Nutritionist Wilma Macdonald believes food should always be pleasurable, and we shouldn’t feel guilty about what we eat
I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease at 21, but was told there was nothing I could do about it. After getting an infection 10 years later and struggling to recover, I found nutrition made a big difference. I was working in finance at the time, burning myself out and working long hours. I decided to retrain as a nutritionist in 2014 and give it a go.
When I talk to clients about nutrition, they’re worried I’m going to take away all their favourite foods; that food will simply be left as fuel without any aspect of joy or pleasure attached to it. From my point of view, although food is fuel, it’s also something that brings people together. If we have a big party or a wedding, food is such a big part of that. For some reason, we feel like in order to have a healthy diet we have to forget that. All salads, no sugar; no fun.
I’m a big fan of making sure that there are elements of joy and pleasure in your diet. A lot of people who come to see me are mothers, and their libido is on the floor. Your sex drive is one of the key indicators of your vitality – If that’s gone, it’s a signal that your vitality is low.
It’s about reframing your attitude to think that no food is good or bad: it’s just there
Aphrodisiacs have a place, especially oysters and anything with zinc in it; but to be honest, anything can be an aphrodisiac depending on the situation. For example if you cook a nice dessert with someone, that might be an aphrodisiac. My love language is tiramisu, and for me if that’s something I can share with someone, that’s an element of pleasure. Aphrodisiacs have their place, but it’s like sticking a plaster on a big wound; unless you deal with other aspects of your life, there’s no point in guzzling oysters like your sex life depends upon it.
A lot of people often feel guilty and apologise when I ask them to make a food diary; there’s a lot of shame about it, which is a myth we really need to debunk. It’s about reframing your attitude to think that no food is good or bad: it’s just there. If you love pizza, it has a place on your plate!
Diet culture feeds on all the insecurities around how we eat, including clean eating, demonising certain foods, cauliflower becoming pizza etc. I think cauliflower pizza smells like feet, and it tastes even worse, so why would you want to eat it? You should be able to eat the foods you love and find pleasurable without having to face any guilt.