It's okay to eat food with ingredients you can't pronounce
/It’s okay to eat food with ingredients you can’t pronounce. Maybe you can’t say 1/2 the words in your grocery store frozen quiche. Does it have veggies, carbs, protein and sh*t you need? YES! Does it matter if you can’t pronounce the fun snack you find in the check out aisle? No. It’s a fun snack.
Sometimes when we work on healing our relationship with food we get stuck in perfectionism. We give ourselves permission to eat, listen to our hunger, trust our body. We hold ourselves back when we obsess about what we allow.
I get it. I remember going through this phase- the I only want to eat food that has ingredients I can pronounce era. We don’t want to eat something that’s not food right? You aren’t going to cut up on a bar of soap for an appetizer. (I don’t think you are at least!?). Where it doesn’t make sense is that unless you have an extensive chemistry background, most foods have components that most of us can’t pronounce.
Take apples for example. They include phloridzin and catechin. I have zero idea how to pronounce these. If 2008 saw those on a label, I would probably put the food back because I didn’t know how to pronounce it.
Your body and brain always need food. What is available? What is accessible? What works for you? What are YOU really needing? What tastes good? All of these questions matter so much more than “can I pronounce everything in this.”
One thing I am pretty sure about is that you won’t just only ever eat cookies and never stop eating cookies. I know it can feel this way and you believe it. It is hard to figure it all out. If you find yourself feeling like you can only eat certain types of foods, try to challenge yourself a few times a week this week and see what happens. Here if you need support. You can find out more about working with me here.
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“We are saddled with body shame because it is an age-old system whose roots and pockets are deep. Body shame flourishes in our world because profit and power depend on it.”
