You’ll have to pardon me today, I’m having a moment. So too, apparently are “skinny” or “pencil” Christmas trees. I don’t mind developing home fashions for the holidays, but the conversation, I can do without.
I’m feeling fed up with the steady stream of judging, guilt-inducing and just bizarre language about the Holiday and Christmas season. This language is certainly not “seasonal” – it’s not restricted to only December. But I seem to have hit my limit with it. My limit? This headline, from yesterday’s Washington Post.
I think, really, it’s the “Treezempic” term – apparently a term developed in social media.
In Western culture, and perhaps especially it seems North American culture, we seem to have a fixation with monitoring our eating. There is even developing consideration of this fixation, sometimes called Orthorexia, in terms of mental health.
The US National Eating Disorders Association describes Orthorexia as “an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating.” Here they describe the risks of orthorexia:
Although being aware of and concerned with the nutritional quality of the food you eat isn’t a problem in and of itself, people with orthorexia become so fixated on so-called ‘healthy eating’ that they actually damage their own well-being and experience health consequences such as malnutrition and/or impairment of psychosocial functioning.
Terms like “indulgent” food, “clean eating,” “pure” food… in my opinion, they all risk putting our mindset toward this kind of thinking.
This week, I was disappointed to hear a radio interview with a dietician who ostensibly was promoting eating well over the Holidays, but seemed instead to focus on ‘indulging,’ but “not too much,” giving yourself permission to “cheat” and generally not chilling out and instead thinking and worrying a lot about food.
This whole thing reminds me of “Skinny” or “Fashion” Santa, which apparently goes back to 2015 (but still seems new to me!).
The alternative? Well I think we should all just take a beat. Enjoy a holiday. If you celebrate over the Holidays, enjoy it. If you are not celebrating, perhaps enjoy the slow-down if you get one? (And if instead you are working hard to help those who do celebrate have time off, thank you!) And see if you can have something delicious without the fixation. Do it for me, do it to fight the dang Treezempic. Thanks
