Monday, September 5, 2011

Yeah, You're right, being on the paleo diet sucks...



What you see above is the toil and suffering we are going through in depriving ourselves of grains, dairy, and refined sugars. I can't even type with a straight face. I'll admit, we don't eat this way every meal, this was kind of a treat to get so much different grilled meat along with some salad and guacamole, but the point is, it's not depriving ourselves of anything.

I've been quite surprised over the last two weeks by the reaction of the people we tell about the way we are eating. I'm not surprised by people who are skeptical of it because it is a very different way of eating from the standard American diet, but what does surprise me is that the skepticism is almost always accompanied by condescension and even outright criticism. I'll start by saying, I'm not pushing this diet on anyone. I do tend to talk about it if people ask questions, and I've been quite open about how good I've felt on it, but I by no means have been going around, looking at other peoples' plates and shaking my finger. I would love for everyone I know to feel the same benefits I am, but not only do I not feel it my place to push anyone into anything, I don't feel I yet understand all the aspects of the paleo diet enough to "pitch" it to anyone effectively. I say all of this because I feel if I were on a soapbox all the time, or passing judgement on peoples dinner plates, I should expect some criticism of what I'm doing, but I feel like I'm careful not to be judgmental. That's why it strikes me as strange when people consistently try to nail me on the finer points of "well would a caveman cook it that way?" or "you really going to eat that with a metal fork?" or (my favorite) "I don't think a caveman would approve of you warming that up in the microwave." People for some reason don't want me to eat this way, or if I'm going to, they at least don't want me to enjoy it. I think as a culture we have established an environment where eating healthy or changing eating habits has to be painful or sacrificial. They are looking at me like I've lost something, like my mind, and all I feel like is that I've finally found something, and I think it's the right thing.

The most fitting comparison I can make came from teaching my junior English class last week. We were talking about how monumental the change in philosophy was from the renaissance to the enlightenment when the world started to realize that it wasn't sinful to explore the natural universe that God created. Discoveries like, the earth's orbit and rotation, ocean waves, the solar system etc. are all things we now don't even think twice about because they are so universally accepted as truth. Who knows how we will feel about the way we eat a couple hundred years from now. Maybe another example of why we should look back to move forward.

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