Pro Chioce, it’s healthier for you

I’m pro choice…
And you should be too because pro choice is fundamentally healthier for you.

Learning to recognize that it is good, in fact healthier, to have to make choices in your food selection is a critical step on the path towards long term health. Today, with too many challenges to health that present themselves in grocery stores, on airplanes, dining out, and eating on-the-go, we cannot afford to fear choice or passively dismiss our need to choose.

One of the biggest antagonists to choice is the “diet” and its popularity today. By modern definition, a diet, “a prescribed selection of food” runs counter to personal choice. When we read diet plans, when we write diet plans, when the media asks us to comments on diets, the first piece of information we look for is “what CANT I have?” and then “what CAN I have.” If you are a chocolate lover like me, you voraciously scan the pages while holding your breath until you get to the page that allows a slow, prolonged exhale – “Ah, yes, it says I CAN have chocolate” …and of course, still meet your goals. And then you hold your breath and search for cheese…does it “let me” have cheese?

Another antagonist to choice – healthcare practitioners, me (in my early years of practice, I was pro choice early on when I realized I couldn’t be hypocritical and ask my patients to do something I myself wasn’t willing to do), us – dietitians, diet doctors (enough said above), doctors, nurses, hospital staff….anyone who has ever handed out a sheet that says “don’t eat this” or uttered the words “you need to give up…” What needs to be given instead is education about how the body works, how certain foods impact body function, and how the patient can choose foods that will optimize body functions.

And a final antagonist to choice that requires mention is advertising. I developed ads for food products as a career so I know what I am talking about when I say we sought out consumer beliefs and then tried to figure out how we could best, and most frequently, insert our product into their beliefs. We also sought to deliver marketing messages (about food) in a manner which seemed to educate thereby eliminating the consumer need to educate themselves. We will make it easier for you. You don’t have to learn about what’s good for your body, we will tell you. How mean and nasty of advertisers right? Boy are they taking advantage of you. They are blameworthy. Perhaps, but aren’t you…too? You listened and believed them at face value. You abandoned making choice. So the blame falls both ways. Now, I recognize choosing takes effort (to learn) and time (to sort through products or read beyond the most blatant message presented to you). As a retired advertising executive, I’m here to tell you that your choices will directly impact what is available to you. Use your dollar, your vote and your voice to impact what food manufacturers will produce and what they can say, legally, about it.

What is choice and why do I feel it holds the key to the healthiest lifestyle? Choice requires your participation, and your accountability. Choice is not done for you, nor imposed upon you. Choice is assessing options and selecting one based on your deciding factors. I always tell patients who ask “Can I have this?” – you decide, you choose – because if I do it for you, when you really want that food the bratty 2 year old we all still have inside us (some of us may not have been brats then but trust me you still have him / her inside you) will rebel and you’re more likely to dive into that food acting out against me as opposed to choosing to have it and enjoying your choice. And besides, what did I ever do to you?! Ha!

You might try reverse psychology and tell me that you do best not having a choice, “just give me a menu of what to eat when, you might say. “I did really well on a liquid plan because I couldn’t [choose to] eat any food,” you explain; but as soon as you switched to food you regained the weight. Another client says, “I did great last year on a plan where I couldn’t choose any carbohydrates”; but a year later you are recounting this short term success in my office, having regained the weight, and looking for a new plan. Or the client who was able to lower their cholesterol and get off medication by having none of their favorites foods, ever, and having two greens drinks a day…it went great until their birthday week feast of all their favorites, bringing back the memories and now they can’t face life without their favorites… the question looms – was the medication that bad compared to how deprivation feels?

Restriction. Deprivation. Lack of Choice. None of it works for the long term.

So the next time you set out to read how Celebrity du Jour got their weight down or what diet plan aided your office mate to look so svelte it’s killing you, think about choice, your choice. You need to make one. Do you want to achieve your desirable weight, be healthy, and stay there? Or do you want to spend your life waiting to be told what to have, believing it, implementing it, and potentially experiencing success…but only for the moment? It’s your choice.