Our Relationship With Food
Posted: Friday, January 23, 2009
by Sara O'Rourke
There's no Carrie Bradshaw to get us through this one. Out went the days when men and women perplexed one another, making space for the food revolution - where food is our new vice. Whether it be an emotional comforter, a hatred, or a full-blown, burning love, every single one of us has a relationship with food.
Now, I would be largely exaggerating my area of expertise if I were to give you completely reliable advice on the subject matter. I too, after all, have been affected by this bizarre attachment to food. However, I feel I can highlight where we are going wrong and hopefully begin to rectify our habits.
More indulgent, however, is the relationship that entwines emotions with our eating. We use food to physically 'fill the void'. And, although it may temporarily do the job, the after-thought is a complex of guilt, sickness, and regret. Emotional eating can take hold of one of two extremes; on one hand, we can associate food with happiness, and therefore when we are hit hard by our personal relationship drama, we block out everything that makes us smile - food included. The other extreme is, quite clearly, that we run to the kitchen cupboards and empty the fridge in search of that happy place in every mouthful. Neither works. Both equal illness.
Food can also integrate itself into our minds like that one person you can't get out of your head. Every spare second is spent thinking about food - what will you have for dinner? This grows rapidly into an uncontrollable obsession. Do we think about food because we subconsciously attempt to occupy ourselves with trivial thoughts in avoiding confronting other thoughts?
When it comes to our relationship with food, I think we had it right in school. For the most part, it is nothing more than a purely functional process. In school, you're surrounded by so much activity and learning and general mind-stimulation that food rarely finds its way in. It's only when the routine timetable tells you that it's time to eat, or when you reach the point of painful stomach signals, that you really realise you should eat.
That said, then, we should take pointers from this example and live by them. It's a good thing to set yourself a schedule, so you eventually begin to recognise a body clock that works around your designated lunch-break. You should also try to avoid thinking about food until it's time to think about it. If you find yourself trapped in a delicious sugar-coma, shake your head free of it and try to envision something else. Practise will make perfect, so persevere.
At heart, food should not play a human's role. It has its own duties. We should not try to substitute, replace, compensate for we will be endlessly disappointed. The real thing always tastes better.
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