Unfortunately, there are several more important areas where the truth is even more wonderful, but I stay quiet or hesitant instead of sharing because I am unsure how my words will be received. I compare lots of things to the Gospel. Whenever the truth is countercultural and takes a bit more work and intention, but yields something much greater in the long run, I label it, "this is just like the Gospel!" The latest of these for me is eating Paleo*. If I know something that would give my friends drastically better health, better sleep, higher and more stable energy levels, improved mood, a healthy body weight, and several more benefits, shouldn't I eagerly tell them all about it? Wouldn't it be, on some level, unloving to conceal this information when it's well within my reach to share it out? Yet, like sharing the Gospel, I am afraid that one mention of my eating Paleo to someone could feel like judgment or pressure.
I admit that I can't know that eating Paleo would work best for everyone: food allergies and all that. But I feel strongly enough that there is some absolute truth when it comes to eating well to push this topic out of the realm of, "Whatever works for you!" to "FYI, everyone: cheese danishes are never good for you under any circumstances other than starvation!" I admit I can be an absolute thinker. Someone asked me tonight if I thought eating a 100-calorie pack of cookies was an improvement on eating a full box of cookies, a step toward snacking on carrots. I had to think about my response, which came in the form of an analogy: "I feel like that's asking someone who thinks sex belongs in marriage, 'Is it better if someone only has 2 one-night-stands per week instead of 5?'" So you could say that I feel strongly enough on this topic that I am not sure how to nuance it. That makes sharing both more urgent and more challenging, as I try to remain distant and objective and tread lightly.
While I don't know what diet works best for each person, I do know that I lost about 20 pounds and a constant feeling of nausea when I learned that bread is not good for you (the rest came later). Growing up, I was surrounded by large, colorful food pyramid charts for children that put grains, including bread, in the "eat 6-11 servings a day" category. As a result, I thought I was being healthy when I made myself eat my pizza crusts, which I didn't like as much as the cheesy part. It's scary the food lies we're surrounded by. I recently recycled some old pages I'd once saved from Seventeen magazine, all about food. Their reasonable-sounding suggestions were rotten lies, but I hope they meant well. There just isn't as much money in healthy eating. Makers and marketers of processed food have an active interest in making sure people don't eat healthfully, because eating healthfully means avoiding their products! There's not as much money allocated to advertise beets as for fruit roll-ups. I'm just not sure people are aware of these things (how much our environment secretly misleads us); I sure wasn't until just a few years ago.
Growing up, I heard government recommendations that fat is bad for you and fat makes you fat. Actually, healthy fats are good for you and help you stay at a healthy body weight--even if they're saturated. The real science clashes terribly with conventional wisdom and the cultural messages about how you deserve to treat yourself with candy, cake, and alcohol, and if you don't you're super uptight and probably not enjoying your life. Not to mention the several American food holidays like the Super Bowl and Thanksgiving. Eating habits can be deeply ingrained and tend to touch several areas of a person's life and their psyche. I want to be sensitive to those realities but I still can't say, "eat whatever you want, it doesn't matter." I still think it matters a great deal.
I have not yet met someone who was overweight and also consistently eating what I'd consider a healthy diet*. However, I have met multiple people who expressed a desire to weigh less. In the moment that they mention their eating habits to me, it seems unwise or unkind to point out that the foods they think are healthy are actually contributing to poor gut health. Yet isn't it unloving not to? That diet sodas, which are highly addictive, have been definitively linked to obesity, potentially because artificial sweeteners are linked to super intense cravings that can cause overeating. That steamed edamame is, though green and veggie-like, soy and not the healthiest choice. That black beans are hard on the digestive system. That "gluten-free" is not bad, but "grain-free" is drastically healthier. I don't want people to be operating off of false information, like I was for years. Eating healthy is difficult enough without inadvertently sabotaging your own efforts.
In short, America is a confusing place to live when it comes to food messages, but the truth is out there, and lots of people like me are passionate about food and love to share what they know. If you are interested in learning more or hoping to improve your overall health through eating well, I recommend the book It Starts with Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig. Their ideas seem extreme to someone who's used to the Standard American Diet (SAD), thus the beneficial results are extreme as well. And if ever I should offer you unwelcome commentary on your diet, please forgive me and know that it's coming from a place of love and passion. I found a gold mine and I am trying to tell you how to get there!
*Paleo, which is to say, veggies/fruit/meat with no grains/dairy/soy/legumes... this is the quick and simple definition.
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