What’s your relationship to food?

Love it, hate it, or just feeling indifferent, we all have different relationships to food.

In its basic form, food is there to fuel your body and mind, to get you through the day. Some foods uplift us, some make you feel sluggish and others don't seem to do a lot.

There is more to it than just taste, there's the smells, the textures, and the nutrition value (some are known as "Macros").

A vast array of foods in gradients of colours blending into one another

For some people, texture is everything. Especially if your neurodivergent. Inconsistent textures can feel (from my experience) awful! Like a sensory nightmare. An invasion of the mouth.

Have you ever had certain foods you won't eat? Or other people won't? One example is the humble blueberry. Some are soft and sweet, some are hard and bitter. You can't predict what you might get. They all look pretty much the same. So of course, if you avoid them entirely, you don't have a 50/50 chance of having a terrible experience.

Other reasons we avoid foods, it brings emotional responses and/or memories too. You might be hungover, sick as a dog, and you really can't stomach most foods can you? The one that made you sick? You might choose never to eat again, because it reminded you of that experience.

Our sense of smell is s strong indicator of if we'll eat something or not as well. It could be a part of your survival instinct, telling you the food is bad so you should avoid it. Or again, it could be linking to your memory of what that food means to you.

What about nutrition in food? Have you ever thought about how you feel when you eat a dinner full of vegetables versus a dinner full of junk food?

A nice slab of cake!

It might feel good sometimes, but regularly, foods really chance how we feel and our mental health. By eating healthier meals and snacks, you don't have such extreme blood sugar spikes and drops. If you often have fast food, a high sugar diet, you might feel constantly tired and unmotivated.

How do you feel when you eat certain foods? How about when you have a "cheat day"? Or even a "cheat week"? Do you feel better when you don't grab for the chocolate bar? Or are you reaching for it to give you a temporary pick me up?

Moderation of course is key, regardless of what you eat! I certainly don't shy away from a cake or chocolate bar if I'm feeling like it and want some sweet dopamine in my day! But try to see how you feel mentally as well as physically when you eat something, maybe you want to develop better habits? Maybe you want/need that treat of an evening? We can't always eat healthily, but we can't always eat the "bad" stuff either.