5 Ways to Have a Better Relationship With Food By Willow Jarosh and Stephanie Clarke l Food l Ways to Curb Eating l Overeating l Relationships with Foods

Have a Better Relationship With Food

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We'd bet you spend quite a bit of time and effort nourishing your relationships, whether it's with your significant other, your pals, your parents, your kids, or all of the above. Relationships take work and the more work you put in, the more it becomes clear that your efforts are rewarded with strengthened bonds. But what about your relationship with food? This relationship impacts not only nutrient intake, but for many it's closely tied to -- and impacts -- other relationships (including that with our own body.) Because our relationship with food is so important to health, wellness, and happiness, we wanted to share our top tips for making your relationship with food a positive one.

Make Something

Get into the kitchen, tap into your inner artist, and create something. Or harness the power of your inner mathematician and craft something with elaborately measured ingredients. Or play mad scientist and put Alton Brown's food science recipes to work. Or, just lovingly slice up some veggies, toss some olives in a pretty dish, and serve yourself a nice hummus tray. You don't have to fire up the oven, but you can if you want to. And you certainly don't need to be Bobby Flay (but hey, if he wants to join in, we won't argue). Our point is that getting into the kitchen to prepare something made with care, for yourself, with the intention of nourishing your body but also enjoying the experience of preparation and eating is really important in sparking a positive relationship with food.

Watch Your Language

Can we just ban the term "guilt-free" right now? Saying something is guilt-free implies that food holds the power to make you guilty or that a food itself can be guilty. It doesn't make any sense, takes the pleasure out of eating, and puts a negative spin on many delicious foods. We'd also like to ban the food-related usage of the terms good/bad. If you're saying "Wow, I like that food. It's really good," or "Yuck, that milk has gone bad," that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about relating being good or bad to eating or not eating a certain food or calling a food good or bad based on its perceived diet-y-ness (made-up word). Moving forward, try to accept foods for what they are -- food. If you like the way a food tastes, it makes you feel good, and you are in the mood for it, then that sounds like a great choice... no matter how much fat or calories it contains. If you don't enjoy the taste of a food, aren't in the mood for it, or it doesn't make you feel very good then it probably isn't a stellar choice for you no matter how many celebrities you've seen eating/drinking it.