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Today, the idea that weight problems can be overcome through self-restraint is becoming increasingly questionable. But what if the solution is to move from gluttony … to gourmet? Here are our arguments.
Enjoying food and not worrying about weight at all sounds unrealistic to most. The abundance of food and the stimulation of the instinct to consume, characteristic of modern society, whet the appetite. What pushes us to the need to constantly control weight in order to avoid the associated psychological problems and health troubles?
Our relationship with food is weighed down by anxiety and guilt, leaving little room for enjoyment. Gourmets – lovers of good food – can teach a lesson in the enjoyment of taste in order to help get closer to harmony with both food and body.
Rare wines, exotic fruits, delicacies give exquisite pleasure to our senses. The education of sensuality, the sharpening of perception help to better recognize ourselves and the world around us.
The luxury of choice
Homemade dinner with candles and silverware: “I look forward to this on my way home from work,” says 32-year-old Svetlana, “I look forward to this moment when I will finally be alone with myself and be able to dine – aesthetically, with pleasure, with a glass of my favorite wine . It’s a pleasure that can only be compared with… good sex!”
“Gourmet food is always the most appropriate and the nicest gift you can give to others. Or to himself, says 30-year-old Alexander. “Whether it’s homemade cheese bought from a farm in Transylvania, or the famous rose petal jam that’s only sold in Piccadilly, or just an interesting wine from a deli boutique, it’s pure sensual pleasure.”
Just like with mass production of any thing, in the case of food, the principle applies: choose not quantity, but quality.
“Instead of giving up pleasure, you can reorient your choice,” explains the philosopher and sociologist, an expert in the field of “luxury psychology” Gilles Lipovetsky. “This trend of redefining preferences has arisen due to the democratization of the culture of hedonism and affects mainly the middle class.”
Delicacies from a gastronomic boutique are an unconditional luxury, but it is available to a much larger number of people than a Ferrari. This luxury-pleasure is closely connected with the emotional sphere and returns from social needs (to demonstrate one’s status and financial capabilities) to sensual needs. And at the same time it allows you to increase self-esteem.
Taste
Giving importance to what you eat is tantamount to tasting life, says gestalt therapist Olga Dolgopolova.
“The way a person feels about food is kind of a metaphor for how they feel about life,” she says. – A person who is illegible in food is just as omnivorous in life. Or, if he has indigestion, he is not able to “digest” what is happening in his life. And if he overeats, then in life, most likely, he also mechanically, passively absorbs everything that happens to him, without assimilating – without making a conscious choice and without gaining experience.
The need to eat more than is needed to sustain life is considered an indicator that many vital needs are not being met.
“Such a person does not know how to satisfy these needs in contact with people, with the outside world,” continues Olga Dolgopolova, “these are the needs for love, fulfillment, self-worth, belonging to a group, etc. Using the example of how a person contacts with food, Frederick Perls built Gestalt therapy, which allows you to explore and restore contact with the outside world.
Back to childhood
According to psychologists, the loss of the ability to eat in accordance with individual needs can occur even in infancy.
“It is almost impossible for a small child to feed more food than he can eat – he still cannot control the gag reflex,” explains Olga Dolgopolova. “Just like it’s impossible to make him eat something he doesn’t like or when he’s not hungry. Gradually, he is taught to eat by the hour and only what is useful and how much is useful.
A person controlled by a regime is the most controlled, effective social unit, he can work eight hours a day with one lunch break – and completely ceases to be guided by the needs of his own body. This is how contact with your body is lost in regard to food.
Often we eat mechanically, almost not noticing the taste, while browsing the news or newspapers. And the amount of food necessary for the body is measured by generally accepted portions, and not by a natural feeling of fullness.
Many people almost never feel hungry because they stick to a regular three meals a day, and some do not really feel full because they do not allow themselves to fill up by counting calories. How to build a more natural, satisfying, “delicious” relationship with food?
Conscious Gourmetism
“Gourmet”, selective approach to food makes you concentrate on taste, be attentive to its shades. For example, when we try something new, we absorb, evaluate this new taste, immerse ourselves in our sensations. Tasting, the intention to taste the product allows, at least for a short time, to fully concentrate on sensory contact with the outside world.
“In order to feel the taste of food more fully, it is necessary not to do anything else at this moment,” continues Olga Dolgopolova. – Do not read a book, do not watch TV, ideally – do not even communicate. Being in such full contact with food, a person will not eat more than is necessary for the body. Just like he can’t eat what he doesn’t like. Of course, you can achieve a state of comfort by satisfying several needs at the same time: for example, eating and reading a book, eating and watching TV. But comfort does not always mean full contact with each of the needs. Doing multiple things at the same time avoids feelings of dissatisfaction, tension, boredom, or emptiness.”
As an exercise in mindfulness, you can try to eat food in tasting mode – try to taste it, savoring it in tiny portions, letting the taste buds fully appreciate all its qualities and listening to the sensations of the body.
Pleasure and punishment
So, regaining the pleasure of taste is one of the ways to regulate your relationship with food. But for this it is necessary to overcome very powerful blocks that have existed in the human mind for thousands of years.
“Gluttony is one of the deadly sins. This idea is imprinted in our culture, – analyzes Gerard Apfeldorfer, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, nutritionist. “Today it also carries the burden of prejudice and puritanical moralism that used to be associated with sexuality.”
Every sin must be punished, which is why the enjoyment of food is so closely connected with our sense of guilt. Apfeldorfer’s advice to patients is to completely abandon the concepts imposed from the outside regarding the “correct” nutrition and trust yourself, listen to your appetite.
“There is no food that is inherently bad,” says Gerard Apfeldorfer. “The place of each of them in our lives depends on our needs, hunger, desires.” Even when it comes to the most high-calorie foods, he recommends not to exclude them, but to use them with special attention: slowly, with pleasure, concentrating on the sensations and stopping at the moment of complete satisfaction.
Why “tasty = bad”?
“It is high-calorie foods that seem tasty to us. At the same time, it is not these products themselves that are harmful, but their excess in the diet, ”explains Natalya Kalinchenko, a nutritionist-endocrinologist of the SE ENTS RAMS.
“It’s more apt to say that foods that taste good to most of us have gotten a bad reputation. For example, almost everyone enjoys the sweet taste. We even use these words as synonyms: “sleep well” or “sweet”, that is, a pleasant life. Sweet causes the release of “pleasure hormones” – it is not surprising that we crave the pleasure of sweet taste.
And, for example, fats have the ability to absorb and retain flavors, which, in turn, are also one of the important components of the taste of the product. Both sugars and fats are the most important suppliers of energy, which is probably why nature made them so attractive, tasty for us.
“Harm” is associated primarily with high calorie content. Such sweets that are now on our table have never been in nature – for example, refined sugar – and their calorie content is excessive, especially when you take into account the modern lifestyle. In addition to elementary weight problems, excess fat and sweets can lead to other problems – for example, acquired diabetes mellitus or atherosclerosis.