What's in your mouth?
As most people who know me realize, I tend to go on rants about food fairly frequently. Why do I care what you are eating?
A few reasons, honestly.
One: I really want the way people eat to change for everyone's benefit. The more people demand higher qualities and standards for the food we eat, the more the market will eventually change so that these foods are easier to find/more accessible. 10 years ago, it was insanely hard to get organic foods. Now? There are entire markets dedicated to organic foods, farmer's markets popping up in towns all over, and people are (slightly) more educated about these things, ostensibly because they are more widely available. I'd love to see better quality meat (no pink slime, no hormones/antibiotics, humanely-raised, and grass-fed) in every grocery, more access to better fats (coconut oil, grass-fed butters, nut oils & butters, etc), and a wider variety of organic & locally-grown vegetables.
Two: Most of the processed food isn't food. Foods that come in boxes, tins, or plastic bags are not good for you and often dangerous to eat. The middle parts of the grocery store and fast food joints are to be avoided at all costs. I guess rhetoric like this gets called "food shaming," but really, how different is it me asking people to stop using heroin or stop smoking cigarettes? They are all addicitive and all bad for you. Just because you don't die when you eat a bag of Doritios doesn't mean they did you any good. Same with heroin!
Most processed food that is popular and easy to buy & eat is nutritionally incomplete: you are starving yourself of important nutrients and putting too many of the wrong kinds of things into your body instead. These are often made with chemicals, fillers, and artifical flavorings that are designed to be addictive by large corporations, so that you'll crave it and keep buying it. Do you really trust these guys to have your best interests at heart? Ultimately, you are all adults with free will and you can eat as you choose, but realize that we didn't evolve eating Red Dye #9, disodium inosinate, high fructose corn syrup, or vegetable oils. Do you think your body really has any idea how to deal with large amounts of these fake foods & chemicals? Would you take an animal from the wild and feed it a diet of cheetoes, pepsi, and fast food and expect it to thrive? WE ARE ANIMALS, TOO!
I admit that I am a bit of a conspiracy nut with some of these things, but look at the ingredients in a lot of food: sugars of various types, MSG/glutens, soy... these things are in almost EVERYTHING, and as far as I'm concerned, these are the three most dangerous things you can eat. They are addictive and do really fucked up things to your body over time. But that's what they want: complacent people who will keep coming back for more.
I came across this video via a podcast I was listening to earlier today. This woman went from being a reclined wheelchair for four years to biking 18 miles in less than a year after changing her diet. She promotes whole, unprocessed foods that support brain health and proper body growth & function. I'm not saying food is a miracle fix-all cure for everything. Far from it. But it's one of the easiest things to change, and one of the best ways one can take on the responsibility and advocacy for one's own health. There isn't one specific way to eat that is going to work for every person (just because Paleo/Primal works for me doesn't mean it's for you!), but at the very least we can all agree that we as a society (especially Americans) need to wake the fuck up and stop eating so much goddamned garbage.
I am NOT promoting a diet. I'm talking about changing your relationship with how you eat and what constitues food. Fad diets, yo-yo dieting, crash diets, starvation, calorie-counting... fuck all that nonsense. Just eat well! You take care of your body and it will take care of you! Skip out on packaged crap, sugar bombs, and things disguised as being good for you (see also: the Low-Fat trap!). Eat things that don't have ingredients. Eat like the zombie apocalypse happened and the only foods you can get are ones you can hunt or grow yourelf. Cook for yourself as often as you can. Invest in a crock pot. Play, walk, and use your body to move in all the fantastic ways it was designed to move. Sleep well. If you lose 50 pounds or just 1? You are still on a better path than most, and you should be proud of yourself for taking the initiative.
I just want people to be more aware, more cognizant of where their food comes from, and what it does for their bodies. Our country is SO fucked up with what we think of as food, or what we identify as "good for you" or "bad for you." Often it's the exact opposite of reality. It's not so much for me to ask that you all think about what you eat, how it can ultimately affect your health, well-being, and your community. It is only because I really care about a lot of people, and I just want everyone to feel as good as they can, and be happy. <3
A few reasons, honestly.
