As you know, our approach is all about that long road ahead, it’s about how we can begin to build a better relationship with food and reconnect with its simplicity. Our great grandmothers had a very different way of relating to food. If I put myself in their shoes, I’m pretty sure food was mostly about shared experiences, about gratitude for having it at all in times of food insecurity, it was about nourishment to a healthy degree, pleasure and delight.

Today I want to share 5 reasons why food matters that have nothing to do with nutrition. Yes, food nourishes us and this is its main purpose, to keep us alive and preferably thriving and enjoying life to the fullest, but it isn’t food’s only purpose. When my story came full circle, going from an emotional overeater, to vegan, to practicing severe restriction and an unhealthy relationship with food while I was vegan, to finally understanding what I needed and managed to heal my relationship with food while still making this very kind choice that is so important to me, it was realizing that food was much more than what I made it out to be (best friend/my only way to deal with emotions or nemesis, but nowhere in between), that really helped me heal my relationship with food.

It also got me back to my roots, where this whole journey had started for me, and that was behind the stove where all that food magic happens.

Reason #1: Food is a powerful connection to the world we live in

Everything we do on this planet has an effect on this world we live in. The food we eat is such a huge part of our connection to this world because we do it several times a day, every single day, and there are billions of people on this planet.

As you know, I decided to go vegan many moons ago precisely because I learned how our food choices impact the animals we raise, the environment we live in, not to mention our fellow human beings.

Food impacts the way animals are treated in these industries, and the billions of land animals and trillions of sea animals that are killed each year when there is a kinder alternative. Food impacts the resources that need to be used for it to become available to us. From soil quality and plots of land, to water use, energy use, and sadly, our consumption of animal products requires far more of these to produce far less food for people to eat. Especially when compared to eating more plant-based foods directly, rather than going through another animal.

Food impacts the lives of workers who we ask to do what most of us would never do, and that is not only killing animals but becoming desensitized to their pain and suffering so they can do their job. It impacts the neighboring communities of slaughterhouses, it impacts the families that live with slaughterhouse workers, many of whom suffer from PTSD, and substance abuse. Food impacts the lives of people of impoverished communities who have limited access to foods. This is just to name a few. We go into so many interesting stats and figures in The Roadmap a course designed to help you on your journey towards more vegan choices and part of our online vegan cooking school, and we’ll have more on this in the blog and podcast soon.

How cool it is when we realize that we have so much power to create a better world, and that that power is right there in front of us, with whatever changes each of us can make. Whether you’re like me and you’ve decided to go vegan and have never looked back, or whether you’re taking this one step at a time finding what you can do right now. Food is powerful, that’s for sure.

Reason #2: Food can shine a light on issues you’re going through that have nothing to do with food

For years while I was struggling with my relationship with food I saw it as my nemesis. Like the one little thing I needed to control that would solve all of my problems. The more I tried to control it, the more it controlled me. One thing I can tell you is that when we resist something and make it the enemy, there is no resolution or bargaining that can take place. It actually took me until recently to see this come full circle and realize why all the bits and pieces of my messy relationship with food were the keys to me finding peace with it. I didn’t have to start with the future me I imagined had it all together. I had to start from where I was right then and there.

My relationship with food and my desire to restrict and then overeat were like my own little alarm system. An alarm system I am now very grateful for, because once I did the work to understand it, I can now see the signs and notice that it all served as a distraction to the pain I really needed to heal. One that had very little to do with food, weight and my body (what I told myself were the culprits), and had a lot to do with things that really needed to be healed. Food and our relationship with food (this can go from feeling we’re powerless over it and we overeat, to the need to add rules and restrict it, to the need to pay for it through over-exercising, to having fears over certain foods), can shine a light on emotional issues and unresolved trauma, and healing these can be the real life changers. 

Reason #3: Food is one of the many pleasures of life

This one needs no explanation and yet, in this era of food perfectionism, I feel we need to be reminded of this constantly. Food provides pleasure, and this is important. A healthy relationship with food includes many of the topics we talk about like tuning into our hunger and fulness levels, practicing mindful eating, getting reacquainted with your body’s cues, eating in a health supportive way and meeting nutrient requirements, but this also needs to include the fact that food is a source of joy and pleasure. Food for me is triple the pleasure, because I find the greatest joy in teaching others how to cook, I find so much comfort in making meals my family loves to share together, and I feel pleasure in digging into the foods I make, without fear or guilt attached, which always used to be at the table like a hideous salt and pepper shaker someone gave you as a wedding present. Make space for the joy of eating again. 

Reason #4: Food gives our bodies the comfort of fulness, and gauging that fulness is a dance that takes some time

After spending over half of my life eating so past fulness I couldn’t move, or so little during the many diets I tried that all I could think about was food, it was the greatest gift to learn that there was this whole space in the middle.

Nothing gives me greater relief now than to notice that after a delicious meal I loved, my belly is comfortably full and so satisfied and happy. This was a dance that took time, and that still takes daily practice for me. 

When that side of me that loves being VERY uncomfortably full rears its little mischievous head from time to time, it helps me to remind her “you can eat this again whenever you want to if you’re already satisfied and comfortably full. Be patient if this is something you’re battling and if you’re striving to improve your relationship with food with your own body leading the way.

Reason #5: Food is a powerful bond, with yourself and with loved ones

The other day my favorite vegan doughnut shop in Madrid (it’s called Delish vegan doughnuts if you’re ever in town!) re-posted a story someone had left them on social media. The person that posted this was saying that going to the doughnut shop has become such a special part of their traditions. I read this as I was posting a photo of Carlos with the dogs (and me), in our Sunday doughnut breakfast tradition at that very spot. It got me thinking, “if this girl created her doughnut shop thinking it was just a doughnut shop, boy was she in for a big surprise!”. She’s given so much joy and color to the neighbourhood it’s in. People chat in the long lines to make their order, and it has become the place for many family traditions. I’ve heard people in those tables talk about starting a business together, others go with friends to celebrate birthdays, others like us go with our dogs before heading to the park on Sunday mornings. You get the idea, food builds connections, it builds connections within ourselves, and it builds memories with the people we love. That can happen with delicious, highly nutritious foods, and it can happen with fun treat foods without a guilt trip attached, enjoying them to the fullest, knowing that they are just one of the many choices you'll be making daily, weekly, and throughout a lifetime.

… and on that note…

To all our lovely readers, listeners, members and students

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

May you be surrounded by dear family and friends, may your table be filled with food that makes your heart swell, and may you leave the table feeling so much gratitude for the blessings you have today and those to come.