The word diet has been deformed a lot today due to the vision it has had on social networks. And not only because of social networks, which is “current”, but because of the names of miracle diets such as the pineapple diet, detox diet, etc., the diets that doctors have been providing without taking into account the individualization of the patient, of supplements that do not work whose only purpose is sales, etc.
All this generates a totally distorted reality of what diets or eating habits really are. It is something unreal, but it has a huge impact on us, not only at a symbolic level, but also phylogenetically speaking, that is, how we see that kind of thing at an evolutionary level.
Nowadays, the topic of social networks is very problematic (not them themselves, since they have also had a positive impact) due to the use that is usually given to them. Normally, influencers always upload the best part of the day and we can differentiate it in two extremes. Those who upload only ultra-processed foods and have a very aesthetic body, and those who upload super restrictive diets “without problems”, when off camera it is not like that. This creates extra stress on us.
EVERYTHING about fruit, does it make you fatter at night, do you have to take it between meals?
How it looked in ancient Greece
If we have to introduce ourselves in Greece, we have to know the schools that deal with how the human being should behave, the polis. As it was the correct way, both in social or political life, to behave as a good citizen.
Among various visions, we can locate two currents that continue to be part of the study of happiness, which are the hedonic and eudaimonic traditions.
The thought hedonic was more about the search for pleasure, to satisfy desires and let’s say that he proposed that the human being had to live life, maximize pleasant experiences and minimize painful experiences.
We found that they were not just referring to spending all day self-administering pleasure in the most lazy way possible, but Epicurus himself said that one should not inflate oneself to pleasure, but reduce suffering and lead a moderate life. Hedonism should not be seen as a totally unsubstantiated part, when speaking of Greek philosophical thought.
On the other hand I was the eudaimonic school, which we find that is conceptualized in that the human being should not be or should live to procure pleasure, but to procure virtue. By this they meant to live with a sense of justice, with purposes, kindness towards others, taking into account the internal nature of people.
They were opposed to the hedonic school in the sense that the human being could be perverted by being a slave to his desires and that they considered that pleasure was often obtained through reprehensible behavior, that is, that pleasure could even be the opposite of what the human being had to be.
They thought that they could know who was virtuous and who was not and they could objectify what each one was.
Therefore, depending on the school you belonged to in ancient Greece, diet could bring you health or virtue, all depending on your morals.
How has it changed over time?
With the passage of time, the diet was really seen as something totally evolutionary, that is, you had to farm, take care of livestock, etc., in order to eat and survive, without more. If it is true that in the middle Ages, people of high social rank, sought beauty through food, the more they ate and, therefore, greater weight they had, greater symbol of beauty and social status.
It was From the Victorian era, when people began to see beyond the food-health relationship, the concern for beauty began. Ads began to appear about diets, diet drugs, etc. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, laxatives and very dangerous substances such as dinitroferol, which could cause blindness, began to be sold.
Finally, the rest of the 20th century to the present dayBetween Hollywood’s rising fame and slim bodies, America’s slimming clubs and diet names, has generated a distortion of what the word diet means. Something that should be normalized as a way to achieve good health, sports goals, etc., has become an annihilator of the most vulnerable people.
Today, the diet that is followed or, better said, the eating habit, has to provide you with the maximum possible health, both physiologically and psychologically. We often forget the effect that food has on people’s mental health, and it is something that we should not neglect.
Do not let comments, photos, posts on social networks, advertisements, etc., make you abandon a correct eating habit and that does not generate anxiety, since what is seen outside is only an instant of the 24 hours of the day.
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Information | Alfonso Bordallo ICNS