Getting in control

LCHF-followers experienced a lack of control in the traditional food regime, as they were not able to include the aspect of health in their identity narrative. This third theme of the findings refers to how LCHF-followers search to get in control of their lives and identities. The affiliation to the LCHF community and the knowledge of other likeminded in general empowers the individuals to believe in themselves and dare to take the decision of following an alternative food regime. Adherence to the LCHF food regime and the LCHF community makes the consumers self-confident enough to challenge what is traditionally regarded as normal (Sandicki & Ger, 2009).

5.3.1 Listen to your body

One radical difference caused by a change of food regime is that the LCHF-followers learn to trust themselves and listen to their bodies. Instead of relying on traditional authorities LCHF-followers put their trust in the emotional reality of personal and bodily experiences (Kristensen et al., 2011). Their perception of food becomes an individual-dependent lifestyle element with the body as instrument when it comes to deciding what food to eat:

(…) You don't really understand how people can feel better not eating something most people eat. I believe it is (…) lack of understanding or even more, lack of feeling it on your own body" (App. 8: l. 363-366, Xenia).

"(…) Feeling how my body is, or how I sleep at night, how my temper (is) (…). It’s almost all aspects of life. I have started considering what feels good more than what someone says I ought to do" (App. 6: l. 214-217, Maria K.).

According to the LCHF food regime the body should be the main focus, when deciding which food to incorporate and let become part of your identity. A respondent explains how her

perception of health changed when she started listening to her body: "(LCHF) was (…) like a way to get away from the focus on food, which was (…) satiation versus hunger and more in relation to a way, where it nourishes your body" (App. 8: l. 105-107, Xenia). The main focus with regard to food was previously hunger and satiation in a continuous rollercoaster to the respondent, whereas now nourishment of the body is more important. The respondent elaborates her changed approach to food:

"(…) It has become more like a health-thing after I stopped focusing on conventional health, it's like now I feel, I can eat my way to good health, and I never really felt that before. (…) It is not at all because I left the focus on food, but I think it is in the way, where I want it to taste good but at the same time it also has to be beneficial to my body"

(App. 8: l. 151-163, Xenia).

LCHF enables the respondent to feel satiated and healthy, which has become more important to her than to comply with the traditional food regime. This is also an indication of the postmodern individual’s continuous struggle to break free (Firat & Venkatesh, 1995), because the respondent feels free to choose what should constitute her identity, and what is important in her life. The LCHF food regime can be perceived as a provider of meaning for its followers, and it thereby changes the meaning achievable through consumption of certain types of food compared to the traditional food regime (McCracken, 1988a). Eating after the body’s signals is valuable and can provide meaning to a consumer’s life, such as health. The focus on the individual body as provider of meaning is also apparent in Faerber’s explanation of the LCHF lifestyle:

“I will not offer you a lifestyle, which you can copy paste into your own life. (…) I will several times advice you to feel your way and listen to your body, and you might become annoyed with me. Why can’t I just tell you, what to do and how much to eat? I can’t because you and I are not the same” (Faerber, 2013: 9).

Faerber points directly to the self-control needed by the consumer to break free from old habits and embrace a new lifestyle. An advice LCHF-followers can relate to because it is based on Faerber’s personal experience. One of the respondents explains her comprehension of the mind-set, which is in accordance with Faerber’s: "Readjust yourself. So that you don't think it’s a pity that I can't have this cake or this bread. No it's good for you, that you don't choose to eat that kind (of food), but instead take some kind of alternative" (App. 4: l. 528-530, Maria). It is a positive

choice LCHF-followers make for themselves in choosing an alternative lifestyle. They receive confirmation of this both through bodily experiences but also through the LCHF community.

5.3.2 Take back the control

According to the respondents it is not everyone who has the self-discipline to break with the traditional food regime and dare to follow an alternative food regime: "It’s not everybody who can follow (LCHF) - and thereby resist all the carb-rich temptations" (App. 4: l. 218, Maria). LCHF-followers perceive themselves as those who have the strength to break free, as one respondent explains:

"You have to be willing to do it, because it takes a readjustment. It requires you learn about it in the beginning and it also requires you to answer some questions about why you eat differently" (App. 8: l. 543-545, Xenia).

This quotation elicits how the LCHF food regime is an active choice made by the followers, and it becomes an important part of their lives due to the time they spend on learning about it and the benefits it provides them. This conclusion is supported by the proposal that consumers obtain a stronger self by learning to control consumption rather than by being controlled by it (Belk, 1988). LCHF-followers control their food consumption through reliance on their body signals.

More of the respondents perceive LCHF as an important part of their lives but it is not controlling their lives and opportunities, as the traditional food regime did. A respondent articulates: "It’s a lifestyle – a lifestyle change you make. But it’s also just a way you eat" (App. 4: l. 116-118, Maria). This respondent expresses how important the choice of following LCHF was to her, but at the same time she clarifies that LCHF does not control her. Another respondent agrees that LCHF does not constitute her identity:

"(…) There are a lot of young girls (…) who will attach their entire identity to something they eat, or who will feel bad from eating something they think they shouldn't. (…) I'm simply too old for that." (App. 7: l. 354-357, Jane).

