What you can learn from my Grandma about nutrition!

My grandmother lived 100 glorious years and was vivacious right up until the week before she passed.

She taught me a lot of things, she was a smart and wise woman, but one of the things I admired most from her is that she was a lifelong learner. On many topics in life, she never seemed to arrive at a place where she thought she had it all figured out, but instead, was curious. It was because of this that she shared a big food discovery with me…in her 90’s.

Grandma Jane and I shared a love for potato chips. When I was younger, she always said that once she got going with potato chips she wouldn’t stop, so she rarely bought them and kept them at home.

There is even a funny story that one of our groomsmen, Jeff, likes to tell about Grandma and potato chips. After our ceremony, the wedding party, parents and Grandma waited in a room while guests exited the church so we could take pictures after. 

The room was stocked with snacks, potato chips specifically, and Grandma asked Jeff to keep handing her individual chips one by one. 

“Chip please!” she would say each time she wanted another. Jeff kept offering her the whole bag so she could serve herself and she kept refusing it. 

And so Jeff continued to dutifully dole them out to her one by one in response to the parrot-like command “chip please!”

I guess Grandma thought this was a safer way to consume chips, with a handler, not trusting herself with the whole bag.

Fast forward a number of years and I will never forget Grandma excitedly telling me that she now kept her house regularly stocked with potato chips. 

“Megan!” she said (I’ll never forget how she would say my name when she was about to tell me something profound), “I always assumed that if I kept potato chips in the house that I would NEVER stop eating them. But that’s not what happened at all! I can keep chips in the house and not eat them all and it’s just fine!”

I laughed and was thrilled to hear that she had gained this newly found body trust and now could allow potato chips to bring her more joy in life more often.

AND it gave me an opportunity to illustrate the work that I do with clients, something that I have a hard time verbalizing. 

“Grandma, in its simplest form, that is the work that I do with my clients.”

She told me I needed to tell more people about this, so here I am, telling you. 

You might be wondering, does it really matter if I eat potato chips (or insert any other food you really enjoy but don’t trust yourself with)? 

I will say enjoyment of food matters because enjoyment of food enhances our life, and enjoyment of life matters a whole lot. And furthermore, the opposite, guilt and negative self-talk about food choices affects our emotional and mental well-being and is a hindrance in our lives and I believe on our health. 

And body trust matters because our bodies hold a lot of wisdom about our needs. Nutrition is way more nuanced than the prescriptive nutrition recommendations that we are bombarded with and the secret to YOUR nutritional health is within YOU. 

And I want you to know that potato chips were the last food that Grandma Jane enjoyed on this earth (the last drink was hot black coffee and I cannot tell you how apropos this was).