Episode 62: Food Bullying - Is Your Food Surrounded By Guilt with Michele Payn

You plan the meals and do the grocery shopping for your family. As you stand in line to check out of your favorite store, with your cart brimming with next week’s meals and snacks, are you trying to hide your purchases, so others don’t judge what your chose? Did you ever stop to wonder how you made the decisions about what went in your cart? Did you research each item, finding out about its quality and nutrition count and how it will help your family?

More than likely you made many of those choices based on the latest trends and fads, what your friends were buying or the fancy packaging with big, bold words that sound great but may be misleading.

Michele Payn :

Michele is an international, award-winning author who brings clarity and common sense to the emotional food conversation. Her background in farming and her extensive research give her the information to break down and clarify some of the widespread confusion and misinformation about the food you buy for you family.

When you are trying to make changes to be healthier, you are especially vulnerable and the most subject to food bullying. you need factual, science-based information to help you get the best quality and most nutritious items

Food Bullying is when other people try to influence your food choices without having solid fact-based reasons. Trends, fads, misinformation and well-meaning friends can all have you second guessing or trying to hide what you are eating because you feel guilty about your food choices.

When you are making nutritional choices for your family, food should be about celebration not condemnation! It is about getting back to basics, nourishment, family traditions, and fueling your body.

Psychologists use Mazlow’s Hierarchy to describe basic human needs. The five-level pyramid is comprised of the following needs from the bottom up: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Physiological needs and safety are at the base. They are biological requirements for survival, food, water and shelter. If those needs are not met, the others don’t matter. Food choices should be about safety and nourishment. Is your food safe? Yes, the US and Canada have very safe food supplies. There are many checks and balances to insure that. Is the food nourishing. There is only one way to tell and that is to look at the nutrition label.

As you move up in the pyramid your basic needs are love, belonging and self-esteem. Bullies prey on your fear of not fitting in. Friends, fads and trends all influence what you buy, with no actual nutritional knowledge. Consumers are manipulated into making food choices by packaging with words that are “Health Halos”. Those are words that look like they mean something important and wonderful but actually have no verifiable information.

If you can’t define it and it is not measurable, words such as “natural” and “healthy”, it is B.S. or Bull Speak.

Unless you are a registered dietitian or a farmer who actually produces food, you are subject to confusing and completely false information about the quality and nutritive value of many of the foods you eat. You should choose what you eat and feed your family based on factual information not the latest trend, fad or scare tactic.

Check out Michele’s website for more in depth information.

https://causematters.com/

Food Truths from Farm to Table: 25 Surprising Ways to Shop and Eat Without Guilt brings clarity to grocery shopping and addresses food marketing myths.

https://causematters.com/foodtruthsbook/

Food Bullying: How to Avoid Buying B.S. looks at the misrepresentation of food and sheds light on bogus nutrition and environmental claims to help people recognize and stand up to food bullies.

https://causematters.com/foodbullying/

More Resources:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles