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Food
Food Thursday
01Feb
Who's Nuts? The Etiquette of Eating Healthy
Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 10:04AM “Most of our family and friends think we are nuts” for eating healthy, states Lisa Imerman in her comment on my Jan. 29 posting about the New York Times Magazine article, “Unhappy Meals”. Since its publication last Sunday, Michael Pollan’s article has been one of the most emailed from the New York Times site, and I suspect many of those are messages among relatives and friends, with the underlying message: “See, we’re not nuts.”
This matter of perception is humorous on one level. When I had a special birthday a few years back, several friends took the opportunity to roast me by producing a clever video of an “investigation” showing that, no, my shopping expeditions to Whole Foods and visits to the health club were merely a show…to cover up my addiction to donuts. Everyone had a good laugh, including me.
But such bantering hides a darker side. I have learned not to “preach” to family and friends about the importance of eating healthy, and so I mostly observe silently when they pile sugar into their coffee, sip on diet drinks, and load up on pasta. I even say little when they maintain they are “eating healthy”—presumably because they aren’t eating so much saturated fat. I must say that it pains me to observe such behavior, since I hate to see them potentially injuring themselves. As Lisa suggests, being ridiculed for my own eating habits adds insult to injury.
This business of eating healthy in a society that has been taught so many inaccurate lessons about food and health—some of which are discussed in Pollan’s article—is a complex matter. He discusses the media side of it, how reporters and editors welcome the chance to continually write of the latest new study that disputes the previous new study. He also discusses the food industry’s obvious desire to maximize sales and profits.
But there are lots of other things going on that promote a distorted view of food. Physician scare tactics and political witch hunts to rid the country of raw milk and implement NAIS, and thus “protect the integrity of our food supply.” The really crazy situation (among others) is a Michigan county prosecutor spending months of time weighing reams of reports representing hundreds of hours of investigation to decide what charges to bring against honest farmers producing whole foods--and all so the authorities can say they are protecting us.
Elizabeth McInerney points out that Pollan shied away from discussing Weston Price, and I strongly suspect that’s because Weston Price is viewed as being “on the fringes.” Maybe Pollan saw himself as already “out there,” and felt that going further risked losing credibility.
As I and others have pointed out, Pollan’s article represented significant progress in terms of informing a public that has for so long been fed a diet of half truths about nutrition. One day, I suspect, us nutcakes will look back and have a good laugh about the old days when eating whole foods and avoiding sugar and chemical additives was considered radical.
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Response: Vivian MathewsIf a gay, and leaves for the Deerslayer die under Mingo torments.
Reader Comments (2)
On the other hand, it is so hard to keep silent when people you care about are obviously harming themselves. So I gently suggest a book here, or offer a "you might want to consider" there.
Just this past week, a woman complained to me about her son's frequent colds and ear infections, Her excuse was that he had just started school and should be expected to endure a 2 year period of catching many colds. I offered that my 4 year old also just started school this year, and has yet to fall ill. I also added that my 3 children have not filled a prescription for antibiotics, and have not needed their doctor, since we started drinking raw milk 3 years ago. She and the other women within earshot fell into an uncomfortable silence. Then one joked that I'd better not jinx myself by making proclamations like that. Then someone else changed the subject. No curiousity, no questions, just me left with a lesson to keep my mouth shut next time! And this conversation happened at an organic buying club pick-up!
Yes, it is very hard to know where to draw the line. When to keep quite and when to offer information, and how best to do it.
I am becoming more comfortable with the nuts label however. I think that comraderie with other nuts is helping. Resources like your blog help one to feel connected and more empowered.
"An estimated 4 out of every 10 Americans have tried relaxation techniques, herbs, massages, megavitamins, spinal manipulation, homeopathy, hypnotism, biofeedback, acupuncture, or other things you generally won't find in a physician's office or in a hospital. They spent $21.2 billion for the services of alternative therapists in 1997 - $12.2 billion of it not covered by insurance, according to a Harvard study."
And...
"In 1997, the study found, people in the United States made more visits to alternative medicine practitioners than to primary care doctors. The score was 629 million to 386 million."
That was almost ten years ago, and the trend is clearly getting stronger. And, notably, the figures don't include things like milking the family cow, organic home gardening, and other more natural, less interventionist pursuits.
Looks like, if AMA medicine doesn't become more resposive, it might someday find itself defined as the “alternative.”
For all we know if the nutcakes came out of the closet today, they would find themselves in the majority.