Food is as much a past memory as it is a present thought.  It is essential for our survival and wellbeing hence, our evolutionary design to seek out and covet food.  Our brains are designed to imprint food memories due to ancient times when food was scarce.  When our hunter/gatherer ancestors discovered food, it was not a memory to lose. 

foodie nutrition goals

Today, food is evidently more then just for survival; it’s an experience.  Allen in his book (The Omnivorous Mind: our evolving relationship with food) states, food and eating practices are crucial to social actions—type of food one eats, the context for eating, and the company with whom one eats constructs crucial aspects of individual and group identity.  Think back to some of your most pleasant memories in life, I’ll bet for many of them food is a central element.

Some of my (Dupinder’s) most pleasant memories are around food, from my childhood to present.  I remember in India, our family Sunday outings to the market.  We would start our outing with street foods like Alloo Tiki (potato patties covered with sweet and sour sauce), followed by Kulfi (sweet Indian Popsicle), and finish the day with dinner at our favourite restaurant were we ate Nan bread (simple carbs).  Of course I also remember running around and having fun but, it’s the taste of these foods I most remember and often long for.  When I’m in need of comfort on a busy stressful day or even a celebration for that fact, my brain immediately goes to these old food memories to provide a source of pleasure and happiness.  Interesting note, these foods were also all easy calories packaged up in sweet, salty and fatty flavours.  This is a deadly combination for our current food abundant times, if not enjoyed in moderation.

In more recent adulthood memories, I often recall feast type dinners (big roast, side dishes and simple carbs galore), glass of wine and laughter with family.  Cocktails and canopies with friends are always a pleasant thought also.  It so appears the besides standing across from my husband on our wedding day and the birth of our kids, the rest of my memories are often around food.  Perhaps, it’s because we are a food culture; I can’t think of a culture that doesn’t celebrate with food or even grieve with a table full of food. 

“Working for bread” is the prominent saying in most cultures and true in the western world as well — bringing home the bacon.  With so much emphasis on food from an evolutionary and cultural perspective, it’s no wonder, the daily question of “what’s for dinner?” towers over us all.

So, what’s wrong with on-demand access to sweet, salty and fatty foods?

Our love/hate relationship with food starts here.  We need to eat, love to eat, food is often at the centre of our existence.  But, problem now is that the food our body needs from the tastes we are accustomed to, have been manipulated and targeted by food companies for a profit.

Crispy taste of bugs for protein content that our ancestors were accustomed to has now been replaced with potato chips.  The sweetness of fruit is masked with sugar laced cupcakes.  Calorie rich, beloved fats from nuts and seeds come in form of trans-fats and deep fried onion rings. Our present food is no longer fuel but poison to our body.  Nutrient-poor foods, oversaturated with empty calories like boxed pasta, mashed potatoes, bread and ice cream are now dinner table staples.  As a result, food that is supposed to provide strength is making us weak, sick and tired.

Today, we are starving for nutrition in the mist and abundance of empty calories we consume on a daily bases.  As a result, our health takes a major hit. 

Are you a Foodie?

Many of us know the above mentioned information but struggle to fight the urge to limit treat type foods.  It’s because media and mass food marketing has convinced us all that we are foodies; and if we limit treats then we must be depriving ourselves somehow.  I too consider myself a foodie.  Once again, I have one prominent memory around food that started my foodie journey, and that was with a fellow foodie.  Of all my restaurant outings this one stands out, as my acquaintance/date loved food!  We went to a Malaysian restaurant and she constructed each dish on our menu that evening, she tasted, analyzed and savoured each bite and taught me how to do the same.  Before that I was just eating food because it tasted good but, after that evening I leaned how to savour food. 

This is an important distinction to remember: eating food because it tastes good at the time and soon forgetting all about it; versus savouring each bite and making conscious effort to experience the pleasure of food, are very different things.  We’ll comeback to this point later in the article.  For now, I want to assure you that a foodie does not have to choose between taste and memorable experience over health and fit physique.  You can have both; and as you read on I’ll share with you the how to do it. 

What is important to you?

Optimum health and eating proper nutrition is a goal for many.  We all understand the importance of home cooked meals and eating less takeout.  But, takeout food is so tempting with the convenience, taste (palate manipulation with sweet, salty and fatty), and cost.  No wonder few of us cook at home and leave it up to someone else to nourish us.  The problem with this line of thinking and practice is that takeout places don’t have our best interest at heart, but rather their pocket balance.  This is precisely the reason they use poor-quality, cheap ingredients, overloaded with sweet, salty and fatty to manipulate our palate.  Often times even with best of intentions restaurants have to provide value for money, as a result food quality suffers.

pleasure food nutrient richI used to love take-out and still enjoy savoury and fatty foods.  Don’t get me wrong, I will easily clean a plate of cheesecake when offered, and don’t even try to take away my favourite indian sweets.  However, for many of us there are one or two particular foods that give us an orgasmic feel.  That often lead to further high caloric treat food choices.  For me, I love a nice glass of cabernet sauvignon along with a cheese platter.  To create a complete mood add in some slow jazz in the background, a bowl full of pasta with some crusty bread to mop up leftover spaghetti sauce (further poor treat food choices).  At that rate, depending on the company—if talking, enjoying—I can easily finish off the wine bottle myself along with a second helping of dinner (uncontrolled eating).  However, I do control myself by following The No-Diet Book food rules that keep my calories and temptations in check.

