THIS! Christine

It's all about passion.

A good friend of mine and fellow blogger, Ann Wesley Hardin, did a blog a few days ago about food that tastes so good it's virtually orgasmic. This really struck a chord with me because I've been bothered for a long time with the propaganda surrounding what we eat.

I recently had guests that I said ate 'healthy' foods, but that isn't quite accurate because it implies that I don't eat healthy. It also implies I agree that their food choices were healthier than mine. And boy, I don't. (1% milk??? wtf... take a freakin calcium tab and a big glass of water, but don't call that shit milk). I go out of my way to avoid anything that has a label claiming it's fat free, low fat, lite, calorie reduced... in fact anything that's been obviously tampered with for my own good. I hate that my grocery store's shelves have been hijacked by a movement that began because certain weight conscious people didn't have the restraint to stop gorging themselves on food that tastes sooooo good. And it's such a mixed message...

On the one hand we have the pundits decrying the sylph-like image continually portrayed as the ideal form for a woman. On the other, there is a huge push for all of us to lose those excess pounds so we are sylph-like (oops, I'm sorry, healthy. They want us to be healthy).

Folks, I'm never going to be sylph-like again. I'm on the fluffier side of thin, but not what I'd consider fat, and I'll eat what I damn well please. Yes, even a bag of chips while watching my Friday night movies. And I'll do it all without a smidge of guilt or worry that said chips will knock 1.25 minutes off the end of my life. (I prolly would have just used it up gasping and wheezing anyway.)

My dear mother always used to say 'everything in moderation', and it's especially true when it comes to food. I think I do eat a majority of healthy foods. I rarely eat fried foods. I'd rather eat vegies than anything else, although I'm not a vegetarian, and if I could get good fruit, I'd eat a lot of that too. But I refuse to deny myself the pleasure of food.

The trick is not to do it everyday. That's pretty easy for me because I don't have a particularly strong sweet tooth, but I have other gastronomical vices. Dairy. Love my cheeses. Love almost any food that requires cream in the making. And yoghurt would be a passion of mine if I could even buy real yoghurt anymore. But here's my point (apart from a fine rant). Food, the foods you love, shouldn't make you feel bad about yourself, and yet the politics of food these days is exactly that.

What's the point of eating that amazing cheesecake drizzled with raspberry sauce and a dollop of (real, loaded with milk fat) cream, if you're going to moan and bitch about its calorie content? But the systemic brainwashing regarding eating is such that if we enjoy food we must be doing something bad to ourselves, hence the self condemnation that follows every mouthful.

But healthniks do it too. I mean really, when have you ever heard someone say, "oh yum! Wheat germ." What you generally get is some long involved justification as why it's necessary in the diet/or for their health. Serously, what kinda shit are they putting in their body that they need wheat germ to counteract the affects.

Not this chicky. Food. Real food. Good food, makes love with your mouth. Enjoy it. Savour it. I do.

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