To the Editor:
If we all stuck to our "little girl" relationships with food, we would all be a lot better off. I would like to set things straight. There really is no such thing as what Heather Tatarski calls "junk food" (The Dartmouth, March 28, "Junk Food"). Because we label foods as "good" and "bad" we are more prone to want what we cannot have. Who makes the rules though? And even if there is a little voice in your head that says, "that brownie is going to make you fat," who says you have to listen? Food itself does not make you fat. It is our relationship to food that can make us abuse food and therefore be prone to binge eating or even full-blown eating disorders.
I am not going to sit here and preach to you, and I am not going to say that I have a perfect relationship between food and my body, because I do not. But the more I have been educated and been able to change this relationship the more I have learned to love myself and my body. I think it is exceptionally difficult to grow up in American society and not develop an unhealthy relationship to food and body. We are bombarded with messages in the media that claim that our worth as women should be measured by the size of our thighs -- or rather the non-existence of our thighs. So we try to diet. And we label foods as good and bad. Health food and junk food. We diet and stay away from junk at all costs.
But there are biological reasons that we crave this so-called "junk." What we label as junk -- cookies, brownies, ice cream, etc. -- are foods typically high in carbohydrates, and carbohydrates help release serotonin in your brain, helping you to feel better. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate your mood, so when you are stressed or down in the dumps, craving carbohydrates is actually a sign that you need a "chemical recharge." The more serotonins we have swimming around, the better we typically feel. There is such a fear of carbohydrates in our society with all of these protein diet fads. The truth is, carbohydrates are our main energy source and an integral part of a healthy diet.
Any food in moderation is a healthy one. Yes, the serving sizes at Dartmouth Dining Services are absurd, but if we stop labeling these foods as forbidden, we can buy a big cookie, eat some of it and save the rest for later or tomorrow. If we have the attitude that eating this cookie is sinful, of course we are going to want to stuff it down before it's "too late" and the voice gets a hold of us and directs us to the elliptical for the next hour.
What if we reclaimed our bodies? What if we could empower ourselves as strong, healthy, independent women and set a new and improved standard for our children? There is a bumper sticker on my car that reads: "Start a Revolution, Stop Hating Your Body." Maybe we could even learn to love ourselves for who we are, curves, imperfections and all, and live a full life free from some arbitrary list of rules and regulations we have set for ourselves.
