"An army marches on its stomach." --  Napoleon

"Eat to live, not live to eat."  -- Moliere

            Go ahead.  Answer the question.  Who tells you what to eat?  "Nobody," you might answer.  "I do!" someone else might say.  Unless you're an infant or the unfortunate victim of a disability that prevents you from feeding yourself, you'd be pretty confident that your answer was true. 

            But with apologies up front to your offended sense of individuality, that isn't true.  Let's take a brief look at why....

Motivation, Motivation, Motivation

            Before we were old enough to know the difference between a corn flake and a bran muffin being hungry made us cry.  Of course, nearly anything that was uncomfortable made us cry way back then.  The point is that there was a link between our body's sense of needing to be fed and our response in trying to encourage our mothers to meet that need. 

            When we were old enough to sit at the table with a plate in front of us, we were inculcated with the infamous phrase, "Clean your plate or you can't have any dessert."  So we hemmed and hawed and eventually those nasty Brussels sprouts were choked down or that dry chunk of meat was dutifully chewed and swallowed.  Bring on the cupcakes, Mom, we've earned our reward!  We were learning the value of comfort food.

            Later on, after our social conscience had developed a bit, we were encouraged to think of others as we ate our asparagus.  "There are starving people in other countries," your mother would quip as you poked at your green beans.  Envisioning millions of people going through their lives without the aid of green beans was motivation enough-sometimes-for us to finish our veggies. 

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

            Let's return back to the original question:  Who tells you what to eat?  Still think you do?  Guess again.  There are an army of people out there whose business it is to influence what you put in your mouth each and every day.  They do this in more than one way. 

Overt ways of nudging you to choose their brands or eat at their particular restaurant are fairly straightforward.   Billboards plaster the highways anywhere we travel, garish packaging proclaims tasty goodies held inside, and colorful displays draw our eyes toward something we might not otherwise have seen. 

            There are also more covert ways that your food choices are influenced.  How about the television commercials insisting that you aren't a good parent if you don't feed your child Brand X Macaroni and Cheese or fill his or her lunch box with Brand Y Potato Chips.  After all-and this is another way we're influenced-you loved them as a child.  Sneaky, but very effective.  They hit you right where you live...right in the comfortable memories of yesteryear.  Besides, you enjoyed eating at Restaurant X when you were a child.  Remember the taste of that hamburger all over again with your own children. 

The Answer To the Question

            So who really does tell you what to eat?  The answer is that we are bombarded by messages urging us to eat foods that run the gamut from merely overly processed to those that bear no resemblance at all to the fruits, grains, or meats they were made from.  Read the labels sometime.  They're better than any horror movie!

            We also carry within us the kernels of our past.  Seeds of poor eating behavior that were planted early in our lives and that are very difficult to change.  Our parents' voices come back loud and clear as we sit in a restaurant shoveling in the gigantic portions set before us in preparation for an equally colossal dessert.  Then we wonder why our clothes fit more tightly and we lack energy and drive. 

            Somebody once said, "You are what you eat."  Truer words were never spoken!  Take a look at what you eat in a day, in a week.  Write it down.  See how many processed, manufactured or pre-packaged foods you consume regularly.  Don't forget sodas, juices, and coffee, too. 

            Then ask yourself the question again, "Who really tells you what to eat?" 

            The answer might surprise you.

Joyce Koester is a registered nurse who works at a hospital in Austin, Texas.  She is also an INBF bodybuilder who recently titled in Novice Light Class.  Her hobbies include playing guitar, keeping her journal, and antique-hunting with her fiancé.