Here is a definition of “Relationship”: the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected.
When we look specifically at the “people” part of this definition, we all have relationships with family members, work colleagues, supervisors, neighbors, etc. Some of these relationships we consider “good”, some “bad” and some fairly neutral. The concept of a “relationship” with animate objects extends to our dogs, cats and other pets.
If we move past “people/pet” relationships and start thinking about our relationship with inanimate things/objects, there may be application to things we create/modify/beautify such as our houses, art creations, collections etc. These tend to all be “good” relationships as we would not otherwise engage with these inanimate objects unless we derived some sort of pleasure from them.
Now, let’s focus on the concept of “relationship” as this applies to food and drinks. If we were to take this down to the basics, the true “relationship” with food is that we all require a certain amount/types of foods and water intake to survive. We are most definitely dependent on food/water and those inanimate objects have zero dependence on us. This is truly a one-way relationship.
Going beyond the concept of food as a necessity for sustenance, digging deeper will bring out lots more elements of our “relationship” with food. These relationship aspects include food as:
- Comfort when we feel stressed
- Reward for the hard work and lives we live
- Bring back great memories of being with our deceased loved ones that used to share these traditional foods at holidays and other gatherings
- Provide us with immediate gratification when we need a “pick-up”
When you perform a Google search on “relationship with food” the first articles that pop up on the first bunch of pages are all about “good vs bad” relationships with food. I suppose a “good” relationship involves viewing foods as a source of sustenance and learning how to mostly eat foods that keep us healthy and learning to enjoy those foods. A “bad” relationship with food will involve overeating/overdrinking those items that are deleterious to our health.
Much like our relationships with spouses and our other loved ones, periodically it is quite healthy to take a step back and self-analyze our “relationship” with food and see whether there are aspects of this relationship that are hurting us. With spouses/family, these issues can be talked out with the people involved but in the case of food relationships, the conversation will be one-way.
What is YOUR relationship with food? Take the time to think about this and try to weed out the deleterious aspects of this. We are here to talk this through with you as well.
