Let Go of Harmful Ideas About Food

Not everything you’ve been taught about health and eating is true or helpful. Jenna Hollenstein on discovering what foods work for you.

Try to imagine that foods are neither good nor bad. Carrot is as perfect as carrot cake. Gummy bear is no other than avocado, and broccoli is no other than Wonder Bread. It’s tricky to have that mindset, right? 

The Buddhist concept of nonduality teaches us that there’s no inherent separation between seeming dichotomies that shape our perception of reality, such as self and other, or mind and body. As meditation practitioners, we apply nondualistic thinking to complex subjects like strong emotions, identity, and thought itself. Yet many of us find it difficult to extend this contemplation to the food we eat. 

Part of the culture we live in—what folks in my field call the “diet culture”—tells us that there are good foods and bad. Good foods are low in calories and high in nutrients, while bad foods are the reverse. Eating good foods leads to well-being, fitness, thinness, and virtue, while bad foods portend ill health, weight gain, and poor quality of life. With those messages, why wouldn’t we think dualistically about how we feed ourselves?

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