More of the respondents agree to this claim that LCHF is not a part of their identity, but their stories of how much it affects every aspect of their daily lives contradicts this claim. Furthermore, research shows that the food we eat is crucial to the creation of identity (Fischler, 1988). Based on Belk (1988) I will argue that, especially when an alternative food regime is chosen, the food

consumed indeed becomes extension of the respondents’ selves and is hence important parts of the consumers’ identities (Belk, 1988). The LCHF lifestyle contributes to a change in the respondents’ perception of themselves, since by following the LCHF food regime they not only add healthy to their identity narratives but also self-discipline. One of the respondents explains how following LCHF has turned her life around: "It's crystal clear that it (LCHF) is much better for me, also mentally, that I don't have pains (…). Also the mood - you can recognise yourself again. I couldn't previously" (App. 4: l. 383-386, Maria). LCHF clearly plays a significant role in the respondents’ lives even though it is important for them to underline that the lifestyle is self-chosen and not restrictive in ways they do not want it to be. Only one of the respondents argues that following LCHF says something about her: “(Not thinking) too traditionally I think. (…) And dare to follow your own road” (App. 6: l. 329-334, Maria K.). Following LCHF empowers the respondent, as she perceives it as positive to break free of the traditional pattern and choose her own path. LCHF manages to distance her from the passive identity she possessed within the traditional food regime (Ahuvia, 2005).

5.3.3 New mind-set

One of the biggest challenges in relation to a new food regime is the change of mind-set. The consumers need to leave who they were in the past in favour of who they can become in the future (Ahuvia, 2005). An important element of the traditional food regime is ‘fat fright’, that is a fear of too much saturated fat. Most of the respondents mention the fat fright as a hurdle to overcome:

"(…) I was still very fat frightened, because I’ve always been that. (…) I've been raised with it"

(App. 7: l. 100, Jane), "(…) I was very fat frightened before. Because you have learned, that you have to be careful" (App. 4: l. 191-192, Maria) and: "(…) In Denmark we are very afraid of fat.

And so was I of course, I thought it was strange, that I suddenly had to drink cream (…) when we are raised with (…) light products" (App. 3: l. 62-64, Janni). The kind of learning the respondents refer to of fat is a well-established myth in contemporary food culture (Zacho, 2014). To incorporate food is to incorporate some of its properties (Fischler, 1988), and the respondents have learned through their lives that saturated fat will make you fat and thereby the opposite of healthy. Consumers have neglected fat-containing food because it did not contribute to a healthy self-image in the traditional food regime (Belk, 1988). When LCHF-followers refuse to avoid saturated fat they clearly show to the world that they have abandoned the traditional food regime to search for health in an alternative regime. Thus, fat comes to play an important role in the shift of mind-set. The LCHF-followers’ desired self is to be healthy, and through a LCHF diet including saturated fat they find a way to eat their way to health. The LCHF food regime comes to

stand as a counter-myth or -story, which its followers can use to address the desire of a future healthy identity (Holt, 2004). This story encourages consumers to search for healthiness through reliance on your body instead of through complying with restrictions.

Besides overcoming the fat fright LCHF-followers learn to appreciate authenticity, which is a trend within food that has gained grounds the last couple of years (Food trend, 2015). A respondent expresses the desire for real food, which is understood similar to authentic:

“I think I’ve changed with all this LCHF. It has opened my eyes for something else. The thing about eating clean food. (…) I’ve started thinking much more about what we eat.

(…) It’s the LCHF-philosophy about (…) all the processed food – we have to be careful”

(App. 6: l. 199-207, Maria K.).

The respondent appreciates the authenticity of food, which is a tendency among consumers possessing high cultural capital within a field dominated by materialism (Holt, 1998). Materialism can in this context be understood as mass production, which according to LCHF-followers dominates the traditional food regime. The new mind-set brought by the LCHF food regime contributes to a movement away from the mass produced and towards an emphasis on emotional and authentic. A respondent elaborates on how the philosophy of LCHF has come to permeate her entire life:

“It’s funny, it has actually influenced our entire lives (…). Just as we have cleaned our cupboards for food not complying with LCHF, we have also cleaned up our lives (…) for instance which friends we have: do we need a lot or is it actually better with just a close social circle? (…) We have cleaned up our lives, and I think it has something to do with the LCHF-thought of (…) clean food” (App. 6: l. 680-687, Maria K.).

This respondent has truly been empowered to take back control in her life by following the LCHF food regime. The LCHF food regime has made LCHF-followers appreciate not only the consumption of food but also the production of food (Johnston & Baumann, 2010). LCHF-followers learn how to take control over all aspects of their lives to create most possible value for themselves.

5.3.4 Why is it interesting to marketers?

The theme of consumers getting in control provides marketers with a unique understanding of how consumers perceive food consumption and what they achieve from it. A key learning point to marketers is to meet LCHF-followers’ desire of feeling in control. Marketing messages should underline that the LCHF-follower herself is the only one that can achieve health. It is also important that marketers acknowledge that LCHF is not perceived as a weight loss diet among LCHF-followers. Marketing messages promoting it as such will fail since LCHF-followers reject it as disconnected to their self-image; they do not perceive themselves as being on a restrictive diet. A weight loss diet is according to LCHF-followers not perceived as related to health.

Marketers must seek to change the discourse from perceiving LCHF as a temporary solution for a weight problem to a self-chosen healthy lifestyle. LCHF-followers should be approached with a message of health and wellbeing much in accordance with the slogan of Faerber’s blog “Real food for real people” (Faerber’s blog, n.d.).

Presenting LCHF-followers to authentic food with a natural emergence will be in accordance with their self-image and appeal to them in their process of getting in control of their own health.

Marketers should focus on presenting products and brands as authentic, which can be obtained through tastemakers central to LCHF-followers (Holt, 2002). LCHF-followers for instance relate to Faerber’s story of getting in control of her own life, and marketers can try to seek out allegiances with such heavily influencing characters to diffuse the idea that the given marketer or brand can provide the LCHF-followers cultural value (Holt, 2002).