One: I really want the way people eat to change for everyone's benefit. The more people demand higher qualities and standards for the food we eat, the more the market will eventually change so that these foods are easier to find/more accessible. 10 years ago, it was insanely hard to get organic foods. Now? There are entire markets dedicated to organic foods, farmer's markets popping up in towns all over, and people are (slightly) more educated about these things, ostensibly because they are more widely available. I'd love to see better quality meat (no pink slime, no hormones/antibiotics, humanely-raised, and grass-fed) in every grocery, more access to better fats (coconut oil, grass-fed butters, nut oils & butters, etc), and a wider variety of organic & locally-grown vegetables.
Two: Most of the processed food isn't food. Foods that come in boxes, tins, or plastic bags are not good for you and often dangerous to eat. The middle parts of the grocery store and fast food joints are to be avoided at all costs. I guess rhetoric like this gets called "food shaming," but really, how different is it me asking people to stop using heroin or stop smoking cigarettes? They are all addicitive and all bad for you. Just because you don't die when you eat a bag of Doritios doesn't mean they did you any good. Same with heroin!
Most processed food that is popular and easy to buy & eat is nutritionally incomplete: you are starving yourself of important nutrients and putting too many of the wrong kinds of things into your body instead. These are often made with chemicals, fillers, and artifical flavorings that are designed to be addictive by large corporations, so that you'll crave it and keep buying it. Do you really trust these guys to have your best interests at heart? Ultimately, you are all adults with free will and you can eat as you choose, but realize that we didn't evolve eating Red Dye #9, disodium inosinate, high fructose corn syrup, or vegetable oils. Do you think your body really has any idea how to deal with large amounts of these fake foods & chemicals? Would you take an animal from the wild and feed it a diet of cheetoes, pepsi, and fast food and expect it to thrive? WE ARE ANIMALS, TOO!
I admit that I am a bit of a conspiracy nut with some of these things, but look at the ingredients in a lot of food: sugars of various types, MSG/glutens, soy... these things are in almost EVERYTHING, and as far as I'm concerned, these are the three most dangerous things you can eat. They are addictive and do really fucked up things to your body over time. But that's what they want: complacent people who will keep coming back for more.
I came across this video via a podcast I was listening to earlier today. This woman went from being a reclined wheelchair for four years to biking 18 miles in less than a year after changing her diet. She promotes whole, unprocessed foods that support brain health and proper body growth & function. I'm not saying food is a miracle fix-all cure for everything. Far from it. But it's one of the easiest things to change, and one of the best ways one can take on the responsibility and advocacy for one's own health. There isn't one specific way to eat that is going to work for every person (just because Paleo/Primal works for me doesn't mean it's for you!), but at the very least we can all agree that we as a society (especially Americans) need to wake the fuck up and stop eating so much goddamned garbage.
I am NOT promoting a diet. I'm talking about changing your relationship with how you eat and what constitues food. Fad diets, yo-yo dieting, crash diets, starvation, calorie-counting... fuck all that nonsense. Just eat well! You take care of your body and it will take care of you! Skip out on packaged crap, sugar bombs, and things disguised as being good for you (see also: the Low-Fat trap!). Eat things that don't have ingredients. Eat like the zombie apocalypse happened and the only foods you can get are ones you can hunt or grow yourelf. Cook for yourself as often as you can. Invest in a crock pot. Play, walk, and use your body to move in all the fantastic ways it was designed to move. Sleep well. If you lose 50 pounds or just 1? You are still on a better path than most, and you should be proud of yourself for taking the initiative.
I just want people to be more aware, more cognizant of where their food comes from, and what it does for their bodies. Our country is SO fucked up with what we think of as food, or what we identify as "good for you" or "bad for you." Often it's the exact opposite of reality. It's not so much for me to ask that you all think about what you eat, how it can ultimately affect your health, well-being, and your community. It is only because I really care about a lot of people, and I just want everyone to feel as good as they can, and be happy. <3