Sweets as celebration and reward
If you look at food given as gifts or made for children’s parties or family gatherings you’ll usually see it’s lots of sweet stuff – chocolates, cakes, desserts and sweet drinks. In the same way, parents will often give children sweet foods to pacify or reward them; and sweet foods are used as reward even for adults.
Food as control and power
Conversely, food can be a thing of conflict or power and control. Children sometimes catch on that if they refuse certain foods they gain power and can control a parent’s emotions. They use it as attention-seeking. Partners can try to get power by controlling or influencing what the other partner eats. It can also be used as punishment – withdrawing certain foods until a desired behaviour takes place – “You’ll go to bed without any dinner” is an old-style threat that many children have suffered!
Food as love
Taking care over choosing and preparing food can be seen a display of love, as can eating out. Offering comfort foods can feel like nurturing; giving people mainly the foods they love can feel like showing affection – sometimes it’s when someone finds it hard to show affection in other ways.
All of this can distort our relationship with food and, in more sensitive or vulnerable people, it can result in lifelong unhappy relationships with food and eating. It can lead to poor health one way or another, and that includes psychological health.
Gentle nutrition
Nuush does its very best to help you have a happy relationship with food, maybe for the first time in your life.
We put the joy back into eating and take away the guilt. Gentle nutrition guides you towards listening to your body’s natural hunger and fullness signals; eating a wide variety of gorgeous foods helps restore love and interest in food as well as keeping you well nourished. We’re not going to tell you to eat cake but we know you will sometimes, of course, it’s wonderful!
It’s about harmony and happiness and finding your body’s natural healthy sweet spot.
When you give yourself permission to eat everything, you can eat anything without eating everything.
Avoid the myths and fads
Get the Nutrition for Everyone plan and reset how you eat for life without have to overthink the minutiae of healthy eating.
