Diet is a ticking time bomb, says psychotherapist and food behaviorist Svetlana Bronnikova. But too many people benefit from us losing weight all the time.
Psychologies: Many of today’s adults grew up in the diet religion era. How did this «religion» come about?
Svetlana Bronnikova: There are many “players” in society who are interested in us eating a lot. These are food concerns that need to sell as much food as possible and make as much profit as possible; the pharmaceutical industry producing anti-obesity pills; medicine that proposes to rid us of obesity by surgically reducing the volume of the stomach. Food concerns first earn on those products that lead to excess weight, and then on diet food. At the height of the popularity of the gluten-free diet, it was often used not only by those who suffer from gluten intolerance, but also by those who simply wanted to lose weight, since gluten is found in baked goods and desserts. It turned out that gluten-free products in supermarkets cost almost 250% more than regular food! Then the diet industry comes into play, the turnover of which in America alone is 70-80 billion dollars a year. It is overtaken only by pharmaceuticals. It is beneficial for these players that we are preoccupied with appearance and constantly lose weight, believing that health is thinness.
But it wasn’t always like that, was it?
S. B.: Certainly! Until the 60s of the last century, the main problem for women was «how to get better.» Yes, and the standard of beauty was different. A change in the standard occurs when the phenomenon of food abundance arises and food becomes cheaper. Relatively inexpensive, satiating food becomes available to most people, and corpulence ceases to be a sign of aristocracy, as it was, say, in merchant times. At this moment, the full body stops broadcasting the message “I can afford to buy food,” that is, high social status, and, on the contrary, becomes a sign of low social status: I am a proletarian, I work for food, eat it and get better. Thinness becomes a new sign of aristocracy: I am free from food, I can afford not to eat.
So, those who allow themselves to eat everything, are in opposition to the dominant «ideology»?
S. B.: Yes, today a good relationship with food is opportunism. If a person eats freely, he «sins» and is condemned. And if at the same time he has an unformatted weight from the point of view of modern culture, he is doubly condemned. Therefore, those who accept their body as it is are marginals, sinners who, according to society, should repent through a diet, take penance, starve, suffer and come out cleansed.
But what about the biblical sin of gluttony, which must be repented of? Haven’t lovers of tasty and satisfying food been condemned before?
S. B.: Then we are talking about the continuous satisfaction of the womb with delicious dishes, while in modern reality, if we only looked in the direction of a bun, we should be punished: ten kilometers on a treadmill! When I discovered this concept of the sinfulness of food, which is beneficial to many corporations, everything suddenly fell into place for me.
However, we all remember that in childhood, food was a source of pleasure …
S. B.: The relationship with food is generally where we start. We are born and build relationships not with a person, but with an object, which is the mother’s breast — a source of food. Food becomes for us a symbol of warmth, peace, security, and we carry this infantile perception of food through our lives. Our subsequent childhood experience with food is also very significant. We often hear: “eat it up, otherwise it will go bad” and other maxims in the same vein. Food from the ritual of love suddenly becomes an enemy, an instrument of violence, a way of punishment or encouragement. «If you behave, you’ll get candy or ice cream.» What does the child hear? That a candy is a special food that has the status of an award. We also take these meanings with us into adulthood.
- Enjoy food without guilt
What else do we inherit?
S. B.: We tend to attach labels to food. Porridge or boiled egg is breakfast. But who said you can’t have a boiled egg for dinner? At lunch we usually eat soup, but abroad we are surprised that soup is eaten there in the evening. We also feed our children in accordance with the food rules. We were raised by hungry grandmothers who never threw away food: “it’s better in us than in a basin.” Now it would never occur to me to give a child, for example, sour jam. And then they could do this, because then there may not be any food. But even today there is food that is always desired. You won’t find sushi like in Tokyo anywhere else. You won’t find a lobster like in Boston anywhere else. Most people love black caviar because it doesn’t exist and will never be available. And sometimes a completely dramatic situation arises: in front of me on a plate is a lobster or a can of black caviar, but I don’t want them at all. And I start eating through strength or eat two servings, not because I want to, but because there will be no more. I am not close to the idea of labeling some food as «holiday». But the concepts of a unique food experience and everyday (when you buy food at a local market or in a store) are close. In ordinary life, it is easier to regulate relationships with food if you understand how the idea that being overweight is terrible has been imposed on us.
But diet is also a way to regulate your relationship with food. Make them orderly, “correct”.
S. B.: No diet has ever saved anyone from overeating. Diets cause us to continue a vicious cycle of first losing weight and then gaining more and more. And each time blaming yourself, not the diet. We need to shift focus. You have nothing to do with it! The fact that after the first diet you lost 20 kg and then gained 25 kg is not about weak will. That’s how the diet worked. Because she is a ticking time bomb. Permanent weight gain throughout life is a consequence of the experience of diets, this is now confirmed by research. In fact, the weight of a healthy person can be stable throughout life without special efforts. From this grew the basic principles of intuitive eating: eat when we are hungry, and exactly what we need; do not divide food into «bad» and «good»; stop when satiated; do not solve emotional problems with food. To implement these principles is only at first glance simple. In fact, listening to your own hunger, acknowledging it and taking care of yourself by eating on time, regulating emotions without using a plate of cakes — all these tasks are not easy, they require conscious effort. But these efforts will pay off.