What a woman should eat, you dined at your place todayin the office? Or in a restaurant? Or maybe you just had a snack with friends on the go? Be that as it may, I bet you paid attention to what other women ate. Moreover, if they ate something unusual, then a few minutes were enough for you to figure out the origin of the product, its health benefits and, most importantly, decide whether you should also try this thing. Don't worry, you are not alone. Food voyeurism is a new manifestation of our complex relationship with food. Now the usual diet is not enough, we certainly need to know who else eats how and why. Glossy magazines keep us passionate about what celebrities like for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You would like of course! After all, there you can look into the refrigerator and study the shopping list. So why do we need to control not only what we eat, but also what the people around us eat? It is partly a matter of our innate desire to be equal to others. We like to think that we are unique, but in reality we are all herd animals and observe friends and colleagues, copying their behavior. Drowning out the voice of our own body, we repeat: "Diet, detox, healthy eating", focusing on those whose success inspires respect. But do you have colleagues who plan the diet using the lunar calendar, adhering to the Atkins diet and the principles of separate nutrition at the same time? So why the hell are you doing this? “There are an incredible amount of food restrictions that we and the people around us have invented. Food is now associated with both guilt and a lot of fears, so that women no longer listen to their appetite, ”- laments psychotherapist Susie Orbach, author of the book“ Fat is a feminist problem ”. In my personal experience, food voyeurism is nowhere more pronounced than in the office. In the company where I am in the state, it is customary to dine at my workplace. An obligatory item on the program is a box with lunch, "hastily assembled" the night before. In fact, there are only two options: either you carefully think over the menu, following the latest trends from celebrities, or you just shop in some supermarket and then pray that the box will hide your shame. The paranoia begins when the first brave woman pulls out lunch to the enthusiastic exclamations of colleagues: “How delicious it smells! How beautiful it looks! How much have you prepared! " But what they really say is, "Is your food better than mine?" Each strives to outdo the rest. Last week I watched as a completely normal and sensible lady, seeing what her friend brought, exclaimed: “Oh, caviar! Is someone else eating it? "
A friend of mine confessed that she asked fordeliver her organic vegetables when neighbors are at home and can be witnesses to her caring for her diet. It's about the same as "accidentally" showing people around the logos like Prada or Chanel on their things - what's the point of wasting time and money on something that no one will notice? Another friend of mine complains that the trip to the local supermarket takes at least two hours, because she always puts the products in the basket, then puts them back on the shelf - depending on what other women take. I myself left the queue at the last minute to the checkout, noticing a slender girl with some unusual sprouted seeds, because she felt an irresistible desire to buy exactly the same. Then I put these shoots in the basket, feeling like a brave culinary adventurer, but now I understand that I actually succumbed to "food paranoia." Another friend of mine, who often meets celebrities of the highest rank, says she never misses the opportunity to look into the coolers of the stars. She is making fun of famous actresses who eat red food for one week, and another one is yellow, or over models that believe that there are fewer calories in overdue food. At first glance, she tells these stories to show how abnormal the stars are, but we both know that in fact she is terribly interested in their point of view. In fact, women are obsessed with what they eat, what they do not eat and what they should be eaten, because they believe in the existence of the only correct answer to all questions related to nutrition. Some Holy Grail consumption. Despite all the efforts, deep down we understand that the main thing is not achieved. If only you could find a cunning diet that would solve all our problems! For example, Gwyneth Paltrow swears that you can lose weight with dandelion tea, Jennifer Lopez sniffs grapefruit oil to suppress appetite, Cindy Crawford swallows vinegar before meals and Jennifer Aniston sits on a diet based on sushi ... So , can, and we try? Interesting ideas, but, of course, they do not guarantee a result. Aniston looks so good thanks to regular visits to the gym, good genes and careful care of herself, and not just because she is breakfasting rolls with tuna instead of sandwiches with butter. Only confessing to ourselves in this, we will be able to establish normal relations with food and finally relax a little. Our dietary preferences should be as individual as the contents of the cosmetic bag or a list of former guys. By the way, about the latter: have you ever seen a man looking with interest at the contents of his friend's plate? They know: competition in choosing food is inappropriate.
