Understanding Food Neutrality: Embracing All Foods Equally
Do you struggle with seeing food in black and white, either all “good” or all “bad”? Do your food choices affect how successful or accomplished you feel at the end of the day? If so, you’re not alone.
We are inundated with messages about food, nutrition, and health daily. For someone aiming to build a positive relationship with food, either for themselves or a child, a good place to start is to practice food neutrality.
What is food neutrality?
Food neutrality is a concept that encourages us to move away from labeling foods as “good” or “bad” and instead embrace a non-judgmental approach to eating. By practicing food neutrality, we become more objective in our thoughts about food choices and eating habits, fostering a balanced and inclusive view. Embracing food neutrality leads to a more objective perspective on food choices, encouraging a balanced and inclusive approach to eating. This mindset shift toward neutral language about food helps reduce guilt, allowing us to make nourishing choices without judgment.
At this point, I suspect you may have some questions. Questions like…
How will being neutral about food help me make healthy choices?
What’s so wrong about calling foods good/bad or even healthy/unhealthy?
How will my child learn how to eat well if we don’t teach them about healthy or unhealthy foods?
Let me address these questions.
Working on feeling more neutral about food can help individuals make *healthier* food choices if we are defining “health” in a way that considers our mental and emotional health as well as our physical health. We can recognize apples and donuts are not nutritionally equal. However, they both provide physical nourishment (like energy and carbohydrates). Both foods can also support our mental and emotional health by allowing us to honor cravings or taste hunger, enjoy foods with others, and celebrate holidays. Alternatively, denying ourselves foods we enjoy or feeling bad about ourselves after we eat something we have deemed “bad” or “unhealthy” can have negative effects on our mental and emotional well-being.
When we associate some foods as “good” or “healthy” and some as “bad” or “unhealthy”, it sets up our brains to view food as a dichotomy, when in fact, nutrition is very nuanced. The fact is that all foods provide nourishment in the form of some combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat, things that every human needs. Instead of labeling or categorizing foods, it is often more helpful to approach them with curiosity:
How do I feel after eating this food? How do I want to feel?
Do I enjoy this food?
How does this food support my overall well-being?
Food neutrality for kids is essential to help young ones maintain their ability to self-regulate. That’s right; kiddos are natural intuitive eaters! Children can also be very literal, black-and-white thinkers. It’s hard for them to understand that they themselves are not “bad” for having cake and ice cream at a birthday party if they received the message that those foods are “bad” or “unhealthy.” (It feels important to mention here that I believe all parents are doing their very best and there is no need to feel badly if you have been using good/bad language at home, and I would encourage you to work towards food neutral language.) Alternative wording you could try could be “growing foods” and “fun/play foods.” Descriptive words like sweet, crunchy, smooth, chewy, cold, fluffy, etc., can also help young ones understand food. Finally, inviting curiosity to the table; “How does your belly feel?”, “How does this food taste?”, “What do you like/dislike about this food?” is another way to help kids learn about food and their body.
For more support on building a positive relationship to food and sustainable habits that support your well-being, please reach out to us to schedule a session!
FAQs About Food Neutrality
-
Food neutrality encourages viewing foods without judgment as "good" or "bad." This approach helps us make choices based on how food makes us feel, rather than categorizing it in a way that may lead to guilt or shame.
-
While it's essential for kids to understand nutrition, labeling foods strictly as "healthy" or "unhealthy" can make them feel guilty about their choices. Using neutral language (like “growing foods” and “fun foods”) helps children listen to their bodies and self-regulate without judgment.
-
Practicing food neutrality helps reduce feelings of guilt and self-criticism around food choices, which can support mental well-being. It allows us to enjoy a balanced, flexible approach to eating that considers emotional satisfaction as part of a healthy lifestyle.
-
Not at all. Food neutrality supports nutritious choices by allowing you to make decisions based on your physical and emotional needs without labeling foods as “bad” or “good,” fostering a healthier, balanced approach to eating.