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Food to Feel Good: Foregoing the Trends, Deeply Engaging with How We Consume, and Aligning with a Better Experience

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But, we don’t all feel good even after all of these trends in how we eat in the United States. So then what? Of all of the ways of eating and food we can eat, what food and experience of eating will actually allow us to feel the way we want to feel? There is always another new trend coming. This ongoing evolution of trendy food production and consumption patterns, to me, is symptomatic that we’re missing the underlying essence, as humans and consumers of food, of what we want and need and how we’re trying to obtain it from food.

Then the question becomes, what actually enables us to “feel good” on the levels of all of our systems of being?

As much as we’d like it to always feel simple and easy (and to me that’s much of what makes the plethora of certification systems so prevalent yet often falling short, but that’s for another day) and it CAN be simple and easy, the fundamental components of what this “feeling good” demands are bigger in their impact yet less complex in their nature. Much bigger, and much less complex.

A more comprehensive view, is that actually feeling good from what we eat asks for:

CONNECTION TO SELF AND BEYOND SELF: “I know myself, and I know I am interconnected with something vaster than myself.” Connection relies on establishing a connection with ourselves and our values and also exploring our connection with something beyond ourselves, whatever concepts fit well there for each us.
PRESENCE: “The unique person that is me is here in this unique present moment.” We don’t have access to our own clarity and to knowing what we need in that particular moment if who we are isn’t here (and maybe is off thinking about social media, tomorrow’s to-do list, or yesterday’s events).
INQUIRY: “I ask, and I listen.” From this place of connection and presence, asking and listening for the answer to, based on our current situation, what it is that would help us feel good in this moment?
ALIGNED ACTION: “I choose what’s aligned and needed.” Using the answer from our inquiry, taking aligned action towards meeting that need. To do this repeatedly requires a commitment to choosing authentically and acting in alignment with ourselves.
RECIPROCAL ENGAGEMENT: “I am in reciprocal engagement with the energetic system of the food I eat.” Starting from the place of aligned action, this type of relational engagement requires intentional participation in reciprocal, ongoing relationship with all that contributes to our existing and thriving, including our eating and experience of food.

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While these components are perhaps less complex, they are not always easier. Still, improving on even just one of these has the potential to transform the experience of food that one has. And there are infinite ways to make those adjustments.

And of these, reciprocal engagement, this relational aspect of eating, is the one that is the most overlooked and often most missing from the way much of our food system currently operates.

There are trends that have attempted to anchor aspects of this in various ways, such as sustainable, local, organic, regenerative, climatarian, and the list goes on. Case in point, Dr. Jayson Lusk’s discussion on this in the post The Ebbs and Flows of Fashionable Food gets into more detail on food’s next big thing, and how there is always a next big thing.

Admittedly, if you’re starting from an average modern-day habit of engaging with food, the idea of reciprocal relationship with food and food systems probably sounds far-fetched, like pie in the sky. Working in the direction of anything that even resembles that in my own personal life is very much a work in progress.

But, there are changes both small and large that can help achieve the desired outcome of feeling how we want to feel, including in our engagement with food.

New opportunities in food value systems are an implication of more individuals taking these steps, as adjustments are needed to meet the demand for engagement with food in this way.

These opportunities are not in the sense of more trends (although those will still come), but rather long-term ground shifts in the way we eat, shifts that become permanent because they are more effective at delivering the desired results and because they bring us closer to true alignment in how we interact with food and how it's grown. Further, with those shifts come opportunities. What might some of those opportunities look like, for example?

Shortening supply chains to increase or maximize nearby sourcing
Integrating storytelling and any shifts in logistics and traceability that are needed to do so
Increasing consumers’ personal understanding of farming and food
Direct engagement with customers for better understanding of their needs and how to meet them
Opportunities for smaller producers to meet specific or local needs
Clearly stating values, and clearly stating how they’re being brought into physical reality in the business
Reimagination of the ways that business and consumers engage with food, and establishment of a new baseline for food and agriculture systems

There are many more ways beyond these of improving our ways of engaging with our food and where it comes from, and time will reveal if we're able to move from repeating cycles of engagement that does not ultimately meet our needs, or if we're able to step forward into something new and more aligned with our desired experience.

--4/10/23

Can all modern U.S. food trends be boiled down to people trying to eat food to “feel good”? Fast food, fine dining, packaged food, organic, fair trade, weight loss diets, regenerative, and the list goes on (here’s Food and Wine’s trip down food memory lane if you’re feeling nostalgic). Feeling good is what many are after, and food is the entry point that is often used. Still, we don’t all feel reliably good after jumping on some or all of these trends. So why is this happening, and what does that tell us? And more at the core, is chasing these trends missing the root of how to get what we want?

Most of us want to experience more of feeling what we want to feel. For many, that’s wanting to feel good. That includes eating food that facilitates us feeling good. “Good” is a representative placeholder, but any other desired feeling (e.g., safe, nourished, healthy, adventurous, resourced, etc.) can be used for more specificity for the individual in place of good. Admittedly, feeling good from eating food is further out of reach for some than others for reasons of safety, lack of resources, institutions, capacity, and more. While condensing so many trends into eating to feel good perhaps sounds overly simple, and admittedly what “feels good” is subjective to each individual human experience in each moment, I’d suggest that the major food trends in the U.S. over time can be summarized in this statement. Here are some examples (very generalized) within this line of thinking of ways of eating and the ways “feeling good” is facilitated:

Fast food- e.g., “I feel good because my hunger is satiated immediately. I feel good because my biological and psychological cravings for certain food components or flavors are met. I feel good because I don’t have to do the dishes.”
Fine dining-e.g., “I feel good because the experience feels luxurious. I feel good because I feel like I’ve made it. I feel good because the flavors are interesting and new. I feel good because I’m treating myself or those I care about.”
Packaged food- e.g., “I feel good because I know food is immediately available and/or my hunger is satiated immediately. I feel good because I have nostalgia or memories related to a certain packaged food.”
Organic- e.g. “I feel good because I think I’m honoring my body, the bodies of those in my family, and/or nature. I feel good because I think the way the food was produced meets a certain standard.”
Fair trade- e.g., “I feel good because I think the treatment of the people involved in the production of my food meets a certain standard.”
Home cooking- e.g., “I feel good because I invested in my nourishment with my time and energy. I feel good because I made something exactly the way I liked it. I feel good because what I’m eating was cooked with love.”
Keto/Paleo/Whole30/Low Fat/etc- e.g., “I feel good because I think the food will achieve desired changes in my body.”
Regenerative- e.g., “I feel good because I think the food I’m eating is produced in a way that’s aligned with my values."

In these examples, we can swap in almost any other reason besides these for a particular food connecting us to feeling good (or another desired feeling). Still, the point is, the food we eat and the experience of eating it have an interaction with all levels of our being, and we’re trying to leverage that to access feeling the way we want to feel. Sometimes we do this skillfully, and sometimes we do it less than skillfully. Those impacts of food are tangible and are most directly, on our physical body and systems, but also on all of our other systems and bodies: our emotional body, mental body, and so on.

For example, if we engage in a new food trend temporarily, but then our more deeply held beliefs, patterns, and ways of being eventually re-emerge, the duration of the trend to serve as a means of improving how individuals feel is limited. As an example, the following diagram illustrates how this might function as the effect of feeling good of a trend builds and then wanes.