Food Does Not Need to be “Worth the Calories” in Order to Eat it

Lately I’ve been binge watching the show The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. It’s a baking competition where contestants create all different baked goods and show off their culinary skills. Their creations are pretty amazing and look delicious. Recently I was watching and one of the judges said to the contestants as they were announcing that week’s challenge, “make something that’s worth the calories”. Um, first of all judge, you are PAID to eat baked goods on TV as your job and you’re going to worry about calories right now?? And then you’re going to put that message out there to the audience who if they’re anything like me was not even thinking about the nutrient content of these baked goods.
A part of intuitive eating is finding satisfaction in the foods you eat. You will eventually get to a place where you may be satisfied with less of certain foods than you used to. And you may turn away foods that aren’t up to your standards. But this isn’t about dieting and finding the miracle cure to eating less. It’s not about being able to say no to foods that aren’t “worth the calories”. It’s about being attuned with your body and knowing what it’s needing. When we talk about food being “worth the calories”, we assume that we have some sort of calorie limit. We assume that we can’t trust our body to regulate itself and we assume that the only reason we eat is for nourishment vs pleasure. Also, every meal is not going to be perfect. Sometimes we need the energy and calories from food and we eat a meal that is less than pleasurable but will give us the nutrition we need to get through the day.
So notice yourself using that phrase and work towards eliminating it from your vocabulary. That dieting language is not serving you.

Struggling with your relationship to food and your body? Recovering from an eating disorder or chronic dieting and in search of an experienced eating disorder registered dietitian in the Centerport, New York area or virtually? Send Christina an email to learn more about 1:1 nutrition therapy sessions!