That has nothing to do with how you look!
Words & images compiled by Al Thursfield of Daily Food.
We’ve all grown up with a pervasive and insidious diet culture which has left long-lasting impacts that are still felt today. The influence of celebrity/tabloid culture of the late 1990s/early 2000s glorified harmful diets and black-and-white mindsets about “good” or “bad” foods.
While we claim to “know better” now, the impacts run deep and show no signs of letting up. Did you know that, as we speak, 80% of Australian women are dissatisfied with their bodies to some degree?
We’re anxious about what foods we should be eating and we reprimand ourselves if we’re told we got it “wrong”. We’re made to feel confused, ashamed and guilty, and above all else – we’re thinking about how our bodies look, instead of how they feel.
It’s time for change. This topic is complex, nuanced and deeply personal. But, there are a few tools we can use to help refocus our perspective and start to change the narrative in our minds.
So, here are 5 ways food can improve your life, that has nothing to do with how we look.
- Good food improves your mood
What we eat affects the way we feel. We know that our day-to-day diet impacts our energy levels, focus and concentration, but it also plays a critical role in our mental health.
Nutrient-rich foods, like those rich in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals, contribute to the production of feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which play a pivotal role in regulating our moods.
Majority of the body’s serotonin is produced in our gut. Research shows a clear link between the brain and the gut – known as the gut-brain axis. With more than 30 neurotransmitters producing nearly 90% of the body’s serotonin – the healthier the gut, the happier the brain.
- Social sharing
Sharing food with friends also plays an important role in our feelings of general well-being.
A study on wild chimpanzees showed that oxytocin levels (the feel-good, love hormone) were highest following food-sharing events.
Aside from creating a sense of togetherness, oxytocin works magic in our bodies. It’s like a stress-buster superhero. It helps lower cortisol levels (which are responsible for stress and anxiety) and like we said, fills our cup with feelings of warmth and happiness.
- Fuel to move
Movement – an important one to us, and to you. If you’re lucky enough to get to move your body, whether that be a pilates workout, a HIIT session or a long morning walk, the right foods power our bodies to move.
Carbohydrates, lean proteins, healthy fats along with various vitamins and minerals give our body energy, endurance, protect our physical health and help us feel strong. They fuel us to show up, perform and push ourselves to new limits.
- Brain power
Just like how cars need fuel to run, our brain needs food to work well. Despite our brains only taking up 2% of our body weight, they use 20% of our energy usage.
Eating foods like fruits, veggies, whole grains and healthy fats boosts our brain power. It takes them, breaks them down into glucose and uses that for energy. Without energy it can’t function properly, leaving you with brain-fog, lack of focus and mood swings.
The right foods help our brain think, learn, form memories and remember things. We wouldn’t get very far without our brains, so it’s important to nourish them!
- Joy
Last, but certainly not least. Food is functional, but perhaps the most important – food brings us joy.
So many of life’s special moments are shared around food, and when you’re there – those moments are so much more than what you look like. In fact, in those moments, we bet you don’t even remember what you looked like, but instead, how you felt. And how you made others feel.
Choosing to focus on how food makes us feel instead of how it makes us look is a great way to start healing the relationship that diet culture damages. You are so much more than what you look like, and life is too short to feel sad about food.
Small changes have big impacts over time, so we’re here to help you build those habits today.
About Daily Food
Hi! We’re Daily Food. We’re here to help you implement small, daily changes that help you feel good.
Eating the right foods and nourishing our bodies (in whatever way is right for you) is the best thing we can do for our physical health, but also our mental health. The science says so, but the proof is in the pudding (get it?).
The first step towards change is awareness. Our You & Food survey is designed to better understand your (and your communities) relationship with food and to discover their experience with diet culture (anonymously, of course).
Shame thrives in silence, and we want to help bring this complex and delicate issue out of its ‘suffer in silence’ depths and into the public forum, where it belongs; where we can talk about it and understand it all, together.
We’ll use the results to work alongside health professionals and experts to learn how we can help to positively influence behaviours around food and body image and to develop up-to-date resources to give your community the tools they need to have a beautiful and happy relationship with food.
We passionately believe that food has an incredible amount of power to improve our lives in really substantial ways and to connect us with the ones we love and as a community. But it hasn’t always been this way for a lot of our team, which is why we are so committed to helping others, helping your community, to feel and experience the joys of food.
Ready to change the world and dismantle toxic diet culture? Same! Take the 10-minute survey here. And, you’ll get 50% off our best-selling Super Bites while you’re at it!
