I’ve been reading a lot about food lately. Food is one of my great loves. Plus the articles just keep popping up on social networking, news sites, and Pinterest daily. They’re kind of hard to avoid.
More-so than ever, I’ve been reading articles about the dangers of the chemicals in anything not organic and how they do terrible things to your system and will kill you, how the chemicals in meat are not meant to be ingested by humans and they are making a new medication to combat that chemical for non-vegetarians before it kills you, how dairy isn’t good for you and you should be looking solely toward dairy-free alternatives for all your milk, cheese, yogurts, etc that won’t kill you., how all nuts and dried fruits we eat should be entirely salt, real sugar, and artificial sugar free before the salt, sugar, and “sugar” kills you, how takeout and fast food under any and all circumstances – no matter how rarely – is like injecting toxins directly into your body and will kill you, how we should eat nothing processed at all because they will kill you, how carbs should only come from fruits and vegetables because the other kind will kill you, and how vegetable oil and butter should be completely eliminated and olive oil consumption drastically reduced lest it kill you.
To this I say: ENOUGH.
I love food. I love cooking and I love eating. I love cooking and eating and drinking with friends and family. I love that food can simultaneously nourish us and bring us together. I love fresh, healthy, flavorful ingredients. I love a simple bite of homegrown tomato fresh off the vine and complex pairings of tomatoes and herbs and oils and meats and cheeses that create an explosion of flavor. I love uncomplicated classics and I love experimenting with the intricate and the exotic foods of the world.
And, for the record, I do believe that by putting a wide variety of healthier foods into our bodies we feel better, look better, and are healthier. I believe in trying to fill your basket with as many fresh items straight from nature as possible. Because they’re delicious, but also because they help your body do what it needs to do. And it would be great if they didn’t have chemicals on them to help keep the pests away and preserve them, but they do and that’s life.
But I also believe in eating delicious cheese often because it is, in fact, very delicious. I believe in bread, in juicy steaks, BBQ, and cold dairy-laden ice cream, in a damn Cheeze-It or Oreo or every now and then, in non-organic watermelon, in a margarita on the rocks, in trying food from all the other countries that we share the globe with, in Chipotle and Subway and Wendy’s and even Five Guys a few times a year if you’re feeling feisty, in almonds that maybe have been candied or salted for a change, AND in olive oil or cooking spay to sautee my dinner with.
How on Earth did people survive before all these helpful articles told us about the very few things we are allowed to eat safely, and all the hundreds of thousands of things we shouldn’t eat!?
I have one word: moderation.
Oh, and I have one more word: ENOUGH.
