Page 74 - issue
P. 74
DIET MINDSETRETOOLING THE
Once upon a time – going back to the 13th century,
actually – the word diet meant much more than
the food we consume. It derived from the Greek
word diaita, which signified a way of life that com-
prised not just food but the entire gamut of healthy
living, including exercise and other healthy habits.
Fast forward to the 21st century, when the word
diet is more popularly used as a verb and now typ-
ically refers more to the foods we don’t eat than those we do.
How did this happen, what are its implications, and how can
we change this mindset?
Unlike in our grandparents’ time, we live today in an age
of excess, in which food is all around us all the time. We eat
more and move less. And so we gain weight, plain and sim-
ple. To reverse the effects of weight gain, we occasionally
restrict our food, until we lose some weight. We either meet
goal or give up. Either way, we eventually resume our “nor-
mal” mode of eating, and the weight we lost soon returns,
often in spades. And the cycle inevitably resumes, so that diet-
ing becomes a yo-yo activity with no end in sight.
We (mother and teenage daughter) were caught in the
same cycle, until this past year when we stumbled on a
healthful eating plan based on the teachings of Dr. Joel
Fuhrman, which we tweaked to suit our lifestyle and which
Eliana nicknamed the “Diet Called Living” or DCL. Within
70 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
Once upon a time – going back to the 13th century,
actually – the word diet meant much more than
the food we consume. It derived from the Greek
word diaita, which signified a way of life that com-
prised not just food but the entire gamut of healthy
living, including exercise and other healthy habits.
Fast forward to the 21st century, when the word
diet is more popularly used as a verb and now typ-
ically refers more to the foods we don’t eat than those we do.
How did this happen, what are its implications, and how can
we change this mindset?
Unlike in our grandparents’ time, we live today in an age
of excess, in which food is all around us all the time. We eat
more and move less. And so we gain weight, plain and sim-
ple. To reverse the effects of weight gain, we occasionally
restrict our food, until we lose some weight. We either meet
goal or give up. Either way, we eventually resume our “nor-
mal” mode of eating, and the weight we lost soon returns,
often in spades. And the cycle inevitably resumes, so that diet-
ing becomes a yo-yo activity with no end in sight.
We (mother and teenage daughter) were caught in the
same cycle, until this past year when we stumbled on a
healthful eating plan based on the teachings of Dr. Joel
Fuhrman, which we tweaked to suit our lifestyle and which
Eliana nicknamed the “Diet Called Living” or DCL. Within
70 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
