Blog #6: Hangry about our food choices

I get hangry. My hangry is a little different than the normal person. I get hungry, then angry, anxious, and stressed out at the options available to me. I have struggled with eating disorders since I can remember. It’s not always bad. When I’m able to exercise regularly and eat healthy fuel food, I’m fine. But when I’m feeling normal and just want to grab a quick bite while running between classes, when I’m on a road trip, when I’m staying with others who are providing food, or am in a social situation where I am not in direct control of what food I am going to be able to  put into my body, I get extreme anxiety because there are not healthy options. There’s no way to put fuel into my body, I am hungry but the only options I have are to literally starve or eat greasy, sugar-rich, nutrient-poor, high calorie foods. I see this as an issue in our society.

It’s not even that people are making the conscious decision to eat poorly, they simply don’t have the option provided to them to choose healthier alternatives. It is SO MUCH EASIER to eat foods that are terrible for you. It takes so much more time and effort to eat healthily, you have to consciously think of every item you’re consuming, you must grocery shop in advance (and shop healthy options which, let’s face it, are just more expensive than the easier and less healthy choices). You have to meal-prep, pack food, and learn how to say no when offered (or just presented the opportunity) to eat unhealthy options. My life sometimes feels like its consumed with trying to be healthy. If I am running late and don’t have time to pack food for the day, not to mention if I haven’t had time to meal-prep for the week, I am faced with what to me feels like a terrifying decision. I can grab food from somewhere during the day (which is expensive and never as healthy as my own food), I can miss whatever it is I’m running late to and stay home to make healthy food, or I can go the day without food (which honestly just makes me hangry and I end up reverting back to option 1 feeling very defeated).

In our society, we are constantly on the run, constantly out of time and looking to cut corners, and we are forced to make decisions like these. Healthy options should be readily available in order to promote a healthier society. If I could, I’d open up a health food chain right now, but I am a broke college student with absolutely no spare time, so the best I can do is make my opinions heard. Many advocations have been made to supply healthier options in schools and at food pantries, but no one has been looking at the lack of real health food available to the general busy public. Sure, “healthy” options have been made available at fast food chains, but these are really just false advertising meant to lure in the uneducated public. The yogurt parfait at McDonalds, which I was told by a worker was the “healthy” way to go when I recently was forced to stop for food there in the middle of an 18 hour drive through Nebraska, has OVER TWICE the amount of sugar as a chocolate donut!!! (23g vs 11g) This is ridiculous! Things marketed as “health foods” are actually harming individuals who don’t know any better, so even if they attempt to opt for the healthier choice, they might be doing themselves harm! This is not the individual’s fault, because seriously we have been conditioned to think that yogurt is better than a donut because it freaking should be, this is the industry and our society’s fault. But we, the individuals, are the ones who must advocate for change. Educate yourselves, educate others, and make your needs heard by the companies at the corporate level. Take to social media, send an email, take your business elsewhere. Let them know that you want to fuel your body, not fill it under false pretenses.