December 16, 2024

Are You Calling Some Foods “Bad”? Maybe It’s Time to Rethink Your Food Labels

By Rebecca Appleman, RD

People often use labels such as “good,” “bad,” “healthy” or “unhealthy” to describe food or their food choices. You may even hear someone label themselves as good or bad based on what or how much they ate that day.

Have you ever heard a comment like, “I was so good this weekend, I only ate one piece of bread at dinner” or “I ate really bad yesterday, so today I need to have a salad.” We even see this type of language on food packages that say “reduced-guilt” or “guilt-free” as a marketing strategy used to entice people to buy a particular product over its competitors.

While the intention may be to encourage healthy eating habits, labeling foods as healthy or unhealthy or assigning moral value to them such as good or bad can complicate your child’s relationship with food and ultimately impact how they feel about themselves as a person.

Whether you are making these comments about your own eating (in front of your child) or about your child’s eating, the impact on your child is the same.

Why Does This Matter?

Our relationship with food develops young, and our understanding of nutrition is more complicated and nuanced than many people believe. Labeling your food as good, or “unhealthy” or any other assigned label can create issues such as:

• Labeling Foods as Good or Bad Implies That Food Has a Moral Value

By labeling something as a “bad food,” it implies that if you choose to eat and enjoy that food, you are doing something “bad” or even worse, that you yourself are bad. This labeling can trigger feelings of guilt, remorse, and regret, all things we really never want to feel about food or our eating habits.

Assigning a moral value to food can then make someone feel like a good or bad person simply based on their food choices, and this can lead to feelings of shame. The bottom line is that your character and your morality are not determined by your food choices, so it’s best to keep the language you choose to describe your eating void of these terms.

• It Can Change Their Behavior Around Food:

If a child suspects that it may be viewed as “bad” to eat certain foods, they are more likely to feel shame and can end up engaging in secretive eating behaviors. Your child may be more likely to sneak food outside of the home, hide wrappers, or even avoid telling the truth if they are concerned about being judged for their food choices.

Labeling foods can also impact how much of a food your child eats. For example, if they deem a certain snack as “good”, they may be more likely to eat the entire package of it, ignoring their fullness and just eating it because it’s allowed. Young children are often the best intuitive eaters – eating based on how their stomachs feel and stopping when they’ve had enough. We want to encourage that behavior, no matter what the food is.

• It Can Lead To Poor Body Image And Low Self-Esteem:

Body image encompasses how you feel in your body, how you perceive yourself, and what you believe about your appearance. One’s ability to honor their body’s messages and cues about hunger and fullness and feeling in touch with their body’s needs are crucial to building a positive body image.

By labeling certain foods in a negative light, we are sending the message that it is wrong or shameful to even want or enjoy eating a certain food, which can cause your child to feel very disconnected from their body. Judging certain foods negatively can also lead to judging yourself negatively for eating them, contributing to lower self-esteem.

• It Can Contribute To An Increased Risk For Disordered Eating Patterns

Feelings of shame, guilt, and low confidence around one’s eating habits can lead to thoughts of compensating or “making up” for perceived mistakes with food. This can contribute to periods of restriction, correlating food with a need for exercise, and attempts to manipulate one’s weight or size to improve self-worth.

The way we talk about food in front of our children can have a large impact on the way they view food as they get older. Setting a neutral, non-judgmental tone around food in your home is a great way to foster a neutral, non-judgmental relationship with food within your children.

Alternatives to Food Labels

We don’t need to label foods, or even think of foods as good or bad. Instead, we need to remember that our relationship with food is not about good or bad decision making. Some tips include:

• Remember That Food Is Neither Morally Good Nor Bad – All foods serve a purpose, and everyone’s dietary intake differs based on their physical, cultural, psychosocial, and socioeconomic status. There is no reason to feel guilty or ashamed for eating certain foods, just like how there’s no reason to feel superior or self-righteous for eating other foods. Remember that your child’s eating habits are not what will make them a good person as they grow and develop.
• Use Neutral Language When Describing Food – Try using more descriptive terms such as crunchy, salty, sweet, chewy, hot, cold, mushy, etc to talk about food. This avoids placing any moral value on foods, and encourages your child to get more in touch with their senses and food preferences so they can vocalize what they actually want to eat. They may be able to identify that they want something crunchy or that they’re in the mood for something sweet – without placing judgment on that desire.
• Recognize That It Is Okay To Sometimes Eat Foods For Reasons Other Than Nutritional Value – We don’t have to pretend that all food is equal – it’s okay to acknowledge that there are some foods that give our bodies more nutrients than others, and there are some foods that are simply meant to be enjoyed for their flavor and mouthfeel. No one has to eat perfectly all of the time and it’s okay to prioritize other aspects of food, such as convenience or taste, over nourishment at times.
• Encourage Your Child To Be In Touch With What Their Body Needs – Try asking your child questions like, “are you starting to get full” or “do you want something crunchy or soft for snack today” so that they can start to learn to listen to their food desires and hunger or fullness cues. This will help instill a strong connection and trust within their bodies so that they feel confident in their food choices moving forward.

If you catch yourself labeling foods as good vs bad often, know that making a focused effort at shifting your language is entirely possible and just takes practice. Over time, it will become intuitive and you won’t need to give it any thought. And, by incorporating neutral language with food you are creating a foundation of strength for your child’s relationship with food and body.

If you’d like to help your improve their relationship with food even further, please reach out to the nutritionists at Appleman Nutrition today for more information about our pediatric nutrition services.