Thinking About: Food

It is often said, with a great deal of evidence, that we in the West have a problematic relationship with the food we eat. This is clearly seen both in the obesity ‘epidemic’ and in stark contrast the numbers of women (and increasingly men) who are virtually starving themselves to death seemingly in the hope of looking good or dying trying. Whilst I am in neither of these opposing groups I am not completely immune from having food ‘issues’.

I am, for one thing, in the rather odd position of being a vegetarian who is not a fan of either fruit or vegetables. You can see from the outset that this is going to cause me problems. Needless to say, the idea of a ‘balanced diet’ is somewhat alien to me. Actually I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t take the variety (and amount) of vitamins I do that I’d probably be suffering from various probably nasty deficiencies. I am also, on top of this, a rather faddish eater. Once I find something I like, be it food or drink, I will then eat or drink it repeatedly for months or even years at a time. Equally strangely I can stop eating or drinking this particular item if something ‘disturbs’ me about it – like getting a bad example of it (maybe it’d gone off before its use-by date or something). Two elements of my personality are at war where my eating habits are concerned. One side wants to try out new things whilst the other knows exactly what it likes and is quite happy, thank you very much, eating or drinking the same kind of thing since childhood. One way I do get introduced to new edible things is eating at friends houses. Inevitably they will have something on the menu that I haven’t had before. To be polite I’ll give it a go – not meat products of course – and sometimes I’ll adopt things into my own diet in future.

I’m definitely eating too much at the moment. In the summer months I usually eat less than normal because of the heat. Heat puts me off eating lots of things. However, I’m making an exception these days because I’m clearly comfort eating. Not that it’s bringing me a great deal of comfort. But such is the way of things. Despite being more active than I have been for a while – my job means I’m often away from my desk for a good part of the day – I’m still slowly gaining weight. I’m not happy with it but it seems that I’m less than fully motivated to do anything about it. I tried the gym for a while many years ago but found it incredibly boring. Physical activity has never really been my thing. It’s one of those things that I never really understood (like Religion, Jazz and Women). So, inevitably the pounds creep on and stay on. I am, I’m afraid to say, developing a noticeable middle-age spread. What I need to do is simply cut back on my snacks. Most of what I eat/drink tends to be diet this or low-fat that. Not my snacks however. Sometimes I like just to have them in the house so that I know I can have one whenever I really want one. Then, of course, I get peckish and before you know it the whole packet has gone. I need to develop the will-power to simply stop eating like that. It is, I think becoming more of a habit. I’ll be eating all three courses of a meal next. That’ll be it – the point of no return. For most of my adult life I’ve been a thinny and I really don’t want to be a fatty as I get older. But it’s a slippery slope. Maybe I can find something else to replace my comfort eating….. I’m going to have to give that some thought and put the biscuits back in the fridge.