Soul Food

Think for a moment of a food from your past…one that for no specific reason makes you feel great after eating it. Maybe it is macaroni and cheese, mom’s stuffing or potato pancakes. Eating food like this (every now and then) can be incredibly healing, even though rationally you consider it is not nutritious.

Food has the power to impact us on a level deeper than just our physical well-being. What we eat can reconnect us to precious memories, like childhood playtimes, holidays, our grandmother’s cooking or our country of ancestry. Our bodies remember foods from the past on an emotional and cellular level. Eating this food connects us to our roots and its comforting and nurturing effects reach far beyond the food’s biochemical make-up.

Lily, a client of mine, came to me a few months back wanting to wean herself from her addiction to sugar. She consumed candy, pastries and ice cream on a daily basis. Once we added the foods and lifestyle choices that satiated and balanced her needs, her sugar cravings subsided.

For her daughter’s birthday, Lily baked a cake. As everyone was enjoying the cake she too craved a piece. If she ate it, would she be consumed with guilt? If she didn’t eat it, would she be thinking about it all week? Through our work together, Lily had gained an understanding of how to read into the cause of her cravings. When she asked herself why she wanted the cake, she immediately knew that it wasn’t her old sugar craving but a desire to share in the experience of eating something she had so lovingly made for her daughter. There was more love than sugar in that one piece of cake. Eating it made her feel alive rather than ashamed. It was delicious and she did not crave an additional piece.

The guilt or shame that we consume with certain foods is far worse than the food itself. If we eat food we consider bad for us, we are sending a message to our body that there is something harmful entering the body. This prevents us from digesting our foods correctly, causing havoc to the digestive system, preventing the assimilation of nutrients or creating an accumulation of fat.

Acknowledging what different foods mean to us is an important part of cultivating a good relationship with food. This month when we celebrate love and relationships, it is important to notice that we each have a relationship with food—and that this relationship is often far from loving. Many of us restrict food, attempting to control our weight. We often abuse food, substituting it for emotional well-being. Some ignore food, swallowing it whole without even tasting it.

What would your life be like if you treated food and your body the same way you would treat your beloved? With gentleness, playfulness, communication, honesty, respect and love? The next time you eat your soul food, do so with awareness and without guilt, and enjoy all the healing and nourishment it brings you.