Labeling Food Good & Bad: Why We Need to Stop and How

Recently, I asked my innocent almost four-year old daughter, “What are some good foods, Gwen?” Her response, “strawberries, popsicles and lollipops Mommy” aka some of her current favorites foods. If I asked you the same question, how would you respond? Would ‘good’ foods be vegetables, protein, organic, gluten free, and low sugar? Would ‘bad’ foods be sugar, high fat, fried, desserts, sweets, and processed? They key difference between society’s good/bad foods and my daughters, is the later has not yet been introduced to diet culture (thank goodness).

To Gwen, food is food. She of course, likes and enjoys different foods to different extents but she eats when she’s hungry, stops when satisfied and prefers foods she loves.

Diet culture over our life, has taught us to go against these intuitive habits. Diet Culture, through marketing, social media, parents, friends, doctors even and other influencers, has provided us a list of ‘good’ foods that should make up the majority of our diet as well as a list of ‘bad’ foods that we should restrict and eliminate in order to be healthy, thin, skinny, fit etc. etc. I recently asked my social media following to give me their ‘Good Food, Bad Food List.’

• Good Food List: GMO-free, no chemicals, fresh, low sugar, gluten free, quality ingredients, unprocessed, no sugar added, delicious tasting, closer to earth, nutrient dense, edible foods, low carb, less ingredients

• Bad Food List: high fructose corn syrup, dairy, gluten, high sugar, highly processed, foods I do not like, artificial sweeteners, added sugar, foods I am addicted to, foods to throw away, high fat, high carb

Not too surprising, right? Do you agree with a lot of these? Which one stick out to you?

The diet culture teaching of ‘good and bad’ may seem like an innocent minor thing, however it can cause extreme havoc, stress, confusion, and guilt more times than not. Follow along to find out why labeling your food ‘good’ and ‘bad’ can be so detrimental.

Why do we need to stop labeling food as good or bad? 

First off, I must remind you food is food and has absolutely zero mortality. the person who ate the plate of vegetables is no better then the person who ate the juicy burger and fries. There is no such thing as a GOOD nor BAD food. When we label something good or bad, feelings of guilt or praise arise, including food. Why should we feel these feelings every time we put food into our mouth and more importantly what toll does this take on our relationship with food, self and our body? Let’s dive more into how labeling a food 'bad, can negatively effect us continually.

Getting Rid of Food Guilt

Think back to your youth, more specifically, when parents were (trying) to teach us how to behave.  We were taught how to refrain from doing ‘bad’ things like being mean to friends, saying bad words, not sharing, while praised for being ‘good’ by saying please and thank you, being grateful, chewing with your mouth closed, looking people in the eyes when talking to the, cleaning our room, (haha) the list goes on and on. Now remember what happened when you did something bad. Depending on how ‘bad’ it actually was and how your parents disciplined, you might have been grounded, get smacked on the booty, gotten your favorite toy taken away, or gone to your room without dessert. No matter the punishment, one thing is for certain, we would feel a great amount of guilt for doing that ‘bad’ thing. And, this guilt, my friends is the key word to understanding the negative effects of labeling food as bad. For, labeling something as bad is correlated to feeling guilty when you do or consume that ‘bad’ thing.

We have all been there, that feeling of guilt after eating something or many things. Maybe it was that delicious burger and fries, a sundae ice cream, a huge stack of pancakes with syrup or your mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Whatever it was, we all have shared that feeling of guilt and thinking of ways to ‘make up’ for the calories eaten. Should we restrict calories the rest of the day, skip a meal, throw it up, do an extra or longer workout, or throw in the towel and eat even more bad foods? By the way you should do none of those things but those thoughts unfortunately normal and give us more reasoning of why we need to stop labeling food as bad. For the, feeling guilty for eating something NEEDS TO STOP.

“The only time you should feel guilty about eating something is if you stole it!”

I’ll share with you an important statement to live by, the only time you should feel guilty about eating something is if you stole it!  I always get laughs when I share this with a group or my clients but the humor comes from it's truthfulness, aka it’s funny because it's true. So, let’s say it one more time because, I believe, this is extremely important to remember. The only time you should feel guilty about eating food is if you stole it. I do not know about you, but the only time I can remember trying to steal something was in my early youth at the grocery store. My mom caught me trying to hide peanut m&ms in my pocket because she wouldn’t buy them for me (hey, I love chocolate). As you can see, I still feel guilty for it (why else would I remember it). My point, I am assuming everyone reading this article is not stealing food, and thus, should rid themselves of any guilt from eating food.  Unfortunately, this 'not feeling guilty' thing does not happen over night and I still find myself finding food guilt from time to time. The key is knowing how to fight it! 

‘Good’ Can also be Bad

Before we go into how to rid yourself of food guilt, let’s touch on the negative effects of labeling food as good because ‘bad’ is not only the problem. Yes, labeling something as good can also go down the same rabbit hole as labeling something as bad. Remember, good and bad is subjective. For example, eggs & fat used to be labeled bad but are now good. I do agree with this as eggs are super nutrient dense and help clients nourish themselves with fats in balance. Of course, the right wing of fat is keto, which I usually do not agree with but that is for another blog post.

