Growing up, I had this idea that the girls in school who ate salad for lunch were unhealthy, anorexic, and not "real girls." Granted, they may have been healthy or unhealthy, I really have no idea. My point is that I believed that "real girls" weren't afraid to eat "real food" -- food like pizza, white pasta, cookies, chips (name your overly processed, full of crap food of choice). To me, that was healthy. It's what you're supposed to eat if you didn't have any body image issues, right? If you ate carrots instead of hamburgers at lunch, you clearly didn't know how to eat or how to love your body. But I wondered why I never had fabulous abs or a celebrity body. Even though I never exercised and didn't always put a vegetable in my body, wasn't I doing what you were supposed to do to be the average, normal, American girl?
Now, of course, I've learned that's totally wrong. But, it's made me think a lot about what constitutes healthy and non-healthy food. How should we define healthy? Is it calorie-based, vitamin-based, omega-3 fatty acid based? What's the difference between Coke and Diet Coke, Fruit Loops and Special K, cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and cheesecake made by Sara Lee? There's so much information about nutrition out there and so many different diet options available, it's really hard to know what you're supposed to eat or not eat. How many carbs should you consume? Do you eat low-fat? Low-calorie? Is it better to grab the Skinny Cow and the Weight Watchers meal on the go, or the chewy granola bar and the Yoplait yogurt?
Lately, I've thought a lot about my motivations to lead a healthy lifestyle, and to be quite frank, my motivations were purely aesthetic. I wanted to be thin and fabulous looking, a.k.a "healthy." And if I had to get there by eating Atkins/South Beach/Grapefruit/Weight Watchers/Insert Trendy Diet Here, I was willing to do it. If those foods made me thinner, they were clearly healthy. But the second I went back to "real food," the weight came back. So, what did healthy mean? What was I doing wrong? What is the "real food" I was supposed to be eating?
I still struggle with my body image and what I should be eating, and I don't have abs of steel. But this week, I finally had a lightbulb moment. When people (myself included) jump on these diets, we don't actually want to be healthy; we want to be thin. And we're willing to do everything except what we actually need to do to get there.
Why don't the mainstream diet options tell us to make a salad everyday? Why are packaged, processed foods usually part of the deal? Is it connected to how we view our relationship with food?
I feel like part of the problem is that salad has such a stigma in our culture. A salad isn't seen as adequate food consumption. Obviously, not all salads are made equal, and it's clear that there's a huge difference between the salad with iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing, and the salad with romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, peppers, onions, almonds, and some olive oil and vinegar. But still, I just have this feeling that salad = not real food and is only viewed as acceptable when it's loaded with croutons, salad dressing, and chicken fingers. I want to save the salad and make it my healthy food. I want people to realize that when done correctly with veggies, healthy fat, and perhaps some protein (maybe even fruit!), salads for lunch/dinner, etc.,. are healthy, nutritious, and fuel our bodies in a positive way.
Perhaps I'm missing something, and I'd love some other perspectives!
What are you perspectives on salad and/or dieting? What constitutes "healthy food?"
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