This week’s prompt for Stream Of Consciousness Saturday is “food”. I immediately thought of the title for my post: “No bad food.” This is a phrase used in health-conscious communities to clarify that there’s no such thing as a “forbidden” food when dieting. I had the comment that no food is forbidden written at the bottom of my weight loss food plan in early 2022. That is, the goal wasn’t even weight loss for me, but rather, to have a healthier relationship with food.
This is also what health gurus who use the phrase “no bad food” aim to accomplish: for dieters to be aware of their healthy or less healthy choices rather than rigidly stripping foods off of their “allowed” list.
I’d like to take it a step further and say that the only food you shouldn’t eat is food you’re allergic to or food that’s gone bad. And I mean this absolutely. Yes, some food choices are healthier than others, but when you’re already a restrictive eater and you’re limiting yourself even further because, for example, chocolate spread isn’t “healthy”, you’ll end up with worse problems.
I mean, when originally starting my food plan in 2022, my dietitian gave me a standard weight loss plan because I was significantly overweight. I however wouldn’t eat at least 75% of the food on it, especially the foods she recommended for breakfast and lunch. Thankfully, rather than deciding not to eat at all, which my eating disordered self might’ve done, I negotiated foods I found tolerable and that were still considered somewhat “healthy”.
Now I happen to have the privilege of being at an almost healthy BMI, but the fact that I struggled to maintain a healthy eating routine (or any eating routine, for that matter) when trying to stick to a weight loss diet, did convince me that, truthfully, there’s no such thing as bad food.
Indeed, there’s no such thing as a good or bad eating routine. Yes, some choices are healthier than others, but there’s nothing wrong with making “unhealthy” choices when those are the “healthy” choices given your personal circumstances. Honestly, in fact, I believe there’s no moral wrong in eating whatever you feel like eating. Placing the blame for obesity on the individual, is, in my opinion, ignoring the fact that many people are struggling to stay afloat mentally and physically without having to deal with restricting their food intake.
And I don’t mean that people can’t make healthier food choices, or that they shouldn’t be encouraged to do so within the limits of their own personal circumstances. Like, I eventually settled on low-calorie jelly for on my lunch bread rather than chocolate spread and for regular muesli rather than crunchy muesli for breakfast. These are healthier choices and I am glad I made those. However, if I could not have made those choices for whatever reason, it’d still have been better to eat my crunchy muesli and chocolate spread on bread than to starve.
A Multitude of Musings 
I agree, food is food, and, people should eat what they want, when they want, because, we only get one shot at life, we’re only on this earth a short while, so enjoy it while you can!
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. That being said, I wasn’t saying we should all eat whatever we want without any limits, but honestly yes if that’s the healthiest life choice you can make given your own personal situation, I’m not going to judge you. What I meant is, there’s absolutely no reason to judge anyone’s food choices as morally wrong. And too many diet culture folks are still judging people as less valued humans because they’re fat. That needs to change.
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To me bad food is food that’s gone off or is rotten.
Yes we have really healthy food, just healthy food, not so healthy food but if it’s eatable it’s not bad it may not top the really healthy list but that’s ok
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Absolutely 100% true! Thanks for your kind comment.
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I totally agree! When food is labeled as “forbidden,” our rebellious brains fixate upon it until we binge. Many of us anyway! And the idea that every time we want a piece of cake we should eat a fruit instead is silly. We eat the fruit & still want the cake. No one ever says wow my craving for a brownie was completely satisfied by chomping on this apple! Just have the damn brownie & eat a bit less at the next meal…
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So true, except for that last comment about eating less of your main meal. I honestly don’t believe in making up for unhealthy food choices by eating less than recommended at the next meal. Rather, I believe that each moment we interact with food is another opportunity to make a choice. In this sense, I don’t believe the day is a “cheat day” or has otherwise gone to waste if I’ve eaten a brownie (which I for one don’t care for by the way).
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As someone who hates much of what most people love (coffee, mayonnaise, pumpkin pie), I already have a severely restricted diet. So yeah, no bad food. I know what you mean.
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Thanks for sharing your perspective. I for one don’t care for pummpkin pie either.
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The most important thing to remember always is portion size… and it is a lot smaller that what most of us here in US are presented in restaurants.
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I see your point and I agree that eating everything in moderation is a good way to maintain a healthy weight. However, my point was that the individual is not to blame for their health issues even if they’re caused by poor lifestyle choices. After all, many children, myself included, are poorly educated about healthy eating and not-so-healthy food is everywhere. And my most important point was that food and health are not moral, in the sense that someone who makes unhhealthy food choices or is overweight, is not morally bad. There’s too much judgment of people for their food choices or weight without other people realizing the circumstances that person experiences.
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The thing here in the United States that bugs me is healthy food usually costs much more than junk food… why isn’t it the other way around? No wonder we are a nation overweight.
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Completely agree. It’s the same here. What’s weird is the fact that the government introduced a tax on juices and soft drinks, including diet sodas, to encourage people to drink more water. This isn’t bad per se, but the weird thing is that vegan drinks like almond milk are included too, but real dairy, and weirdly this includes chocolate milk, isn’t.
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That is an odd way to do it. I would think that chocolate milk should be included in the tax too.
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I agree but they want to avoid it looking like a sugar tax, even though I don’t see why being up front with the fact that they want to tax unhealthy food, is better.
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