Eat food not products

I had an a-ha moment last year as I walked around the concourse of my office building. I realized that the bulk of the food sold in restaurants, fast food shops and grocery stores is junk food. More importantly, I stopped thinking of prepared meals, fast food or restaurant food as a valid eating option. Some sort of switch flipped; I lost interest in buying food and preferred to eat food prepared at home.

I realized that it is too easy to overeat food that is prepared by food manufacturers and restaurants.

(In general, I'm referring to manufactured meals - meals made by someone else and/or somewhere else. Of course this includes snack foods and "healthy" fast food places that serve enormous salads.)

If you think about it, food manufacturers have teams dedicated to creating convenient meals that are so tasty that you will like it enough to buy again and again. They test, use focus groups as guidance to perfect a product that will appeal to the the most consumers. This team also works to overcome obstacles such as an ingredient list constrained by a budget and projected pricing and a manufacturing date that is weeks/months prior to the consumption date.

Plus, let's not forget that the food business is a competitive market. Luckily, the food marketers work on a plan to develop product awareness so you will remember to buy their frozen lazagna at the grocery store and again the following week. If the product happens to be low-fat and doesn't taste all that great - the food marketers will market the health benefits and let the health halo do the rest.

In the case of fast food and restaurants, it's a bit of a double whammy - there is the taste thing and the huge serving size thing. Servings are massive, even the children's  meals are too big and in the wrong proportions for healthy eating (ie. vegetables rarely take up half the plate). I'm even wary of the healthy fast food places that sell big salads heaping with various prepared toppings with mayonnaise and cheese.

Of course, some prepared meals are healthier choices than others. On the rare occasion that I buy my lunch  (once every couple of months), my first choice is a place where I can get a gourmet salad and a sandwich.
And while I realize that it is one of the healthier choices, the sandwich is big, and I'm certain the salad dressing in full fat.

In my eyes, food made in factories, fast food/restaurants meals are treated like chocolate bars and should only be eaten occasionally.

If you are interested in controlling your eating, control what you eat by making the food you eat.

Eat food and be wary of eating products.

Dealing with food pushers - insight from a thin person

A former manager is one of those naturally thin people who does not have to work at staying thin. She has a naturally low appetite. I swear she can nurse a muffin all day long. One day when we were chatting after a meeting, she told me about a particular pair of pants that must go in the dryer before wearing as the material needs to be shrunk in order for it to fit. I replied with a laugh and told her that is not a problem that I've experienced.

During a more recent conversation we talked about the massive amount of food at our new workplace (the company we worked for was bought and merged with another financial services company). I was shocked by all the food at work: pizza, burrito day, breakfast day, ice cream, cake, cupcakes, continental breakfast, popcorn, candy. Some brought in by colleagues, but most of it provided by management as a way to motivate and thank employees. 

So my naturally thin manager shares this interesting tidbit of information: if you say no to offers for food, eventually food pushers will get the message and stop offering food.

And she is right. Now that I've said no thank you enough times, no one tries to push food on me and I'm also finding it easier to say no thank you when the offer for food comes up.

 

I kept this in mind when a group of new employees started last week and a truly very lovely lady offered (enthusiastically) a basket of valentine's day chocolate to her neighbouring colleagues (including me).

 

"Please, have some chocolate, help me to not get fat by eating all this chocolate!" she said. "Look, have some of this chocolate, this chocolate is healthy!"

 

Nice. She doesn't want to get fat with chocolate, but it's ok to push chocolate onto colleagues and make them fat?

 

I wasn't interested in her chocolate; I kept my steely resolve with a cheery, "no thank you" and "perhaps later, but I don't want any right now thanks." She got the picture that I just wasn't interested and moved on to more interested colleagues.

 

So the next time a food pusher approaches you with a plate of cookies or a basket of chocolate, remember the words from a naturally thin person; if you say no enough, food pushers will go find a new target.