Reducing Food Pleasures
This is going to take some practice
You may have heard a number of fitness influencers giving advice like, “eat whatever you want, don’t fight your cravings, make room to enjoy the foods you crave” etc. In a day in age where we are constantly tempted by pleasurable foods, most of them cheap and easy to acquire, I think that it is important that we reign in our cravings to prevent ourselves from becoming gluttons.
The stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus had a lot to say on this topic. According to Rufus, “what else is gluttony but intemperance in the matter of nourishment, causing men to prefer what is pleasant in food to what is beneficial.”
One of the main takehomes from this quote is the preference for what is pleasant versus what is beneficial. If we allow ourselves to become gluttons, not only do we overeat unhealthy foods, but we also miss out on the consumption of the beneficial foods which are loaded with macro and micronutrients that allow our bodies to survive and thrive.
Even if you’re down with the idea that fighting our cravings is an important battle we should all face, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Rufus knew this as well, “demonstrating one’s self-control (in eating), not an easy thing to do, but one that requires much attention and practice.”
How can we practice? The answer is in fighting our cravings and reducing our food pleasures. Rufus helps us out here by identifying 5 key areas we can focus on:
Not eating more than we should
Not eating with “undue haste”
Not preferring sweeter foods to more healthful ones
Not serving ourselves more food than our guests (or people we share our house with)
Not indulging at unseasonable times
If we focus on these core 5 principles when we sit down to have a meal we can actively take steps against giving in to our cravings and slipping towards gluttonous behaviors.
Of course, this may be more of an extreme approach to diet and many of you may be thinking, “so you’re saying I can’t enjoy my food?” This is not the point. Of course, you can enjoy your food and of course, you can choose times in which you do want to exercise your right to enjoy pleasurable foods. But this can’t be every day.
Rufus said, “although there are many pleasures which lure man into wrongdoing and force him to yield to them contrary to what is good, pleasure in eating is probably the hardest to combat. For other pleasures we encounter less often, and we can refrain from some of them for months and whole years, but of necessity we are tempted by this on every day and usually twice a day, since it is not possible for a man to live otherwise.”
This means when it comes to our diets, we are tempted numerous times throughout the day. While we may choose to occasionally give in, to be healthy we must be willing to fight the cravings much more often than giving into them. This is simple math.
For you maybe that looks like starting your day but either skipping breakfast (intermittent fasting) or opting for a nutritious breakfast like eggs and avocado instead of breakfast cereal and doughnuts. Or maybe it looks like keeping all of your meals on-point during the week and enjoying a nice big cheat meal on Saturday. Or maybe it looks like you eating healthy all of the time and saving opportunities to indulge in things like a family vacation or visiting that new restaurant in town. And maybe for some of you, it looks like going all in and looking at food as a way to fuel your body not to pleasure your mouth (More on this in the next newsletter).
Wherever you are now it doesn’t matter. The goal is to simply improve.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
P.S. This newsletter is sponsored by my favorite CBD company Santa Cruz Medicinals. I am a huge fan of Santa Cruz Medicinals because of their wide variety of products that can be used for different goals. Besides the MCT CBD oil and CBD coconut oil, I most use their calm caps and sleep caps. Check out this personal study on their sleep caps!