How to Remove Morality from Foods and Food Choices
When we intentionally or unintentionally categorize food as “good” or “bad,” we are assigning moral value to food. This practice can result in negative emotional responses when “bad” foods are consumed. Questioning, fact checking, and reframing these morality-based labels are essential in eating disorder recovery or for anyone trying to neutralize their relationship with food.
By: Sam Wierzbicki
Feeling guilty or shameful after eating certain foods that we’ve attached moral value to is very common. The morality we give to food, i.e., deeming foods “good” or “bad,” can become so predominant in our thoughts that it may direct most food decisions. While we may perceive the emotions that result from eating “good,” “clean,” or “healthy” foods as positive, the flip side of food morality leaves us riddled with guilt, anxiety, or shame when we eat “junk,” “cheat,” or consume “unhealthy” foods.¹ The key to preventing these negative emotions is to uncouple food choices from the moral assignments we’ve intentionally or unintentionally given to them. Removing moral value from foods is a critical step in both eating disorder recovery and in the practice of becoming an intuitive eater.
We are not born with knowledge of food’s morality.² For example, very young children don’t think of candy or sweets as inherently “bad” or label them a “guilty pleasure.” However, over our lifetime, we accumulate moralistic labels of food through a variety of external sources which can include the beliefs of people close to us, such as family, friends, coaches, teachers, health professionals, or the community we live in. These labels also can be derived from societal sources such as celebrities, professional athletes, and media. Lastly, we may acquire these labels through diet books, diet programs, and nutrition research.² The foods we often deem as “good,” “bad,” “healthy,” or “unhealthy” are highly dependent upon what diet or nutrition principles are currently popular.³ This shows us that these moral judgments aren’t necessarily based in fact. However, the more these judgments or labels get validated by the beliefs of our loved ones, by the media, or by diet culture, the more they seem like absolute truths rather than our own moralistic perceptions.²
Cultivating Awareness Through Exploratory Questions
Considering where and when we assigned these good or bad labels can be a great place to start in the process of removing morality from foods and ridding ourselves of the resulting emotions. A person may find it helpful to make a list of which foods or food groups they consider to be “bad” or “good.” Once you’ve identified which foods carry morality, you can begin the following questioning:
How did I come up with this label? What or who is the original source of the label?
Should I be giving that source authority?
What rules have I created for that food based on its given moral value?
What happens if I eat a “good” food?
What happens if I eat a “bad” food?
Does assigning moral value to the food help me be more flexible with my eating?
What would happen if I let go of these labels altogether?
How would letting go of these labels change my relationship with that food?
Would I tell anyone else to use this morality system to guide their eating habits?
In starting to question the foods you normally eat, you may realize you try to avoid eating foods you’ve labeled as “bad”. Assigning moral value to food may result in trying to restrict your consumption of that very food.¹ This often results in disordered eating patterns, which can alter the quality of life, social relationships, mental health and physiological health.² Other aspects of life may also be impacted by continually assigning moral value to food. Ask yourself: Does this value system serve you? Does it support your relationships with yourself and those around you? Garnering awareness of food morality is a helpful first step in removing these judgment-based labels and rules from our lives.
Fact Check Your Food Judgments
Another critical tool in removing morality from foods is to engage in fact checking. Fact checking is a process of questioning the food judgments which feel like facts but are actually just perceptions based in morality. Consider the food judgment example of “carbohydrates are bad for me.” Here, we’ve identified that the label “bad” is attached to all carbohydrate-based foods. In fact checking, we want to determine if this is objectively true. It may be helpful to work with an Intuitive Eating and HAES aligned health professional to carry out this process because they can provide guidance in determining the accuracy of such statements. Fact checking the above statement may look something like this: “Carbohydrates are our bodies’ preferred source of energy. Our brain and red blood cells rely exclusively on carbohydrates for fuel.⁴ Surely, if our body needs carbohydrates every day to thrive, carbohydrates cannot be ‘bad’ for us.” Through fact checking, we are able to discern judgments that feel true from evidenced-based facts about food.
Challenge the Labels Through Cognitive Reframes
Once you’ve cultivated an awareness of food judgments and used fact checking to evaluate them, it may be helpful to start reframing those morality-based labels given to foods. It is important to remember that for most of us, these labels can feel almost inextricably linked with foods we eat, so it may take a long time to undo the complex morality system we’ve created. To make this task manageable, start by challenging one label at a time. You may ask yourself, “What would need to happen in order to let go of one moral judgment I’ve assigned to a food?” The answer to this question is individual, but it may look like accepting the anxiety that accompanies this new way of thinking. The more you practice this skill of not passing moral judgment on your food, the better you will get at it. Start by challenging a single label for just one food and go from there.
Reframing morality-based food thoughts is a good way to challenge and begin to neutralize the judgments. Try to catch yourself in the act of passing judgments on food and replace those emotionally loaded words with neutral, objective language. For example, if you have labeled potato chips as “junk” food, what is an objective descriptor that can be applied to the chips instead? Some words that may feel appropriate are “salty,” “crunchy,” and “convenient.” Replacing food judgments with neutral statements helps to disassemble our food morality system. And, as the cognitions begin to neutralize, the resulting negative emotions linked to eating those “bad” foods should slowly dissipate as well.
Release the Emotional Response
Letting go of our moral judgments of food allows us to be more accepting of all foods in our diet. If foods are no longer “good” or “bad” foods, then we are no longer virtuous or amoral for eating them.¹ This new mindset allows us to tune into what foods make us feel physically and mentally well. Food is just food, and no matter its nutritional makeup, it provides our bodies with essential nutrients. While the process of untangling food choices from moral judgments can be lengthy and difficult, it is a necessary step in eating disorder recovery.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating behaviors and body image issues. We offer a variety of programs and services targeted at helping clients overcome fear foods and develop a healthy relationship with food. We offer nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support, a Food & Mood Group, and a variety of other groups and resources to help those seeking help for food concerns.
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This post was written by BALANCE Dietetic Intern, Sam Wierzbicki.
Sam is a Dietetic Intern and graduate student at New York University, where she is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Clinical Nutrition. Before beginning her graduate degree in nutrition, Sam worked in the educational field as a private academic tutor to children and adolescents. She completed her undergraduate education at Princeton University, majoring in English literature. After completing her dietetic internship, Sam plans to work in the disordered eating space as a HAES and Intuitive Eating aligned Registered Dietitian.
Resources
Tribole, Evelyn, and Elyse Resch. Intuitive Eating: An Anti-Diet Revolutionary Approach. 4th edition, St. Martin’s Essentials, 2020.
Tribole, Evelyn. Intuitive Eating for Every Day: 365 Daily Practices & Inspirations to Rediscover the Pleasures of Eating. 1st ed., Chronicle Prism, 2021.
Herrin, Marcia, and Maria Larkin. Nutrition Counseling in the Treatment of Eating Disorders. Brunner-Routledge, 2013.
Slavin, Joanne, and Justin Carlson. “Carbohydrates 1.” Advances in Nutrition, vol. 5, no. 6, Nov. 2014, pp. 760–61. PubMed Central, doi:10.3945/an.114.006163.