In today’s day, there can be a lot of pressure to find creative labels and strict rules for your relationship with food. While diet culture has been a reality for centuries, there are more options in the modern age. In a sea of popular meal plan ideas, you can find a new and rebellious culinary trend making big waves.
What is food freedom and what does food freedom mean for mealtime preparation? Food freedom is essentially the concept of eating an unrestricted diet that acknowledges variety, balance, and cravings. The idea is that when you incorporate foods you love and listen to your body when you build each meal, there will be less pressure and guilt around eating. Ultimately, the goal is to help create a more relaxed relationship with food.
The Origins of Food Freedom
The idea of food freedom emerged recently as a response to over-restrictive diet labels and limiting views around food. In fact, the first state to create food freedom laws, Wyoming, only did so a decade ago in 2015. In the following years, states like North Dakota and Utah followed by creating similar laws, but it still isn’t standard practice.
While food freedom has roots in human rights efforts throughout the country’s history, it has only become more popular recently, raising national awareness about food diversity and the economic impact of a sustainable food system.
Intuitive eating vs. Mindful eating
There are a few overlapping concepts that contribute to the food freedom philosophy, like intuitive eating and mindful eating. Even though they may seem like synonyms for one another, they are actually entirely different practices that can work together to further the same goal.
Intuitive eating is a framework for self-care centered around listening to your body’s natural clock, digestive cues, and cravings rather than what strict diets recommend. This idea embodies the main concept of food freedom, but it must be practiced with mindful eating to be as productive. Without mindfulness, intuitive eating can quickly become a habit of over-indulging or under-nourishing.
When you practice mindful eating, you eat with awareness by focusing on intentions, pacing, and eliminating distractions. Ideally, to commit to mindful eating, you want to enjoy a meal without deflecting any attention to other entertainment like tv or a cell phone. This approach is meant to help improve satisfaction with mealtime and reduce anxiety around binging.
How to Achieve Food Freedom
Now, putting constant thoughts about dieting and food culture to the side can be easier said than done. However, embracing food freedom can be as easy as committing to a few simple tips. Did you know that on average, developing a new habit should take about a month or two? This means that it is completely possible for you to reinvent your relationship with food in a short period of time without sacrificing enjoyment, nourishment, or personal goals along the way. When you think of how to achieve food freedom, it may look different than someone else’s version.
Tips to Pursue Food Freedom
The great thing about the food freedom philosophy is that there is no single way to follow it. Food freedom will look different for everyone, but there are some tips that can help guide you toward a more relaxed and empowering relationship with food. Keep these ideas in mind while you explore what food freedom looks like for you!
Take it slow
Whenever you are trying out a new food philosophy, it is important not to jump into the deep end too quickly. Not only can this be a shocking change for your body (think about digestive and immune system changes), but it can also be a tough adjustment on your mind. It’s been proven that cold-cutting addictive ingredients like sugar and caffeine can make long-term change harder rather than easier, as it’s more likely to get tempted and break your commitment.
Instead of limiting yourself, the food freedom philosophy urges you to explore other foods that you may enjoy just as much. Don’t cut out your favorite guilty pleasures, but incorporate them into a full, balanced diet.
Honor feelings of hunger and fullness
There are some diets that rely on meeting strict expectations for nutrient intake, food quantity, and even time allotted to meals throughout each day. All of these rules can make it difficult to listen to your body’s natural cues, but food freedom acknowledges that these factors may fluctuate by day. By embracing food freedom, there are no rules or limitations on how you eat, but instead how you listen to yourself when you eat.
Under his philosophy, it is essential to eat when your body tells you to. Furthermore, you should also stop when your body tells you to. Many people feel anxious when they get full before they finish a plate, or vice versa, but food freedom gives you the allowance to eat as you please without guilt.
Avoid labeling foods as good or bad
Have you ever heard the saying ‘the heart wants what the heart wants,’ or maybe, ‘forbidden love can be the most passionate’? Well, they also apply to food and cravings. If you label a food as bad and tell yourself that you’ll never eat it again, it will be all the more irresistible when you come across the temptation. Restrictive diets are known for having a slew of psychological drawbacks, such as promoting binge eating, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
To avoid a heartbreaking love story with your favorite foods, don’t cut them out of your life just because they are ‘bad.’ When you want to understand how to have food freedom, you first need to let go of these predetermined categories for ingredients. Sometimes a craving can be good for you!
Who benefits most from food freedom?
The food freedom philosophy is not limited to specific groups of people, but it can be truly helpful for those in certain situations such as:
- Recovery from an eating disorder: Sometimes, recoveries can have a hard time shaping their ideas about food because of deep-rooted and restrictive beliefs. Food freedom offers flexibility in how people approach food to help break free from the guilt and fear surrounding certain foods.
- Living a busy lifestyle: A restrictive diet is simply too much to think about every day if you live an ultra-busy lifestyle. It can get exhausting to spend so much time and energy focusing on your restrictions and if you are following all of the mealtime rules correctly.
- Being tired of diet culture: It can be refreshing to let go of the trendy diets. This is your opportunity to reject the perfectionism and limiting beliefs of diet culture. Instead of focusing on how much, or when, or what you eat, food freedom will help you focus on how eating different foods nourishes your body.
- Having emotional eating patterns: Emotional eating is often a way to cope with sadness, frustration, or boredom. By utilizing the food freedom philosophy, you’ll practice getting more in tune with your body and understanding what it truly needs.
Food Freedom for Weight Loss
If the goal is weight loss, many restrictive diets preach that they have the key to success. However, the “all or nothing” mentality that many of these diets push can actually facilitate a worse relationship with food by keeping it on the mind. Instead of encouraging extremes, food freedom encourages consistency through a more relaxed approach.
Start your Journey to Food Freedom
Even though diet plans are all the rage, embracing freedom in your mealtime experience can be more enjoyable and even healthier. Following a restrictive diet for too long can silence your body’s natural cues, making it harder to live without dependency on a diet. Food freedom promotes both mindful and intuitive eating to help create a more balanced and sustainable approach to nourishing your body.
