Picture this: you walk into the office and someone brought in donuts for your Friday meeting. All around you, you hear “oh I’m going to be bad today and have one” and “I’ll try to eat healthy again tomorrow”. Even you think, “I know this isn’t good for me but I really want one”.
All of these statements assign the donut as “bad”- but why? What makes it so bad? Did the donut rob a bank? Did it steal someone’s lunch money? Why are we applying morality to an object that can’t possibly be good or bad? That is the OPPOSITE of food neutrality.
In this blog post, we will explore food neutrality. I’ll highlight how we learned to apply morality to food in the first place and how we can adopt a food neutral approach for a more positive relationship with food and body.
What Does Food Neutrality Mean?
A neutral approach to food removes morality from food. Morality is applied to food in various ways, like calling foods good or bad, or calling foods healthy or unhealthy because those terms have morality tied to them. This also occurs when someone calls themselves good or bad for eating certain foods or when punishing yourself or someone else for eating certain foods. For example, someone might say they’re being “bad” if they eat a brownie, and say they’re being “good” if they eat a salad.
“It eliminates the concept of “good” foods and “bad” foods. Instead, all foods can serve a purpose, whether that be providing nutrients or creating memories. While some foods may have more nutrients than others, this does not make those foods any “better” than those with fewer nutrients.” – Maize & Blue Cupboard
Why Does Food Neutrality Matter?
You may be thinking, “who cares if I call foods good or bad? I don’t mean anything by it!” But you may be surprised by the impact this language has on your relationship with food and even your own worth.
Food Talk Impacts Relationship with Food
Applying morality to food lends to a bad relationship with food, which can lead to obsessive thoughts about food. These obsessive thoughts can take up a lot of brain space and you might find yourself thinking about food ALL day, instead of things that really matter. If your mind is always busy and worried about food, you can’t be present and your life begins to pass you by while you’re adding up macros in your head.
Food Talk Impacts Self Worth
What happens when you do something that is societally considered bad? You feel guilt and shame and furthermore you might think that makes you a bad person. Similarly, if you eat a “bad” food, you believe it makes you bad. Let that sink in.
Feelings of guilt and shame are associated with doing a “bad” thing, but you didn’t do anything wrong! You ate a piece of cake, why do you deserve to feel bad about a very normal experience? This impacts your self worth and makes you believe you have morally failed, and that feeling does not belong in the eating experience.
Restricting “Bad” Foods Leads to Bingeing
If we believe a food is bad and thus eating it will make us bad, we naturally will try to restrict it. But what we know about restricting, is that it leads to bingeing. This puts you in a shame cycle, effectively caused by assigning morality to food.
5 Ways We Learn About Food Morality
Diet culture spreads far and wide and we learn to assign morality to food in various ways, sometimes from a very young age.
- Our parents taught us about nutrition by describing foods as good vs bad, or healthy vs unhealthy.
- Doctors & classic nutrition education will often apply morality to food in an attempt to remove the nuance and provide simple education to patients.
- Social media is a hot mess of incorrect and oversimplified nutrition education, which is a recipe for disaster.
- Problematic labels like “guilt free”
- Diet books, “Eat This Not That”, TV shows, and other media where food conversations happen.
The Food Police
In Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, you will find various voices of food talk.
The food police is the voice in your head that pushes this food morality narrative, and it’s the one we must combat with the anthropologist followed by the nurturer. The nutrition informant can fuel the diet culture driven food police with facts that lack nuance.
What About Nutrient Density? Doesn’t Nutrition Matter?
Now I never said that nutrient density and nutrition don’t matter, because of course they do. After all, I studied it for over 5 years! There’s a way to apply nutrition information and education without simultaneously applying morality to food. These practices, see below, will help you practice gentle nutrition for a healthy relationship with food AND could improve your health.
Studies have shown that intuitive eaters who practice gentle nutrition eat more fruits and veggies than non intuitive eaters, which is a behavior that will always improve your health. Imagine- having less obsessive thoughts about food and also eating more nutrient dense meals! Practicing food neutrality is a win win.
How to Practice Food Neutrality And Make Peace With Food
Consider this your 3 step playbook for a food neutral approach.
Step 1: Bring awareness to your food talk. Notice when you call foods good or bad, healthy vs unhealthy, or when you feel guilt or shame after eating.
Step 2: Challenge the food police. Create neutral statements for the morality statements you’re making. It can be helpful to break it down with facts. Example:
This cake is so bad for me —> This is cake, it provides carbohydrates and fats. It holds no morality because it’s just cake.
I’m being good today, I’ll have a salad —> This salad will provide so many micronutrients. It holds no morality because it’s just a salad.
Step 3: Eat mindfully, paying attention to the texture, flavor, temperature, color, and smell of the food. Notice all of these things and describe the food in your head that way, versus a moralizing way.
Enjoy a Food Neutral Life
I hope you found these tips helpful and understand why the way you talk about food matters. For more tips to improve your relationship with food and body, check out my other blog posts on body image and gentle nutrition.
References
Christoph MJ, Hazzard VM, Järvelä-Reijonen E, Hooper L, Larson N, Neumark-Sztainer D. Intuitive Eating is Associated With Higher Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Adults. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2021 Mar;53(3):240-245. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2020.11.015. Epub 2021 Jan 8. PMID: 33423901; PMCID: PMC8238010.
Let’s learn about food neutral this holiday season. Maize & Blue Cupboard. (2022, December 9). https://mbc.studentlife.umich.edu/2022/12/09/lets-learn-about-food-neutral-this-holiday-season/#:~:text=What is food neutrality%3F,providing nutrients or creating memories.
Mann T, Ward A. Forbidden fruit: does thinking about a prohibited food lead to its consumption? Int J Eat Disord. 2001 Apr;29(3):319-27. doi: 10.1002/eat.1025. PMID: 11262512.
Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (2020). Intuitive eating: A revolutionary anti-diet approach. St. Martin’s Essentials.
About The Author
Chelsea Shafer, RD, LD, RYT graduated from Purdue University in 2020 and completed the Wellness Workdays Dietetic Internship in 2022 where she specialized in sports nutrition and entrepreneurship. Chelsea is a proud Registered Dietitian who has helped over 300 clients live healthier, happier lives and accept their bodies. Currently, Chelsea is pursuing blogging, working as a registered dietitian at Happy Strong Healthy and teaching yoga at a local studio in Atlantic Beach, Florida.
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