Writing Rounds is a new feature that will showcase a weekly commentary from the medical community!
This page will be updated regularly each week, with the latest article published directly below. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see all past installments!
If interested in submitting an article, email aibrahim@radiorounds.org
Avoiding Eye Contact with Potatoes: Our Awkward Relationship with Real Food
By Joseph Otonichar, MSIV / Midwestern University AZCOM
Food pervades our daily lives. From our earliest education, we are told that it is one of life’s most basic requirements. Yet, as diet fads become a cultural norm and weight loss prevails as an obsession even among physicians, food has been slowly transformed into a societal enemy that we must overcome, avoid, and defeat. “The less, the better!” is now the battle cry in our Calorie-fixated war against eating. While many resign to failure, others remain stoic in their endurance of hunger’s often devastating consequences.
The problem with our society’s dietary habits is not that we eat too much food. The problem, rather, is that we eat too much nutritionally-deplete food. This distinction is important and too often neglected.
In our battle against obesity, healthcare professionals have made the mistake of attaching a negative connotation to food as a whole. By demonizing the act of eating, we not only allow new subsets of medical conditions such as anorexia and bulimia to emerge, but we transform our patients’ hopeful desires to nourish their bodies into a negative trial of restriction, thereby destroying the joy of eating healthy.
We, as a generalized population, are losing our ability to prepare our own meals and to tolerate hunger-to-satiation times beyond three minutes. Over the past few decades, we have largely lost any appreciation for the tangy intricacies of dishes and drinks that do not have “sweet,” “salty,” or “greasy” as their dominant flavors and are no longer able to enjoy the diversity of tastes that step beyond one-dimensional snack foods. Gallons of sugary drinks, piles of French fries, and bags of “on the go” munchies have effectively mutilated our taste buds and reduced our cravings to the level of nectar-crazed insects.
The benefits of a controlled diet have been demonstrated in numerous studies; however, there remains a need to improve strategies that promote healthier nutrition habits.1 One of medicine’s most cost-effective efforts would be to reverse our established dietary trend by encouraging patients to train their palates to enjoy—and not simply “cope with”—the distinctive flavors of vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish, seeds, spices, etc. As an individual’s palate becomes more sophisticated and accustomed to the taste of unprocessed and unsweetened items, fatty and sugary foods will naturally and progressively become less appetizing.
As student physicians, we are in a powerful position to help our patients achieve meaningful lifestyle adjustments. Encouraging small steps can lead to big changes. For example, teaching patients to learn to enjoy the flavor of unsweetened lemon juice with drinking water can vastly transform their normal “gustatory set point” such that fountain drinks begin to taste repulsively sweet. Similarly, we can foster a greater awareness of individual consumption habits by explaining to patients that if they feel hungry, but find fresh vegetables and fruits unappetizing, then it is possible that they are simply more bored, unhappy, or thirsty than they are hungry.
With a clever food advertising industry permeating our salt and sugar addicted nation, it is important to acknowledge that making healthy food choices is not common sense but requires continued guidance and support. It is therefore vital that we begin to incorporate more serious dietary counseling into our daily interactions with patients, offering both partnerships and sustained resources for patients to enact difficult, but realizable, changes. The casual suggestion to implement drastic lifestyle changes is painfully inadequate for complete patient care.
Our country’s discordant relationship with food sits near the center of our present obesity epidemic. Until we can help the public to better understand that eating healthy is a pleasant and rewarding experience and equip patients with the knowledge and inspiration needed to attempt significant dietary modifications, our efforts to battle obesity and its secondary health effects will remain largely futile.
Past Installments
What Kind of Doctor Will I Be? – By Teresa Lee/ MSII, Wright State University Boonshoft SOM
Not Like the Movies: My Discovery of “Real World” Medicine and Patient Safety Research – By HeeWon Lee (The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)
Can I Go Home? – By Avash Kalra (Radio Rounds Director and Host)
(How Much) Healthcare is a Human Right – By Phil Niles (Special to Radio Rounds)
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in the “Writing Rounds” articles on the Radio Rounds website do not represent the views and opinions of the Radio Rounds organization as a whole, its partners, or the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine.