Eat What You Want Day

We live in a world of diet culture and growing obesity which has created a situation where many of us are obsessed with what we eat or don’t eat.

Recent information from Statista found that over half of British people had tried to diet in order to lose weight. Out of those who diet, be it regularly or even once, 95% fail and even those that do lose weight, the majority will gain it back again within 1-5 years.

The Importance Of Eating Healthily

Of course, it is important to eat healthily. Eating healthy, good-quality food on a regular basis can help protect you against a number of healthcare conditions including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic issues. It can also help boost your immunity and act as a barrier against colds and other bugs. But the key to a truly wonderful eating regime is eating in a balanced manner.

Eating a balanced diet means you still get to enjoy ‘naughty’ food, but are careful to balance it with healthy alternatives. After all, life is short, and food is a great source of enjoyment. It helps us learn, explore, socialise, and some foods even release certain endorphins that make us feel happy. Restricting yourself all the time means you deprive yourself of joy and pleasure. The key is everything in moderation.

Enter, Eat What You Want Day.

This special day was dreamt up by Ruth and Thomas Roy as a way to encourage people to forget about diets, trends, and fads, if even just for one day. They hoped that people would take 24 hours to indulge in food that makes them happy and to not think about calories, fat content, or anything else.

In fact, the majority of nutritionists and healthy eating experts say that having a break every so often can make you more likely to succeed at your goals, and can actually be beneficial. You see, when we deprive ourselves of certain foods, we crave them more. By giving in to them in a structured way, we can stay in control.

There are lots of different ways you can celebrate this day, the obvious being that you eat whatever you want for 24 hours straight. But otherwise, there are some other fun ways you can celebrate such as organising a pot luck garden party. By inviting a handful of guests over, and asking them to each cook their favourite “cheat” food, you can socialise and eat freely together. If you don’t feel like socialising, you can just order your favourite takeaway and settle in at home to play your favourite food-themed slot games. Alternatively, you could cook from scratch, bringing together all your favourite ingredients together, and washing it down with your favourite wine or beer.

Whether you decide to celebrate Eat What You Want Day alone or with friends, make sure you forget the diet and eat exactly what you want, and as much as you want, for 24 hours. As Auguste Escoffier, the famous French chef, writer, and restaurateur once said, “Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.”