to hide our urges in front of all, and then eat that WRONG food to our full while hiding in the closet and then sulking the whole month as we go astray.
Let’s keep on telling ourselves that our food choices don’t have to be in the concrete division of black and white, unless it’s for the halal and haram category. We can choose within the gray areas of right n wrong foods and keep ourselves going without feeling guilty. The trick is to keep our portion sizes in check.
Let’s eat better for a better health.
Mariam Khan, RDN