There is a wierd disconnect for people between what they put in their mouth and their quality of life.  I have frequent experiences where people demonstrate that they know that what they are putting in their mouth is bad for them, but they have no intention to stop it.  In fact they may well be taking the view that these foods that are bad for them, are somehow contributing to the quality of their life: that these foods represent the pleasures of life and that they deserve these pleasures, given what they have to go through every day.
Irrespective of the health effects of these high fat, high sugar, high animal protein foods which are enormous, the view of life as something to be endured, or drudgery that has to be gotten through, so you can get to the good bits, is bad for our mental and spiritual health. The good bits for most people are alcohol, food that is killing you slowly, holidays and sex.(nothing wrong with sex or holidays!)
I think people continue to eat foods that they know are slowly killing them, because they think they deserve it, given the suffering that they are enduring (the suffering I am referring to is everyday suffering, like people’s jobs or their marriage or loneliness, all common complaints of western culture). I think people also do it, as we have been trained to experience these foods as highly pleasureable and to some degree we are hardwired to seek out fat and sugar, as over most of the human lifespan, they were in extremely short supply. Both sugar and fat represent concentrated forms of energy.  I think the other reason people continue to eat these foods, which is linked to the “I deserve it” reason is, “a little bit won’t hurt”. A little bit does hurt, one reason being that a little bit is rarely just a little bit and it is always a repeated little bit which adds up to a lot over time!
People have said to me of recent times, “I would rather die than give up—-“. The gap can be filled in by anything, like chocolate, meat, cheese, Tim Tams and so on. The disjunct I started this blog with, knowledge that the food is bad for them, but having no intention of stopping, I think is partly because even though they say, “I’d rather die” they don’t actually think they are giong to: at least not from the food. The truth is, it will cause their death, much earlier than necessary and it will exact a high burden on their ability to enjoy their life, in terms of mobility, health and mental health.  This reduction in mobility, health and mental health or sense of well being, they will most likely put down to old age, rather than poor health, brought on by poor diet.  Old age doesn’t have to be an ever increasing round of Dr and hospital visits(these are pretty dangerous in themselves, just at the level of infections and complications of treatment!)
What people experience, becomes the norm and as people are getting sicker, they are expecting and accepting getting sicker: “it’s all a part of growing old”.
I think one of the problems for people in making a change away from the foods that they would die for, is that they have never been well! This will be even truer in the future, than it is now, with the move away from fresh food to takeaway and processed food, that has taken and is, taking place.
This is why PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) and other promoters of healthy eating, encourage people, to go to whole foods plant based diet completely for 21 days. The thinking is that 21 days is long enough, to experience some of the benefits of eating well and for our tastebuds to adjust to new flavours (in fact we have physically new tastebuds in this time).  Our bodies are incredibly responsive to what we put in them. Within hours of eating fruit and vegetables our ability to remove sugar from our bloodstream (insulin sensitivity) increases. Conversely, if we have a high fat meal such as hamburger, egg and chips our ability to remove sugar from our bloodstream drops (decreased insulin sensitivity).   This is in the context of being given the same glucose drink.
How do you get past thinking I deserve this chocolate, alcohol, meat or cheese? (or whatever your particular poison is) Change your view from this ‘food’ is desirable, to this is poison. Change your view of food that you know is good for you, from this food is boring, to this is life, this is energy, this is health. People often say to me, “oh, that’s right, you can’t have x” .  I say, “it’s not that I can’t, I choose not to”.  I don’t talk to them about why I don’t eat it and why I choose to eat what I do, as they are not really interested.  I do think it is important to make it clear, that it is a choice I am making and that it is not restrictive.  When I eat an apple, I enjoy the crispness, the sweetness and the juice running. I am also aware, without thinking about it, that an apple is really good for me! So, on that basis alone it feels good to eat it.  There is a lot of pleasure in putting something in my body, that I know is good for it.  I know an apple is good for my body as is it high in fibre, (removes toxins, lowers cholesterol, promotes strong immune system and mental health by promoting growth of good bacteria in my gut) and it is high in anti-oxidants and other plant chemicals(known as phyto-nutrients) which are good for me.
I know that cheese, for example is bad for me, as it is high in saturated fat, high in cholesterol and high in animal protein. In other words, it is promoting cancer, heart attack, blood thickening and clotting and inflammation. With that knowledge, it would be hard to enjoy eating cheese.  Not to mention, if you didn’t eat it for a while, it wouldn’t taste any good! Your tastebuds would adjust and all you could taste would be fat and it would leave an unpleasant coating on your tongue! (quite the opposite of an apple, or the delicious mango and grapes above)
Good health!