You can't build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery.- Dr. Norman Ernest Borlaug
There comes a point in intuitive eating work where we get angry…
about the energy we’ve wasted caring about a 5-10 pound difference on the scale,
at the industry that has disconnected us from community and relationships,
and about the perspective we’ve lost on what true food issues looks like.
Without shame or judgment, observe if your relationship with food mimics the deprivation and scarcity of populations or cultures living through real food insecurity.
If you have never stopped to think about how detoxes, cleanses, intermittent fasting, and 30-Day whatevers are basically a privileged (and sometimes purchased) version of what people living in the most unstable strata of our socioeconomic system, putting these two things parallel may bring up defensiveness or embarrassment.
I don’t offer this perspective so that you judge, shame, or defend yourself into hole, but rather so that you consider it and maybe get angry...
More and more of us seeing and feeling how our food narrative doesn't just do damage to our internal dialogue but also our communal one and slowly but surely, some change talk is beginning to break through the surface.
So where could you put your energy if it wasn’t stuck on meal planning, food prep, sweating over if the kids' lunches are "clean" enough, or reading menus to make sure where you're meeting a friend for dinner has enough “allowed” foods on the menu?
What would you have time for if your evenings were not spent on worrying over what to eat and then shaming yourself for whatever you chose?
What kind of world-changing effort will you put your mind to when it’s less consumed with trying to change your body?