“No matter what happens, the Cokes are a guaranteed source of joy.”
It was lunchtime, and I was talking with a nurse colleague. Reflecting on her daily soda(s) habit, she lamented that although the Cokes weren’t healthy, she couldn’t break the habit. Beyond tasting good, it was how they made her feel, even on a rough day, that kept her coming back.
Decades later, this conversation reverberates through the situation we find ourselves in. By now, we’ve all heard the sobering stats. In 1990, no state had an obesity rate greater than 19 percent. Two decades later, no state had an obesity rate less than 20 percent. By the year 2020, 12 states, with Indiana being one of them, had an adult obesity rate of at least 35 percent. Being overweight was well past its way in becoming the “new normal.”
Meanwhile, 67% of all calories U.S. youth consume are from ultra-processed foods (UPFs). From 1970-2014, the US population increased about 50%; restaurant sales increased by 1,500%, approximately 30 times more than the population. And grocery store sales maintained their own moderate growth, greater than the population.
Safe to say, food has become a preeminent god of our generation. Beyond all the physiological, societal, and psychological underpinnings of these trends, we no doubt rely on the fleeting bliss that food provides way more than, well, about anything else. Food consistently delivers where others don’t. I can tell you that eating natural foods, drinking water, and regular fasting provide all sorts of physical, psychological, social, and even spiritual benefits, but this knowledge is rarely power.
Our pursuit of happiness and comfort is. Yet within this understandable pursuit, have we and the food industry short-changed food, relegating it to a compartmentalized existence? Consider that most of us desire the following things: physical healing, emotional regulation, clarity of mind, reduced anxiety, robust immune functioning, good sleep, enjoyable physical activity, improved self-control, decreased inflammation, quality of life, and even healthier skin.
Ironically, good nutrition is an asset for all of this. It’s just that we have much greater trust in what we feel now than what we can gain later. Until a crisis sets in. But when you consider how food can help provide for what we desire, suddenly we realize it is nothing short of sacred.
Imagine: an apple could help us feel happy, but also provide so much more.
