Healthy Eating Week
This week is healthy eating week, which provides a great opportunity to reflect around what “healthy” really means and to explore diet culture, intuitive eating, our gut, the cost-of-living crisis and how employers can support employees in the space.
What actually is healthy eating?
What is “healthy” will differ for everyone, and this is based on a range of different factors including gender, exercise routine, age, health goals – the list goes on! With this in mind, it’s extremely important to discover and explore what works for you. In this age of social media it may feel like everyone is eating a certain way and that you need to follow this in order to be “healthy”, but in reality what you need to eat may be very different. It’s also important to remember that what we see on social media is never the whole picture – it’s just the highlights. We don’t see what happens behind the scenes (i.e. some people are able to afford surgery, dietitians, chefs etc.) so it’s important to remember this and take it into account when considering your own body – everyone’s body and life circumstances are completely different!
In addition to this, beauty standards and the dieting associations that come with it are very cultural and ultimately don’t have an impact on whether you’re a good person who is deserving of self-care and compassion. Standards change rapidly and it can be difficult, exhausting and unsustainable to try and keep up with them.
Diet Culture
Research suggests that at least 65% of diets fail, and there are various reasons for this. One of these is because dieting practices are often based on restrictive eating, which is the act of denying yourself food or a group of foods. When the body is starved of food it reduces the rate at which it burns energy, which can result in overeating and binge eating behaviours, and can also create a tricky relationship with food (i.e. labelling food as “good” or “bad”). It’s difficult to engage with a diet and not engage in some form of disordered eating, which can have long-term consequences on how you view food. In order to maintain a “healthy” diet, ideally you’d consume a range of foods without restricting food or food groups.
Diets also often assign food a moral value e.g. “I’ve had a bad / cheat day today”. Food doesn’t make you a good or bad person, and from a mental health perspective, it’s important to take a holistic perspective and to not punish yourself through food – it’s something to be enjoyed. There are various methods of eating which can lead to a better relationship with food, such as intuitive eating.
Intuitive Eating
Our body knows when it is hungry, but we’ve been conditioned to ignore it and to eat at set, specific mealtimes. You can, in fact, use your body as a guide to mealtimes and best times to eat.
Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach, which aims to promote health enhancing behaviours and to help you develop a better relationship with food, as opposed to aiming for a number on the scales. There are 10 broad principles that can be used for intuitive eating:
1. Reject the diet mentality – diets aren’t designed to work
2. Recognise your hunger – start eating when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full
3. Make peace with food – no foods are off limits!
4. Challenge internal thoughts & labelling foods as “good” or “bad” – this can help handle feelings of guilt
5. Feel your fullness – think before, during and after you eat
6. Discover the satisfaction factor – savour the experience of eating
7. Cope with your feelings without using food – this doesn’t always resolve the problem
8. Respect your body – let go of unrealistic expectations of body image
9. Exercise and feel the difference – focus on how exercise makes you feel and do something you enjoy
10. Honour your health – select meals and snacks that are nutritious, but also satisfying and tasty
Your Gut Microbiome
There is a lot of emerging research linking our gut health to a range of things, most recently mental health. Research has found that inflammation of the gut has been linked to several mental illnesses including anxiety and depression – meaning that it’s even more important to ensure that we’re eating as well as we can.
Experts at Zoe, a health science company, recommend that we should eat at least 30 different plants a week to boost the diversity and health of our gut microbiomes. Luckily, it’s not just fruit and vegetables that count – this number includes grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices.
This way of eating has strong links to a reduced risk of long-term health conditions (e.g. heart disease and type 2 diabetes), but it is also extremely beneficial for the health of your gut microbiome (the community of bacteria and other bugs that live in your gut). This is because plants are high in prebiotics, and these provide fuel for your “good” gut bugs. A more diverse microbiome has links to a better functioning and more resilient gut, which may help you live a longer and healthier life!
More information and meal inspiration can be found here.
Healthy eating in a cost-of-living crisis
It’s important for us to acknowledge the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on people’s abilities to eat in a healthy way, with some unfortunately saddening stats below:
· 46% of people said they are finding it harder to eat healthily now, compared to before the crisis – some people are trying to save money by skipping meals or choosing cheaper, less nutritional products
· 47% of people feel like the Government is not doing enough to help people eat a healthy diet
· 46% of people stated that their mental wellbeing has also taken a hit
· Food inflation has increased even more rapidly than overall inflation (16.7% compared with 10.1% in January 2023), with food prices rising consistently since July 2021, whilst wages have struggled to keep up
· 89% of food banks have seen an increase in demand in December 2022 and January 2023 compared to the same time the year before
What can organisations do to support employees trying to eat “healthier”?
· Provide access to lunches and breakfasts that contain a diverse range of plants and fruits
· Educate people on the importance of nutrition and how to follow a “healthy” diet – you could invite experts in or explore whether you have resources in your current benefits package that could be shared
· Offer cooking classes or workshops
· Subsidise gym memberships or other fitness expenses
““beauty standards and the dieting associations that come with it are very cultural and ultimately don’t have an impact on whether you’re a good person who is deserving of self-care and compassion. Standards change rapidly and it can be difficult, exhausting and unsustainable to try and keep up with them.””