3 reasons why calling foods "unhealthy" is unhelpful, and how to begin to challenge your mindset around food
Ask yourself: what does this food have to offer me right now? The answer won’t always be about nutrition, because we don’t just eat for nutrition purposes.
As I was pushing my son and daughter through the grocery store chip aisle last week, my four-year-old son turned to me and asked, “Why don’t they have any healthy foods here?”
I was caught off guard by his question because that’s not the kind of language that I use to describe foods. But he’s in preschool and interacts with a lot of people other than just me, so I knew that eventually he’d be exposed to the misguided idea that we can easily just categorize foods into groups like “healthy” and “unhealthy”.
“What makes a food healthy?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow. He didn’t respond.
“You know,” I started, not sure if he was really listening, “I don’t like to call foods ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ because all foods have something to offer us. You might hear grown-ups or other kids say chips are ‘unhealthy’, but I like to focus on the great things about all kinds of foods. You know I always eat chips with my sandwiches because I love how crunchy they are. Sandwiches aren’t crunchy, so having chips with them makes the meal more enjoyable for me.” I stopped there, knowing that I reached the limit of that conversation for the day.
But presumably, you’re an adult reading this, so we can keep talking.
Here are 3 reasons to drop the terms “healthy” and “unhealthy” to describe foods:
1. These labels are arbitrary and lack clear definitions.
What’s “healthy” to you, may not be “healthy” to someone else. In modern diet culture, the foods that are being demonized change constantly.
Apples are “healthy” right? Well, it depends on whose definitions we’re going by. One person may say they’re only healthy if they’re organically grown and locally sourced (yikes!). Another person might think that fruit has “too much sugar” and should be replaced with vegetables (cue eye rolls from every dietitian I know).
2. Labeling foods in this way ignores important (!!!) contexts like access and culture.
The most fundamental principle of nutrition is adequacy, so when we cast shame onto the consumption of certain foods, we’re ignoring the fact that those foods might be what is accessible to a person at that moment. In the U.S., we don’t live in a society where everyone has access to all kinds of foods due to factors like systemic racism. If you're a person who does have access, consider ways you can support someone who does not, or work to dismantle the systems that uphold the status quo.1
Additionally, have you spent time thinking about whose definition of “healthy” you’re adopting? For example, you may be falsely labeling foods from non-Western cuisines as “unhealthy” because they don’t fit into what’s being promoted by nutrition organizations (read more about that here and here).
3. It’s getting you stuck in black-and-white thinking that can extend beyond your food choices.
Labels like “healthy” and “unhealthy” are examples of dichotomous thinking, which is often rooted in nutrition perfectionism.
Nothing in life is this simple. Which I think is actually a relief!
Take gummy bears for example. Diet culture would say they’re “bad” because they’re made up of mostly sugar (and sugar is also “bad”… *sigh*). But are there positives to eating gummy bears? Absolutely! They can have nostalgic value to some people, be fun to chew, and provide us with a quick source of calories and carbohydrates if that’s what our body needs. (P.S. If you haven’t tried them covered in chocolate…you’re missing out!)
Reframing your mindset around food takes practice, but it can be helpful to start by looking for the positives in all foods, rather than the negatives, which may be an automatic habit from a lifetime of exposure to diet culture.
Ask yourself: what does this food have to offer me right now? The answer won’t always be about nutrition, because we don’t just eat for nutrition purposes!
There’s so much more to be said on this topic, we will definitely revisit it again in future newsletters.
There are a ton of organizations you can volunteer for or donate to that are working to address this issue. Here are some to get you started: Sweet Freedom Farm & Share My Meals.