Moving on….know diet culture (DC) is a trickster and a liar. DC tells us, all at the same time that gluten-free, dairy free, coconut oil, whole wheat, protein powder, cleanses, detoxes, cauliflower rice are good for us. The foods that are good, most often are good because they will make you lose weight, get skinny, thin, and thus, be healthy and happy. Diets are seen as good as their result or goal is almost always weight loss. If you know me, you know I am a (fad) diet hater. 90-95% of diets fail, leaving the dieter usually regaining the weight back plus more, slowing their metabolism, destroying their relationship with food and body, while all the while feeling like a failure and blame self for this failure. PS did was not you that failed the diet, the diet was going to fail from the beginning. I told you already, DC is a trickster. To keep my rampage on diet short, diets, 90-95% of the time, are actually not to ‘good’ as they seem. So, as you can see, labeling foods as good can also backfire on your mental and physical health.  Takeaway: we see ‘good’ as being skinny, fit, toned, lean, thin when good should be improved cognition, energy, recovery, digestion and sleep, stress management and moreover, health and happiness.

Try this out:

Next time you open up the fridge/pantry, skim through a take-out/drive-through menu or walk through the grocery store aka when you begin the process of deciding what to eat, think about the words going through your head.

“Oh that’s bad, I can’t have that,”

“That has too many calories”

“That has too much sugar, fat, carbs”

Digging deeper, the bad food, is more often than not, labeled bad (taught by diet culture) because it will make you gain weight, become fat and thus, unhealthy. When I have clients do this exercise, they are amazed at how often they label foods as good and bad without realizing it. Awareness of labeling food is the first step to a healthier relationship with food.

I will note here, if you have an intolerance to dairy or gluten, yes, gluten and diary foods are not nourishing you, but rather your body rejects them, causing you discomfort. Notice however, I didn’t say gluten and dairy was bad for you but rather, these foods do not provide much nourishment for you and your body. With that, let’s move into how to eliminate not only labeling your food good and bad but food guilt as well.

Steps to help you eliminate food guilt: 

1. Awareness: become aware of which foods you label good and bad. Ask yourself why you are labeling these good and bad. Do you not allow yourself bad food, do you feel like you are cheating (guilt being the end result) if you eat these foods, do you find yourself overeating these in weak moments? Do you fear any of these ‘bad’ foods? Ask yourself why again and again, dig deeper.

2. Reject Diet Culture and the Need to be Thin or to Look a Certain Way: 

Remember when I told you Diet culture makes us fear getting ‘fat’ and gaining weight. DC tells us which foods to label good and bad and most often, labels food bad because they will make us gain weight and get fat. What if I chose to eat a small cup of real ice cream, thoroughly enjoying every bite in an inviting environment when family. Is this bad? I am pretty fit, would it be bad for someone who’s body may have more curves? PS Even if me and a women with a more curvy body type ate and worked out the same, we would still look differently.  Aka there are many different body types and frames. We should not try to fit into a certain size, BMI or weight just because society tells us we should. Rather, let’s find your health weight range and yes, that may be an overweight BMI and that is okay. Finding your healthy weight range is a whole other post but that is the weight range that you body feels best at and can sustain for weeks, months and years without much ‘work.’

3. Reword Good & Bad to Very Nourishing & Not-as-Nourishing:

All foods are nourishing. Wait, what?! Yes friends, all food can be nourishing, they all provide energy right? Now, there is a nourishing scale of course and my Nourishment Scale is different than yours because our bodies are unique and different.

Foods that leave you and your body feeling energized, focused with optimal digestion aka the foods your body loves are found on the very nourishing side. For me, that is a good amount of colorful vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, eggs, most meat, whole grains, and high quality dairy (my body does well with gluten and 2-3 servings of dairy).

If you know me, you know I am a huge foodie and love a good craft beer and buttery Chardonnay. I try to choose more nourishing the majority of the time however, we must remember, FOOD IS ONE OF LIFE’S GREATEST PLEASURES. And some of those foods are not found on the very nourishing side of the scale and that is 100% okay. It is how often and the amount of them I choose to have those not-as-nourishing foods like: cookies, candy, ice cream, french fries, pizza, beer, wine, donuts, pancakes, etc. etc. Once we are aware of which not as nourishing foods aka the food that make us really happy but not our body, the key to balancing the amount we have of these foods comes down to self respect, care and trust. Aka tip #4

4. Tap into Your Self Respect, Care & Love: 

Just as we take care of our loved ones, we even more so, need to and should want to take care of ourself. We want to feel and be our best and nourishment goes hand in hand with that. We want to eat nourishing foods because they make us feel good (Hello Nourishment Scale). Just like we want to workout, not to burn calories, but because how it makes us feel mentally and physically.

We want to feel energized, rested, recovered, regular bowel movements etc. etc. Thus, we want to choose nourishing food the majority of the time out of self-respect and self-care. 

At the same time, we also want to enjoy all foods, especially those that we love and bring us joy. For, one of the greatest pleasures on earth is food. And thus, out of self-love, we allow ourselves to eat the not-as-nourishing foods we love. Self-respect is an ever present thing however, even when eating our favorite foods as self-respect with help us eat an appropriate, satisfying amount. As, eating a dozen cookies or an entire pint of ice cream is not a form of self-respect (this binge eating, however usually comes after restriction or an inability of managing stress). We show respect by eating when we are hungry and stop when satisfied aka listening to our body’s hunger/fullness cues (the majority of the time). We allow always to have all foods, choosing when and what to have aka FREEDOM. And when we have these not-as-nourishing foods, we enjoy them fully and do not have guilt after.