Here’s a little something that I probably don’t have to tell you. Well, actually, maybe I do. Because this thing I’m going to talk about today is getting more and more prevalent. Maybe you’ve done it, and thought you were doing the right thing. I’m here to tell you that you were wrong.
We have to stop commenting on and criticizing other people’s food choices.
Johnny explains autonomy to Baby. Or at least personal space.
There, that’s it. Plain and simple, isn’t it? And yet it’s happening all the time, all over the place. Look, if you want to police your own food intake, if you want to assign morality to food (and to yourself), that’s your choice. I hope that you don’t live your life like that, but it’s totally your prerogative. But that doesn’t mean you can – or should – go around telling other people what they should and shouldn’t be eating.
Imagine this scenario: You’re sitting on a park bench outside your office on a beautiful spring afternoon. The birds are chirping and the squirrels are squirreling. You pull an orange out of your lunch bag and begin to peel it, when a coworker strolls over and says, “Oranges are bad for you. They’re full of sugar and sugar makes you sick.”
Stop assigning morality to food, Doctor!
Totally rude, right? And weird, too. I mean, food policing used to be restricted to those of us who dared to occasionally eat “junk” food or fast food. God forbid a non-thin person put a bag of Doritos or a candy bar in their grocery cart. Perfect strangers have no problem giving fatties who buy more than lettuce and carrots a lecture on good nutrition (even if they themselves have Doritos and candy bars in their carts). But now, with Paleo and no-sugar diets all the rage, we run the risk of being criticized for stocking up on milk and bananas, too!
Listen, if you think eating grass-fed beef is the path to health, have at it. If you swear by the miracle cure of coconut oil, or feel like a new person now that you’ve eliminated sugar or refined carbs, I’m happy for you. You can make a giant list of “bad” and “good” foods, and you can feel terrible or great about yourself based on what you eat on any given day. Like I said, that’s your business. But it’s not my business. You may think that your diet is THE diet, but it’s just YOUR diet. And you may think you need to share your nutrition wisdom with the world, but you don’t.
Each of us has the right to determine what health means for us. Each of us has the right to determine how we fuel and move our bodies. Food policing is rude and unnecessary, and just another form of bullying.
Nobody judges what Baby puts in her shopping cart, either.
The next time you feel the urge to comment on someone else’s dinner plate, or expound on the undeniable virtues of your diet of choice, stop. Think of how you’d feel if someone was rude to you about what you were eating. Pay attention to your own dance space, and stop trying to butt into the dance spaces of others.
