When a diet’s food rules are so strict that people wonder, ‘Is this food legal?’ It’s too restrictive.
I’ve overheard people say, ‘I’m not sure it’s legal’ when referring to whether they could eat a particular food on their diet.
The use of the word legal is disturbing to me. It is such a melodramatic way to describe what you can eat.
One time, when I overheard someone say it was not legal to eat someone on their diet, I searched their diet online. Surprisingly, I discovered that others, following the same diet, also used the word legal.
‘I can’t eat that on my eating plan’, is bad enough but to say a food is illegal is outrageous. It is using language that should have absolutely nothing to do with food. Apart from some special brownies and magic mushrooms, there are very few illegal foods.
Policing people’s eating is harmful
Although there are no food police, it seems that in certain diet circles, there are people who dictate what you are and aren’t allowed to eat. The diet rules become something of laws we must follow.
No matter what health benefits these people may be promising; it is incredibly harmful to lead people to believe that certain foods are allowed and others aren’t.
It perpetuates an all-or-nothing, perfectionist approach to food.
It can cause immense anxiety and obsession about what someone eats. And immense feelings of guilt and shame should they break the diet ‘laws’.
It is prescribing eating disorder thinking to help people supposedly get healthy, and it is appalling.
Not only this, but it can also cause people to attach their morality to what they eat. When they eat ‘good’, they’re ‘good’, and when they eat ‘bad’, they’re very, very ‘bad’.
If any way of eating, whether called a diet or lifestyle program, dictates strict rules and eating laws, I encourage you to step away.
Remember, there is no perfect diet to achieve health. No one perfect way to eat. And most foods are not illegal to eat.
This language is the result of diet culture and is more harmful than helpful.
Let’s fire the food police
If anyone suggests that certain foods are illegal or not allowed on a diet, I hope you have the inner resolve and knowing not to be taken in by their convictions.
Alternately, seek the support of someone who can help you take a more intuitive and joyful approach to eating.
Feel free to contact me. Or you may find it helpful to read the free chapter from Joyful Eating, Debunk the Diet Myth.
I’d love to know if you’ve been sucked in by someone’s diet promises. Or whether you’ve followed a diet with such strict rules that you thought the food police were out to get you. Share in the comments below.
Further reading
If you’d like to learn more about how food rules impact your relationship with food, you may find these blogs helpful:
4 comments
There definitely are illegal foods. It’s illegal to eat human meat in most countries. You’re not even legally allowed to eat kinder surprises in the US. Shark fins, chewing gum, olestra oil, fugu and bush meat are all illegal in some countries in the world.
You are correct. There are definitely foods that are illegal for human consumption.
In this blog, my intention was to draw attention to those foods that are edible and legal to eat but we label them as good or bad. My use of the word ‘illegal’ was tongue-in-cheek as to how diets can cause us to jokingly say a food is ‘illegal’.
Thanks for your comment and for furthering this discussion.
Most religions have dietary laws and dictate what adherents can and cannot eat. This is part of the moral super-structure of the religion. Furthermore there are many foods that most cultures just wouldn’t eat because they could find them unappealing- some cultures eat spiders and snake meat… but in a lot of places that would be a bit taboo.
Thank you for your comment, Frank.
Absolutely there are foods that people don’t eat due to religious beliefs and customs. I think this would be an interesting thing to explore as there may be morality, guilt and shame associated with eating certain foods or eating behaviour. I believe Alan Levinovitz covers this in his book, The Gluten Lie and other Myths About What You Eat. He also talks about the quasi-religious view toward food, which was moreso the focus of this blog.