Dr. Tabatha Barber argues that calling foods "cheat meals" amplifies shame and that emotional stress from guilt does more damage than the food itself. She says owning your choices, like eating a gluten-free cake without apology, shifts how your body responds to eating.
Do you constantly think about food and anguish over your next meal? Making promises in your head that your next meal will be healthier? I hear this quite a bit. It was popular for a while to have a cheat meal, and then I'm going to get back on track and then, oh, I deserve. And I get my cheat meal and then I'm going to go back on track. And so we were just like amping up the shame and the guilt and everything else around the food as opposed to just owning our decision. I've gotten to the point where if I'm going to have a piece of gluten free cake, I'm going to own that decision and I'm going to enjoy the crap out of it and I'm not going to have any shame or guilt around it, because the feelings are what cause the weight gain more than anything else.
