Eat this now!
Many Americans feel entitled to big servings or a top-of-the-line chocolate bar as a way to get some short-term happiness. "You walk past a doughnut shop, and you say, 'Yum. Doughnuts.' Part of you says, 'No, I'll get fat.' But another part is like Scarlett O'Hara saying, 'Tomorrow is another day.' This feels good now," says Gail Saltz of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.
Almost all of us are prone to comfort ourselves with food when we feel deprived in other ways. Many families have forsaken the shared meal and the long time of food preparation, dining, and cleanup as a communal effort. Along with it, they've lost an important psychological support. "If we take a good hour and a half to talk about our day, go slowly through the meal, maybe have a glass of wine--we're much more psychologically filled at the end of that meal than if I decide to eat alone. Then, I'm going to grab a hamburger and some chips," says psychoanalyst Kathryn Zerbe, vice chair for psychotherapy at Oregon Health and Science University.
Of course, we can just say no. But it's a David and Goliath fight. We're battling an entire environment, massive societal change, government policy, and billions of dollars in advertising.
With Elizabeth Querna
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