What are "healthy" meals? And why I choose to use the word nourishing.

When building my website, I started with a few templates for “cooking classes” and it took me hours to go through and remove the word healthy from all the different places it was pre-loaded.

I don’t think healthy is a bad word, but I think it’s an adjective that is way overused in our culture and carries more meaning than it should, especially around food. 

Is it healthful to choose foods rich in nutrients? Does it make you feel physically better? Of course! There doesn’t need to be virtuousness or morality tied with it though and that’s usually what I feel carries the most meaning.

There was often a dialogue when I grew up around naming any time something wasn’t healthy but you chose to eat it. Ex. I had a piece of cheesecake with dinner, "not the healthiest but it was good". Like why do we feel we must name that? We can just say had a piece of tasty cheesecake and I enjoyed it, no extra judgement needed.

When I sit with clients in my private practice, we talk about this word, healthy and healthy meals, often. We unpack where our definition of it originated, how what’s healthy for one person is not always healthy for another, and other beliefs that are tied to it.

I think our language on how we talk about food matters a lot, to both ourselves and to our kids. Often times adjectives are still needed to describe food. We talk about foods that help us feel full, foods that help our bones, muscles, immune system. And foods that provide comfort and tradition and memories.

The word nourishing lands for me. All food has nourishment. Some may be rich in omega 3’s and vitamin K (salmon & broccoli) or some may be nourishing with extra energy, protein & comfort (white chicken chili). 

I think about when I have a stomach ache and a burger and fries is what feels nourishing for me when I start to feel better. A salad would make me feel worst, too hard to digest. On the flip side, if I have a busy day, I may make a salad loaded with toppings that may make me feel more satiated than a burger and fries. 

At the end of the day, I get that it’s just a word and maybe it doesn’t bring any complication with it for you (I hope so!). But if it does, there’s freedom to let that word go and maybe find a new way of talking about food. If you’d like to learn more, join a meal prep party to prep nourishing meals together that support your health, but also your relationship to food!