Now a days you can find “healthified” recipes for pretty much any food out there. It might not taste the same as the original but it a sort of copy cat/fake version of the original.
What is my opinion on this, and does it encourage disordered eating?
My opinion is that it is great. For the average person who eats balanced i think its great… somedays you want a normal pizza, otherdays you want a pizza made with a cauliflower crust. Somedays you want pasta other days you want zoodles. Some days you eat oreo cookies and other days you eat banana and oat cookies. I love that you can choose…. i mean one day i might want to go to a “healthy or raw food cafe” and eat a raw food cheesecake, other days i wish that the cheesecake factory was in Sweden so i could order 3 cheesecakes. I dont think people should have to choose “either or” i.e either all they eat is oatmeal, raw food balls and cauliflower pizza or all they eat is regular burgers, mac and cheese and chocolate brownies. I think you can have both… just like its ok to eat a salad and then chocolate for lunch, or eat pizza for dinner and then want to have fruit for dessert.
What i dont like about the “healthified” foods is when they make it out like the original food should be something you feel guilty for eating and so the healthified food is “guilt free”, that is something i get easily irritated over. And i do believe that labelling food as “guilt free” or “filled with sugar and carbs so you should feel guilty for eating it” adds to disordered eating. Also i cant deny the fact that because of these newer and varied versions of food and as they are becoming more of a trend i do think it can add to disrodered eating 1) pointing out that the original versions are bad and shouldnt be eaten but also 2) because those who have eaitng disorders think its ok to just eat zoodles and egg white pancakes and cauliflower pizza.
I mean just because you eat some type of fake version of a food doesnt mean that you are healthy? But i find that many people who are recovering say “oh i eat pizza and i eat burgers and i eat pasta” when in actuality what they are eating is cauliflower pizza, chickpea burgers with portabello mushrooms or lettuce leaves as bread and zoodles or carrot-zoodles as pasta……. that doesnt exactly say recovered. HOWEVER recovered doesnt mean that you sit with oreo cookies in one hand and mac and cheese in the other just to show that you are recovered.
I think that both options are great… i mean sure cauliflower mash IS delicious but so is potatoe wedges with lots of oil and salt and lots of qucamole and halloumi and creme fraiche. Banana and egg pancakes are delicious or protein waffles but american fluffy pancakes with nutella and salted nuts and berries is also pretty damn delicious. And i believe that the balance of the two is what is best.
Like mentioned earlier you dont need to just eat egg whites and salad, but you dont need to eat just pizza and fries either. Mix it up and eat what it is you want right then. Because sometimes i want to bake using chickpea flour or almond flour and use stevia and other times i am adding extra chocolate, nutella and butter just because it is damn delicious and who wants plain cookies when you can have nutella cookies!
Thats my opinion on it anyway. And the important thing is to be honest with yourself and know why you eat certain foods.
I mean i have eaten cauliflower mashed potatoes 1) Because i dont like mashed potatoes 2) Because i wanted to try it and 3) Because i wanted something “Lighter” but also something filling.
Be honest with yourself… are you eating zoodles because you enjoy it or because it has practically no kcal?
This is my opinon, what is your opinion? 🙂
(And when it comes to vegan alternatives i think that is great, but once again i think people should be honest to themselves about why they are vegan or plant based!)
Sometimes you need that ^^^and sometimes you need this:
(c) A Life without Anorexia – Read entire story here.