Since I’ve last posted, I’ve
had a troubling, food related conflict. Can I dump on you, dear readers? Can I
model what I suggest you should do—to express yourselves and reach out for
support?Colleague conflict
I love good chocolate. So it
follows that at holiday time I’d want to share the joy as holiday gifts to some
providers that refer to my practice. (Remember, this dietitian has a cupcake as
the mainpage image on her website. What harm in that, I thought?
Yet in sharing my intentions
with a nutritionist colleague, I heard a very different perspective. Namely,
that many office employees are trying to lose weight—so chocolates are the last
thing they need. Those who are obese hardly need the box of chocolate sitting
around the office. And since many are so anti-sugar these days, giving
chocolates is simply a bad idea.
Once I moved from my totally
speechless state (a rarity with me), I tried to be open-minded. Is it diet
sabotage to give a box of chocolates to be eaten in an office with many
employees—i.e. with little opportunity to squirrel them away, in the season of
New Year’s weight loss goals? Was I sending the wrong message as a promoter of
health, that chocolate—ok, they weren’t even exclusively heart-healthy 70% cacao-dark
chocolates but simply great tasting Belgian chocolates—are an acceptable snack?
Further, can those of high
BMIs be given chocolate (or cakes/cookies/highly-palatable foods)? Are they
entitled to enjoy the pleasure of great tasting desserts? Should anyone,
regardless of their size or percent body fat be given chocolates as gifts? I
mean, should we even be allowed to eat foods we truly enjoy?
Must we live an ascetic life
of food deprivation and denial—whether for short-term weight change or for life?
Is that a healthy lifestyle? Are we doomed to live secret lives—the model kale-salad-protein-smoothie-ingester
in public and guilt-laden, binge eater by night or by car ride?
Still on the fence?
Perhaps Jamie’s Christmas
surprise will do the trick. This patient’s sorrow and shame was revisited in my
office post holiday, as she described her Christmas disappointment. Her three
siblings dug into their chocolate-filled stockings, while she rummaged through
hers. Only hers was filled not with her favorite candies but with plastic
items. No chocolate indulgence for this
overweight young woman. A helpful, healthy holiday message? I don’t think so. A
supportive gesture? Hardly.
Let us not for a moment
believe that we are not entitled to enjoy life’s simple food pleasures. Yes,
you. Yes, regardless of your size.
For me, the conflict’s
resolved.
And for you?
