| #ffffff;" /> | | | | all things food and eating, the sector needs to look |
| No area of human addictions is so badly served or | | | | closely into itself and to assess whether it is acting in |
| exploited as that relating to food, eating and dieting. | | | | the interests of solutions, or risking an increase in |
| The very same substances that form the food and | | | | food obsession through its often self-serving output |
| eating addictions are being repackaged and | | | | of irrelevant nutritional verbiage. |
| represented as the possible cure – a | | | | It is even easier to take pot shots at the Dieting |
| proposition utterly ridiculous as soon as one steps | | | | Industry – but as it is still standing and, indeed, |
| back and sees the context. | | | | thriving, there is no harm at all in taking a fresh swipe! |
| It is like producing a range of slightly blunter blades | | | | Everything about it is simply wrong. |
| for the self-harming, or slightly reduced moonshine | | | | There have been experiments where kids have been |
| for alcoholics, or boxing gloves for the domestically | | | | left to select their own intake from a range of |
| violent. | | | | offered foods – everything from trash candy |
| Yet a similar kind of lunacy continues within the food | | | | to fresh fruit, with all other major foods and kinds of |
| arena, with every conceivable variety of lo-calorie, | | | | dishes being represented. |
| lo-fat, lo-carbohydrate or lo-sugar being promoted as | | | | And you know what? Within a couple of days the |
| the cure to all one's underlying eating, weight and | | | | kids stop binging on rubbish and self-select a balanced |
| self-image issues. | | | | diet. But perhaps that isn't that surprising really after |
| - Is food your problem? Then, hey, come right over | | | | all. |
| here because we have more food that just happens | | | | The problem is that we are in danger of losing sight |
| to be your personal solution! | | | | that food and eating is actually quite easy and |
| But legislation is rarely the right answer to these | | | | instinctive. Can you imagine if there was a rising |
| things. Calls for tightening regulations governing what | | | | international epidemic of dysfunctional breathing? |
| the Food Industry can produce and what it can | | | | There would be fears that humankind was |
| promote are little better than dead end by-ways on | | | | collectively taking leave of its senses. Well, without |
| the road forwards to lasting solutions. | | | | entering the realms of science fiction, this is the |
| Education is what is needed. However, this so often | | | | self-induced and self-perpetuated variety of madness |
| ends up in the backwater of nutrition, not the | | | | with which we flirt through our food obsessions. |
| mainstream requirement for a better mass | | | | There is a growing movement called Intuitive Eating |
| understanding of the psychology of eating. | | | | which is attempting to recapture the innocence and |
| It starts at the highest levels, not just with business, | | | | simplicity of eating. Of itself this is a very good thing |
| which will naturally and not improperly seek | | | | but it is does not go far enough. |
| advantage wherever it can be obtained. The | | | | Hand-in-hand with an anti-dieting message needs to |
| Government of both the US and the UK are currently | | | | be a proactive and personal sense of awareness |
| in the process of releasing new eating guidelines. | | | | about the social structures which support the Dieting |
| They have been putting out similar advice at regular | | | | Madness. Once you understand your own personal |
| intervals for over 100 years now. No-one pays a blind | | | | combination of emotional, cultural and commercial |
| bit of notice. People by and large understand the | | | | pressure points, it becomes very easy to grasp that |
| fundamentals of adequate eating. The deficit is in | | | | food is nothing more than fuel – with a little |
| workable strategies for individuals to be able to | | | | sociability and celebration thrown in for good measure |
| adopt these fundamentals permanently and painlessly | | | | once in a while. |
| into their everyday routines. | | | | Next time you are tempted by any diet product |
| Instead we end up with a ceaseless tide of next to | | | | (which can be as superficially ok as a lowered calorie |
| useless diet and nutrition advice. A lot of it revolves | | | | something or other), forcibly remind yourself that it is |
| around scientific studies into the possible effects or | | | | all nonsense. It is the total consumed which matters, |
| non-effects of various micro-nutrients, often | | | | not the sum of the parts. And, much more |
| presented in a context utterly removed from the | | | | importantly, beyond this initial breakthrough |
| daily reality of eating. | | | | acknowledgment, learn to accept that nothing we |
| There is a growing Academic Industry which needs | | | | put in our mouths (certainly nothing that emanates in |
| to fuel itself with research – and that often | | | | any shape or form from the Dieting Industry) actually |
| becomes research for research's sake. In relation to | | | | has much to do with it at all. |