Smokey Quinoa Black Bean Salad, Food Insecurity & Weight.
— with a chili-citrus vinaigrette and thoughts on Food Insecurity, during COVID 2020.
TW: journals contain numerical reference and words pathologizing size.
I grew up hungry.
Hungry for food, among other things.
I learned all this later in life going through the work I included for you in The Food & Body Freedom Guide for Menopause.
If you grew up hungry, amidst food insecurity, even if it wasn’t all the time, you might subconsciously wonder when the food may run out.
This was one of my triggers for overeating.
One of the Social Determinants of Health, Food Insecurity, is defined as:
Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (1).
Low income households are far more likely to experience food insecurity, and adults from these environments showed greater likelihood to be at a higher weight than those in a higher income home (1).
I am NOT going down the “O” epidemic tunnel.
I want to highlight that when we pathologize size, and “treat” it with controlling food aka dieting, we miss the opportunity to heal our relationship with food.
The connection between weight and hunger was first suggested in the Journal of American Paediatrics, in an article that found weight and hunger to be causally related (2).
What does this have to do with a Black Bean Salad or Mindful eating for that matter?
Nothing and everything.
If you’re interested, keep scrolling.
Click for a printable recipe.
Quinoa is a fantastic grain, or seed really, for plant based meals. It’s especially attractive during the COVID-19 lockdown here! That is, if you can find it.
And while I could tell you all about the nutrients in this salad, it is my duty in the health and wellness space, to finish my thoughts on food security, something many of us have not had to even think about.
As wellpreneurs we don’t think we would even be working with a client with food insecurity. If you work with emotional eaters, I’m betting you have come face to face with the remnants of food insecurity.
Hoarding food:
Just one highlight of COVID-19.
And of food insecurity.
While some of us cursed those who took all the toilet paper and disinfectant wipes, few of us, myself included, took a moment to look at that more closely. When life is lived in cycles of food availability and food scarcity, eating is adapted, or more acurately, maladapted. This restriction and overeating pattern may lead to disordered eating, and anxiety. Negative emotions toward food may also develop.
What does this have to do with Quinoa Salad? Nothing, unless you can’t afford the ingredients.
As holistic nutritionists, we may have a skewed perception of the availability of healthy foods in some populations. Someone who grows up with this lack of availability, me for example, may have disordered eating patterns, that may manifest themselves in adult life.
And as far as weight, it just highlights that “calories in and calories out” can take a back seat when we start talking about the many psychosocial aspects that make up a body size, one way or the other.
And Mindful Eating?
If you were able to sit down to a meal of your choice, that you could afford to purchase, in a safe environment, without threats to your well being, then a gratitude practice is in order.
And that is a part of Mindful Eating.
xo
Tanya
References:
Townsend, M.S., Peerson, J., Love, B., Achterberg, C., Murphy, S. Food Insecurity Is Positively Related to Overweight in Women, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 131, Issue 6, June 2001, Pages 1738–1745, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/131.6.1738
Dietz, W.H., Does Hunger Cause Obesity? Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1995, (5) 766- 767