If food sustains us, why are we told so much of it is bad for us?

Long ago, weighing a lot, I embarked on an expensive fad diet. I lost the weight; and within a very short time, regained it all plus a bit extra for my trouble. 

I learned from this ‘experiment’ that food is necessary to sustain us. We have to eat or we die. You would never offer alcohol to an alcoholic or drugs to a junkie, but why, when we offer food to each other we say things like: ‘Go on; one isn’t going to harm you!’ Food is not an addiction. Without it, we die. 

My Scottish relatives would say to us regardless of the time of day ‘ You’ll have eaten then?’ they remembered the times in their youth when starvation was a possibility. We never ate at their house. We took no more than a single small cup of black tea each. 

My sister in law had an elderly Chinese maid caring for her children. Ying Je would feed the children constantly. Sweets, bread, potatoes, dumplings. Anything. I remonstrated about her to my sister in law who told me Ying Je had lost three children to starvation in the 1960s of Mao’s Great Leap Forward.  

In the 1970s we were told cream cakes were ‘Naughty but Nice’ and a ‘Finger of Fudge’ is just enough to give ‘your kid’ a treat. 

And then we were told eggs – BAD. Meat – BAD. Butter – BAD!! Food we had eaten for thousands of years was suddenly killing us. But because we were told this by ‘Authority’ we believed it. They had our best interests at heart, right? Low fat was cool. High fibre was cool. Slavishly we followed new rules because well, we were told to, right?

Now, I am relatively old - 70 in a few months - I am heavier than I would like to be; but recently I have lost well over a stone in weight by eating to suit me. I eat one meal a day – around 2pm – and have plenty of potatoes, rice, veggies and meat/fish. And pudding. Always. But no other food. Coffee and double cream. Tea with milk. Nothing else but water. And I feel fine. 

My dog likes frozen raw mince to eat; and frozen raw poultry treats. Defrosted she turns up her nose. Cooked, she is not interested. She knows what suits her and she eats just that. Our human understanding of which foods are best for us, is utterly mixed up.  

My advice to anyone worrying about eating this or not eating that is, if it makes you feel good, then get on with it. We have enough issues in our lives without creating new ones; and as someone a lot cleverer than me once said ‘Life is to be enjoyed not endured’……so have the butter and ditch the low fat margarine! 

And laugh! I can’t recommend that enough….laugh and we will laugh with you!  

CMM

A Moodscope member