The recent New York Times article on a healthy diet has produced much controversy on a local chat medium. Let me say that they do a great job with the facts. There wasn’t any of it that was new to me, but they were never really wrong.
The conclusions and tone of the article disturb me though. I know that a healthy diet consists in large part of mostly unprocessed fruits & vegetables, nuts, beans, & whole grains. It’s also healthy to have some, though not alot of, meat in that diet. (Forgive my reluctance to include it in their in the first place, but that’s my vegetarianism speaking. The ‘nutritionally ideal diet’ does contain occasional meat.) I felt that the article was trying to imply ‘fat is good, fat is great, eat whale blubber, and crisco, and watch the pounds melt off’.
That may even be true, but, losing weight is not the be all and end all of health. It’s a complicated thing. Pure carbohydrate diets are bad (mmmm, diabetes). Pure protein diets are bad (mmm, kidney damage). Pure fat diets are bad (mmmm, ketosis). All of the above make for a corner stone of a healthy diet (see also, adequate mater, minerals, and vitamins).
But what does it mean to have a healthy diet? Quality of life? Length of life?
And as tardis points out, there is a considerable stigma against being fat, leading to all sorts of eating disorders, an ill all their own. Being happy with our bodies is a desireable end unto itself, best sought through the reframing of our self concept, and not the adjustment of our bodies.
So, I was chatting with someone, and he commented on my ‘almost phobic’ response to mind-altering substances, including medical ones like anti-depressants. He automatically attributed it to a desired for control. A desire to avoid situations where I expose myself to rejection like the rather traumatic childhood experience I have possibly discussed before on here, not sure.
When I thought about how I felt, the analogy that came to mind was straight out of Liar. I can’t remember the Robot’s name, but I said that I felt like I was the robot at the end of the story every time I’m rejected while making a pass. Not pleasant. For those of you unfamiliar with it, for shame, go read “I, Robot”. This is perhaps an issue I ought to deal with.
My copy of the SALiVATION Army was put in the mail yesterday, should be here sometime next week. Yay =)
Are you molified, Aaron? =)