I have expensive tastes, it's true, and still, it doesn't take much to make me happy.
I'm just as happy with 5 star dining as I am with dive bar burgers...
The Waterfront Burger in San Diego and El's Burger in Morehead City, NC, are tops on my list.
(That's me with an El's Burger at Thanksgiving. Mmmmm....tasteeee.)
I love food right off the farm, and I also like to indulge in the so called "bad for me" fast food. (Taco Bell was one of the first things I could say as a kid...seriously. And I still love it!)
I hear people talk about eating healthy, and I see all the reports on how this food or that food prevents cancer, slows aging, improves your eyesight, yada yada yada.
I believe that good nutrition is important - crucial even. But I just don't buy this "Fanatical Food" trend where various foods, in turn, get either villilfied or put on a pedestal.
Food, your diet...and life itself...is more about the whole picture.
I bring this up because I've had people be surprised that I eat junk food. (I suppose this makes me a rather odd breed of wellness professional.)
The surprise at junk food sounds something like this..."But you've had cancer", "You know that causes cancer, don't you?"...
Then there are those "latest studies" touted in the media.
It's always about the the latest wonder food that's going to "cure all your ills" - or the latest food villain that's going to "get you". (If you'll notice, these studies say "could" help prevent, "could" be linked to...The only study I'm aware of that links food and health/disease, and that has hard core science behind it is the Mediterranean Diet, and that study focused on the link between the Mediterranean style diet and heart disease....in case you're interested, I learned this from a doctor at a conference on breast cancer who was talking about a link between food and cancer.)
It seems that this study, directly or indirectly, helped launched a rabid interest in villifying foods...butter got villified in favor of margarine of all things! In whose world is margarine better for you than butter?! Margarine is the ultimate fake food.
My favorite "fake food" is actually a drink...
I ADORE Pepsi - love the smell of it, even...and the saltiness of the kettle cooked bbq potato chips is a nice complement to the sweetness of the Pepsi. (I gotta love the "Taste Born in the Carolinas".)
What I know is that if I were to die tomorrow, I'm going to regret NOT having had the Pepsi if I wanted it. On my deathbed, I don't imagine being excited about the discipline I had in denying myself a taste experience or pleasure.
The truth is, I didn't touch junk food for years and years before I was diagnosed with cancer. (I went on a bit of a soda binge in high school...and it zapped my energy so much that I swore off all junk food, fake food, and fried food - try swearing off that last one if you're Southern!)
I always ate healthy, and I cooked a lot...and, like I said, no Southern cooking, either. No fat back or bacon fat. No fried foods....but, to be truthful, that last one's only because I'm terrified of hot grease.
There were lots of veggies, some lean meat, very little saturated fat...my dad called my cooking "Sticks & Twigs" - precisely because I didn't fry everything in two inches of bacon grease!
Mind you, I didn't eat this way out of concern over my health. I lived on a farm as a kid and loved vegetables. In fact, I wouldn't eat English peas until I'd had them fresh...those mushy, drab olive pebbles out of the can are a crime!
I simply loved good, healthy food. Food tastes so different when you're that close to where it came from.
It tastes "alive".
So, there was no real concern over my health, just a love of good food and a love of cooking.
Fast forward 15+ years...
I went to the doctor to get the results of the lumpectomy. He told me it was cancer, and we discussed treatment options. Then, hubs, my mom and I went to breakfast at Panera...in shock, but we went to Panera.
Then I had my mom drive me to the grocery store where I bought Pepsi, chips, 3 bags of Pepperidge Farm cookies, and that "nasty", really bad for you, orangey-yellowish cheese dip.
When I got home, I parked myself on the sofa with my loot...and proceeded to pig out. (And I thoroughly enjoyed myself.)
My mother looked on in shock because, as I said, I was always the "healthiest" of eaters...no junk for years. I was just never attracted to it, really.
She looked at me in amazement and asked, "What are you doing?"...as in, "Aren't you worried about your health? You were just diagnosed with cancer. That stuff's bad for you."
My response: "What's it gonna do...give me cancer? Newsflash: Already got that check in the box!"
I suppose you could argue that my reaction in getting the junk food was just that...reactionary, and perhaps it was. Actually, I'm sure it was. (The reaction for me was: I ate healthy before, and I ended up with cancer anyway.) Most people, when diagnosed with a disease, usually are going toward the healthy as compensation for previous poor eating habits.
Consider this...there are stories of Indian yogis drinking poison or taking LSD...with no effects. Perhaps we get what we expect. For example, in quantum physics, a wave particle becomes either a wave or a particle depending on the scientist's expectation.
And let me make myself clear...
I'm not denying that there is a connection to food and health...not at all. Food is how we get energy - it's the building blocks of our body and chemical catalyst for bodily functions. (Great summary on the function of food in Paul Zane Pilzer's The New Wellness Revolution: How to Make a Fortune in the Next Trillion Dollar Industry
I simply think there's more to the story than this good/bad dichotomy.
I believe in "moderation" and joy...and for me, that sometimes means going for years without a soda and then having several in a short time span.
Should you make a diet out of junk food?
Good Lord, NO!
Just the thought of that makes me ill...but so does the mindset that says, "Always be on guard. Be careful...better not have that, it might kill you."
I firmly believe the constant worry over stuff like that will kill you just as quickly as the junk food. Those kind of thoughts are like junk food for your mind and spirit...both of which have a proven effect on the body.
Sick thoughts equal a sick body. (When working with someone, I can actually tell what the psychospiritual problem is by where the disease settles in the body. For example, anger often settles in the liver.)
While a steady diet of junk food certainly might kill you, so might a steady diet of just carrots - at the least, either would certainly lead to deficiencies. (Plus, that many carrots would very likely turn your skin orange.)
I don't believe in a philospohy of denial as though denial were a virtue. It's not...we were meant to enjoy life.
Defining yourself in the negative by living in a world where "not", "can't have", "avoid" and "denial" are the norm is to live a life of limitation, a life in chains. Those thoughts come from a place of limitation, lack and poverty...nothing can grow from this place of void.
The mindset that lives in fear is just as deadly as the food it fears, if not moreso. Fear will kill you quick as a bullet.
Nature and life is about growth, abundance, joy. It's about the words "yes" and "more". It's about experiences.
When you come from a place of joy and abundance, you naturally make decisions that work for you, that are in line with what's good for you.
Left to its own devices...the body will crave the foods it needs. The body is an amazing machine! Each of us is beautifully and wonderfully made.
Instead of defining yourself from the negative or from fear by being "against" something - like junk or processed foods, come from a place of being "for" something. Operate from a place of enjoyment and pleasure.
Jesus said, "Resist not evil." Wise advice. As soon as you resist something, you become involved with it. My daddy used to put it this way, "Don't force anything." Things that are forced have a tendency to push back or break.
Instead of outside pressure and force, use flow.
Listen to YOUR body, YOUR inner wisdom, YOUR inner physician about what's good for you.
If completely avoiding junk food works for you and your body likes it, and it makes you feel good about yourself, bravo! I'd say stick with it.
As for me, I'm going to enjoy the occasional Pepsi and bag of chips.
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