Dear Dad,
Eating healthy is normal. Eating unhealthy is what should be considered strange.
How did we get to a place that eating predominantly fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, and nuts is considered by most to be on a diet? Or someone who cares to eat only pasture raised animal products, farm fresh eggs, and not drink milk as an adult is looked at cross eyed? Eating food grown from the ground or limiting animal meat consumption to specific criteria makes one a weirdo in the eyes of the masses who “eat normally” from a pre-packaged wrapper while gulping a sugary mix of chemicals.
This upside down mindset fuels many peoples’ struggle to eat healthy/normally. The mental flip is related to convenience. We now associate normal eating with convenience eating. Cheap food is good food and fast food. If we spend less money and time on food we have more money and time to spend on the really important things like buying the latest gadgets, engaging with social media, and not exercising... Good thing we can streamline and outsource something so inconvenient like eating a hearty meal.
The problem is that a majority of the population has bought in, some unconsciously. Making the conscious eater an outcast, always needing to explain their “radical” choices, and sometimes left aimlessly searching for normal nourishing food to eat in a world of unlimited processed food-like substances.
Don’t be fooled. Opening a bag of Doritos, making a sandwich on processed white bread with lunch meat, or finishing the day with a bowl of ice cream are the strange choices. Stand up for eating normal and indulge in a hearty portion of fruits and veggies. Eating is about nourishing, not convenience.
Don’t be a weirdo.
With love,
JSR
