Please note: I fed all the steak to my dog, Sally, until she developed kidney failure. Children, do not do this to your beloved pet at home. |
I've written a lot about how my health problems led me to rethink my lifelong poor eating habits. Not that I'm 100% better than I used to be but I would definitely say I'm vastly improved. I eat vegetables now. I have an occasional green juice. I know that sugar is the devil and it's in everything.
But because of this new awareness and because I did not grow up eating this way I seriously stress over food. Not in the I need to starve myself way or the bingeing way or even the I eat to make myself not sad way (although sometimes you just need orange mac+cheese straight out of the pot with a coca-cola chaser to make yourself feel better).
Hi my name is Daisy, and I'm a binge healthy eater.
Food has lost its joy to me.
I go vegan/gluten-free/dairy-free/soy-free/pork-free - whatever I feel like for the moment.
And I go hard-core.
Then, finally about 2-3 months later, I crumble.
I eat the cheese (and feel guilty). I eat the proscuitto (and feel guilty). I eat the pizza (and feel guilty).
I feel like cancer or an auto-immune disease is hiding behind the fridge waiting for me to eat the cookies after dinner. (Did I mention I am a hypochondriac?)
Cheryl Tiegs knows healthy food when she sees it! |
Anyway. Sigh.
Back to stress. I stress over dairy because I read The China Study. I stress over meat because I can't always afford humane or organic meat and I simply cannot be a vegan (I felt worse and yes, you vegans out there, I was eating enough protein and taking a B vitamin). I stress over sugar because I do like my Coca-Colas.
I stress and stress.
I once read that Americans have such a hard time with food because we don't have an ingrained food culture like France, Italy, Spain, Greece, India, etc. We will eat anything! Fake, real, or multi-cultural. I tend to agree with this assessment. When you grow up thinking a fake dairy, fake sugar yogurt was a health food and then find out that that is not true - your whole world is blown and you have nothing to fall back on.
I want to enjoy my food again. So these days I'm trying out the blog 100 Days of Real Food. Their food goals seem fairly attainable. I still struggle with whether or not to eat dairy (if you like yourself some cheese DON'T read The China Study).
And I'm calling it a day.
At least until the next day I wake up in a panic and throw away all the butter.
No comments:
Post a Comment