Musings on Food

Well, you all know that I LOVE food. To eat it, cook it, eat it....

Regardless of my personal beliefs on food and what constitutes a "healthy" diet, I am taking advantage of the fact that I have this format (blog) to blather on about my own ideas and am going to write about something that always bothers me regarding food. I have several friends and acquaintances who eat by different dietary "rules" and my philosophy is to say "great!" I mean, however they want to eat is fine with me. My gripe comes when I read posts or comments by people that in my opinion are completely illogical.

A few examples:

From a recent post on Facebook:

"... it is weird that we are the only mammals that drink milk after we're weaned. Just weird when you really think about it......."

Any time a person tries to make a point by comparing humans to other animals, I am always so baffled by their logic. So is this person saying that anything that separates us from other mammals makes us weird? How about everything about us. Like the fact that we wear clothes, go to work, read and write, etc etc etc... I mean, come on, it is even ridiculous to start listing the differences since they are beyond obvious.

Now to the raw food diet. Understand this, I have several friends who stick to this diet, and I support their choice. However, I have read/heard so many ill-thought rationalizations for this diet that it drives me crazy.

One such reason is that it is the way God intended us to eat. Now, depending on your particular understanding of God, this may have merit. The person I am thinking of, however, was a Christian, and so I am confused. To define yourself as a Christian usually means that you believe Christ was the son of God, and was a perfect person. Perfection being that he always did His Father's will. And according to the bible he ate fish and bread, both not approved in the raw diet. I can only suppose that this person was thinking of the Garden of Eden and the assumption that Adam and Eve only ate fruits and vegetables. I am unaware of this in the Bible, but I do know that after Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden they ate meat. And so we are back at the old Catch-22. Which way was the way God "meant" us to be - just Adam and Eve in the garden, or all of humanity outside of the garden?

The other argument is that it is natural and the way that we were meant to eat (who meant us to eat this way is unclear), and that our bodies are supposed to only eat raw food. If we were "supposed" to eat this way, it is kind of ironic that the only reason people nowadays can even do it is because we are getting fruits and vegetables flown in from South America and other parts of the country and world. Unless you live in California or some other climate that produces fresh produce year-round, this is an unsustainable diet. The idea that people "used" to eat this way is ridiculous. This is a diet for the wealthy who can afford to purchase fresh produce year-round.

All this said, I want to reiterate that I don't have a problem with the diets themselves, just the lame reasoning.

What would a good reason be? How about: "It makes me feel better, so I do it" Can't argue with that one!