Labeling foods “Good” or “Bad”, and what it does to our mindset

As I write this I’m remembering the good old days of visiting my brother, Gil’s place during football season on Sundays. Talk about some serious eating! On some of those Sundays I’d plow through 9 or 10 ribs, about 5 pieces piece of grilled chicken, half a family size bag of chips and dip, & 7 beers. Then my brother’s wife, Monique, would have the nerve and audacity to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, to which I’m gonna have at least 3 of those bad boys. Talk about being a certified pig! Hey I must have a “fast metabolism” right? Because eating like this didn’t cause me to gain weight. Of course I don’t eat like that everyday.

Fast forward to just this afternoon. An acquaintance of mine, just thinking out loud says, “I’ve got to lose weight. So starting Monday, no more coffee. Only green tea in the morning”. So I ask her why she’s making these choices. She replies that the coffee is causing her weight gain. So I ask her what’s so special about the green tea. And she replies that she just heard somewhere that it helps with weight loss.

This is the state of the wild wild west that is the unregulated fitness industry. Any fitness enthusiast that looks the part can say just about anything, and people will take their words as gospel. The result, lots of confusion. I can only empathize with all the individuals that are struggling to reach their fitness goals. But I’m here to help clarify a few things.

Let’s be clear about one thing before we continue. I would think by now that we don’t need an expert to recognize that some foods are definitely healthier than others. So in no way am I encouraging less than healthy eating on a regular basis. The only people qualified to say that a certain food is specifically bad for you are registered dietitians, which I am not. This article is only about food as it pertains to weight gain and weight loss.

Now let’s quickly revisit that term “metabolism”. It’s a word that we’ve all heard, and largely think it’s linked to weight gain or loss. Metabolism is a complex subject pertaining to bioenergetics (how our bodies use energy). In short, its the process of food intake, and refining said food to be released into our bodies for energy, ands disposed of. To date there is very little evidence that metabolism is a major factor in weight gain or loss.

That aside, lets look at food for what it is. It’s calories(a unit of heat ENERGY needed to raise 1 gram of water, 1 degree Celsius). And once they’re digested, they’re all equal. Five hundred calories of broccoli is the same as 500 calories of chips and dip. So if we stuffed our face with broccoli all day, and didn’t do enough to burn it off, we’d get the same result as stuffing our face with chips. But we don’t do that. In fact we do the opposite. Then label that food or beverage as “the bad guy”. So why is this not a good thing? Because a positive mindset is one of the most important things as it pertains to fitness (See the Show up Fitness Body Mass Equation).

When we label a food as “bad”, we’re telling ourselves NO MORE OF THAT. We’re depriving ourselves of the foods we love. And at some point we’ll have a weak moment and give in. And when that happens we’re likely to have more than our fair share of that food. We’ve eaten a food we labeled as bad, so we feel like we did a bad thing (which isn’t true).And how do we feel about ourselves after that? Where does our mindset go? Likely not a good place. And when it’s not in a good place, where does our motivation to work harder go? (See what I’m getting at?)

I never felt guilty about visiting my brother and his wife’s place on Sundays and stuffing my face. I just took it for what it was. I ate 4 days worth of food, so I’ll have to work a lot harder in the gym. As it pertains to weight gain and loss, there’s no such thing as good or bad foods. Weight gain and loss are ultimately about calories in vs calories out(1st law of thermodynamics Energy/calories can neither be created or destroyed. We either use them or we store them away). Not the food that the calories come from.

So if your favorite food is pizza, or favorite beverage is coffee, go ahead. Have a slice or cup. Just understand what you’re eating. If you go overboard at the kitchen table, you’ll need to do the same in the gym. But by all means, don’t blame the innocent food. Just keep a positive mindset, and keep working hard.