Pleasure Vs. Convenience

Learn which specific foods that you crave and have an affinity towards (pleasure/foodie experience); and distinguishing them from the foods you are eating just for convenience and can give up.  Just by making this simple change you can save up to 1/2 of your daily empty calories.  For example, due to my savoury and fatty food affinity, I used to love potato chips especially with a can of coca cola.  But, by eating them I never got that awesome satisfying feeling.  I eat them because they were around, I was probably hungry or just bored.  Once I made my pleasurable vs. convenience food list I realized that chips and pop were in the later list.  So, I stopped buying chips and pop altogether.  By eliminated them from my diet, slowly but steadily even memories of them faded away.  Now, I only enjoy chips and pop at my kids birthday parties (side note: I got called out one year by a 3 year old, saying how my party didn’t have any chips).  Now, when I eat chips and pop they are planed moments and I enjoy them a lot more, then when I used to eat them daily.

Keep your food temptation under control by knowing your bad decision trigger foods.  Often they are convenient treat foods:

Fast carbs like pasta, breads, sweet/sour sauces;

Sweets like cakes, donuts, cookies and sugar sweetened beverages (soda);

and Alcohol.

There is sound science behind the reason our brain leads us astray in reference to treat foods that is out of scope for this article.  But for now, know that we are designed to crave such foods and find it hard to stop when we are full or had enough.  So, we have to make a conscious effort to take control of these cravings.

Write down your Foodie and Convenience food list.

Write down the foods that you simply love to have a moment with.  You can close your eyes and almost be transported to a pleasurable place when eating these foods.  These are your foodie moments!  I mentioned mine is red wine and cheese, maybe some simple carbs thrown in also. Now, note treat foods that you eat for convenience, when you’re bored, or in a rush grab-and-go.  Mine used to be chips and soda.  After giving up chips and soda alone I noticed a significant positive change in my bodyweight.

Plan of Action

If we allow ourselves, our desires and wants can easily takeover us.  However, in reference to certain food decisions, the wrong ones can have dire consequences for our health.  If I drank wine, ate pasta with garlic bread everyday, I would be nowhere in the health and fitness level I’m in.  In fact, there was a time when I used eat for comfort, convenience, and just to pass time.  And for majority of these times, I never got that foodie feeling I described above.  I was eating to fill a void of sorts rather then taking action and getting to know what I really wanted and working for it.  My current wants and goals include top physical fitness and improved quality of life that comes with great health—through proper nutrition. 

So, if you are a foodie like me then make the time to enjoy the foods you love.  Plan a special meal and moment, and be present in it.  Plan it as often as needed but be conservative with this number.  For me, I started off with a foodie meal once a week, then once every 2 week, once a month and now,  I plan these moments few time a year, usually while on vacation, my birthday and big family dinners.  This gives me something to look forward to and keeps me focused on my other goals that need to be accomplished.  For my foodie moments, especially when alcohol is involved, the time after that meal is a write-off in terms of productivity.  The day after is also not as productive.  So, I keep my foodie moments at a minimum and it works well.

Now, let’s plan your foodie meal.

Pick a time, place, meal, setting and plan it in advance.  Look forward to it.  This doesn’t mean you have to eat broccoli and chicken breast for the rest of your meals.  Quite the contrary, we at S&S believe in eating a variety of foods that are delicious, taste great and quick and easy to prepare.  Often there is a false pretence that either we eat whatever we want or are on a “diet”.  This is simply not the case and a false belief bestowed upon us by mass media food companies.

The word diet simply means a way of eating—takeout everyday and drinking most nights a week is also defined as diet.  So, pick a new diet, style of eating that is healthy, nutrient-rich and will help you achieve your other goals.  Be sure to enjoy your daily meals, make them a moment when you can.  We at the S&S household, eat variety of foods and try new tasty and healthy recipes regularly.  Check out the recipes category and try some of our favourites.   

Final Thoughts

Often there is a misconception that either you are a foodie or a fitness junkie.  The truth is you can be both.  Eating whatever and whenever you want because you love food doesn’t make you a foodie—it’s just our biological design.  However, this design in no longer viable in our modern times of empty calorie abundance.  Any fitness junkie will tell you, we too would love to eat whatever and whenever we like.  Conversely, avoiding junk food, eating more home cooked meals, having a healthy relationship with food is also the foodie way, not just a fitness junkie.

We really hope this top heath tip on pleasurable vs. convenience food will set you up to discovering yourself and some new nutrition goals.  Good luck in your journey and please leave us a comment as to what you think about this article.  We would love to have a conversation on the topic!

References:

Allen, John S.  The Omnivorous Mind: our evolving relationship with food.  Harvard University Press. 2012.