Food science major discusses Thanksgiving, food, and anxiety

Hello everyone. For this article, I highly recommend everyone grab their favorite hot drink and the comfiest blankets or sweater while you open your heart. A friend asked me to discuss the topic of “Thanksgiving Food Worries,” and as someone who has struggled with this for years, how could I say no? This given, this article includes themes of eating disorders, disordered eating, and negative thoughts surrounding holiday foods. So if that’s not your feeling, feel free to tune in another time.

When I was a kid, Thanksgiving started with the Macy’s Day Parade in Times Square. It would be my sisters, my mother, and I huddled on the couch around 9 a.m. watching the livestream of the parade while my father rushed around the kitchen to make coffee for us to share. I remember me and my siblings asking each other which float or huge balloon character was our favorite (I was always a fan of Charlie Brown or Snoopy).

We always discussed what was on the menu that day and who brought what. In particular, we always asked my mother to make sweet potato casserole: a thick mashed sweet potato with a skin of crispy, oven-baked marshmallows that soothed your soul in more ways than you could imagine. To this day, this dish may be the only thing I look forward to on Turkey Day, but pecan pie, stuffing, and my aunt’s very generic box mix brownies are the runners-up.

So why are we ultimately afraid or stressed about these foods?

Well, there is such a thing as “diet culture,” and it’s not the best. Over the course of my life, as a child, I vividly remember seeing adults refuse food because it contained a lot of sugar, too many carbohydrates, or some other reason that gave food a negative connotation. While it’s good to look after your health (since everyone is different and may have different needs), it’s also important to look after your soul.

If we had a Thanksgiving diet culture every year, imagine how many foods would be changed to a “healthy” version. Fake sugar cake, keto bread, mac n’ cheese made with cottage cheese instead of cheddar – how awful would that be? (Especially that last one – fried cottage cheese sounds absolutely terrible). We don’t just consume food to keep us alive; it is something that connects us with people because it is a huge part of our social, cultural and intrapersonal traditions. Thanksgiving is a time to share a meal with those you love, catch up with family and friends, and laugh about the adventures you’ve had over the months – without worrying about calories or calories. sugars you consume.

Ultimately, the amount of food you eat in a day does not determine your health or happiness, but your mindset. If we were afraid of what we would eat every day, I believe we would all collectively go crazy – or at least I started to. Not to mention, you feel terrible all the time. You’re constantly thinking about what you ate, what you’re going to eat, and so on. That’s not how I want to live my life. I won’t be remembered for the size of my waist or if I didn’t have cellulite.

I will be remembered for the art I did, how many people I met and how many of them I hugged, and the way I looked when I laughed, the stupid squeaking sound from the tea kettle erupting from me, followed by a cackle of pure pleasure. People will talk about what I did with my life, not what I ate during my life, because honestly, that’s just weird.

Thanksgiving is one day a year that you can share with people you really care about. Or at least I hope that if you care about them, they care about you even more. (I don’t know what everyone’s situation is, but I hope this Thanksgiving is the best it can be, because you deserve it.) What Thanksgiving is not is a day to be afraid. It’s a day of gratitude for all you have, and the food shared around the table should represent how we can all appreciate what we have and the people who are willing to share their lives with us.

One of the greatest compliments I ever received in my life was for being hospitable and non-judgmental. If anyone wanted me to judge them, they would either have to do something absolutely horrible or ask me outright. This is my favorite compliment because it showed me that I was the person I wanted to be around as a child. I am the person I needed when no one else was around when I was little. By being that person for others, I give that past version of myself that fulfillment.

Okay, enough of the juice. How do we deal with fear foods during the holidays?

Let’s first start with the food itself. Is it the texture? How it looks? Is there a memory associated with it that you don’t like? Has anyone commented? Once you know why you fear food, we can work on how to accept and forgive that fear. Remember that our fear and anger are defense mechanisms designed to protect us. While anger lashes out offensively, fear defends us against something we have identified as a physical, mental, and/or emotional threat.

Second, how can we overcome this fear? This will be different for everyone, but the best advice I can give is as follows:

• Baby steps.
• You don’t have to eat all of the fear food. Trying is the first goal, because it proves that you did not, in fact, spontaneously combust on the spot. Nobody’s going to say anything. If you still don’t like the texture, now you know for sure. Has that memory come back? Will you allow yourself to create a new one?
• Exposure
• Similar to how you do reps at the gym and increase the weight over time, the same thing is done here. You can’t grow without pushing your limits a little. How much you push is solely up to you. As long as you are aware that you are pushing yourself, you can do anything.
• Celebration of achievement
• Dude, you conquered fear. Even though it didn’t feel “super big,” you still did something to overcome it. Rome was not built in a day and will not fall in a day. By giving yourself positive affirmations, you allow positive things into and about your life. You can make new memories and move on from the old ones.

Ultimately, it all comes down to mentality. If you think what you eat determines your happiness, then it will, because that’s what you believe. But if you change that thinking to something like, “I can enjoy the foods I love without guilt, while still listening to my body,” then chances are a healthier relationship with food can be restored.

Anyway, I hope this article has been helpful as we enter the Thanksgiving season. With finals approaching, I can certainly understand the nervousness and stress that may be starting to dissipate at this point. But take a deep breath and let it go: you’ve got this. And when it feels like no one else believes in you, just know that a certain blogger does.

Have a great day everyone, and feel free to contact BGlav1@unh.newhaven.edu or beatriceg2022@gmail.com with any questions, blog ideas, or comments.

Thanks everyone so much for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.
Peace, love and peanut butter,
Bea ❤️

Beatrice Glaviano ’26 is studying food science at the University of New Haven.