Page 249 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

become one of fear. Fear of fatness has long been around, but
today we’ve added fear of inflammation and irritation, and a
general overtone of avoidance. Diet books, blogs, and multistep
miracle programs sell fear to their advantage. Then there’s the
dramatic social, environmental, and political upheaval we’re
all navigating. Which brings us to a second potential driver:
control. There’s great power in saying no. In saying, I know my
body best. Rather than diets long centered on weight-loss goals,
the modern era of aversion is usually about optimizing your
own well-being—whatever that means for you. Eczema, joint
pain, bloating, brain fog, low energy, you name it. More and
more people feel that self-experimentation—through food—is
the path to healing.
All of this is completely understandable. But our new nor-
mal brings a seesaw: What goes down when individualized
eating goes up? At least three things, by my count.

For starters, happiness. Countless people shutting out delicious
foods in the name of health are robbing themselves of joy.
(Again, I’m not talking about people who make food choices
based on medical necessity or environmental or human rights
issues.) Joy is of course hard to measure, but less of it likely
means shorter tempers and less kindness, more tension and
more stress—a serious detriment not only to individuals and
home lives but communities and workplaces. In other words, if
you have a bunch of individual people who are each miserable
from all the pleasures they’ve expelled from their lives, collec-
tively it makes for a pretty miserable society.

Second, diet quality can suffer. People on gluten-free diets are even
less likely than gluten eaters to get the recommended amount
of whole grains; paleo adherents tend to consume unhealthy
levels of red meat; Whole 30 followers are missing out on the
benefits of various vegetables and legumes.

238 how to be a Conscious Eater

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