Validating through One's Diet

I'd like to consider a different perspective on the entire issue of validation. The truth is we are lacking validating skills for the most part, especially the intellectually-centered ones. We adopt ideas and habits that we think will make us feel good, regardless of their genuine value, or whether or not they actually do make us feel good. Modern dietary habits would be a case in point.  Once someone slides into belief and/or habitual behavior, it becomes unquestioning for the most part. Therein lies the real problem, unquestioning acceptance--the inability to notice small details, the glossing over of uncomfortable oppositional truths, the ramping up of whatever mantra that's running that fairly major personal truth in a person's life. This is where sacred cows are substituted for validation.

Every person who might eventually read this blog has some strong beliefs about their dietary practices. They might be omnivores, vegetarians, vegans, organic foodstuffs, whole grains, fast food eaters, take-out fans, or a mix and match of all of the above. Add in the comfort foods of childhood, ethnic heritages, and family feasting, and there is substantial room for some strong opinions and some baseline hypocrisies. Oh, and let's not forget the nearly constant barrage of advertising aimed at getting us to eat inappropriately, where every meal eaten out is a festive occasion of love and happiness, and all the rules of one's daily life can be set aside. Frankly, I find those tempting commericals for Olive Garden, Chili's, TGIFs, etc., to be more troublesome than the daily onslaught of hamburgers and french fries--as they are aimed at personality issues of aloneness, depression, and feeling unloved. But they all emphasize and equate eating in abundance with others as being the cure.

I would hazard a guess that only one or two out of a hundred people who might read this could state unequivocally that they're happy with how they look and are comfortable with their dietary practices. Food doesn't drive them. Oh, that number is too high? You get my point. And, I've not even touched on the food allergies that afflict so many, or the health issues, such as diabetes, or the various eating disorders. And, we all are aware of the growing issue of obesity.

Yet, how many have taken the time to really do in-depth nutritional research? How many really know what calories are and how various food items are utilized by the body? How many have researched the sites that give all of the nutritional breakdowns of the various fastfood or chain restaurant menus? How many have looked into food supplements as a way of modifying their diets? How many have researched the differences in nutritional value of organic versus standard commerically grown? The price difference? How many have been able to label within their minds certain foods as being toxic with a skull and crossbones symbol?

In other words, how many have really taken the time to validate food and what role it plays in their lives? Vegans are the most likely to have researched in depth as theirs is a fully conscious lifestyle choice and requires multiple minor choices on a daily basis, label reading, and careful nutrition balancing. I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of readers are in some mid-point of validating their diet. Most have moved beyond unthinking eating anything they want, whenever they want, and in any quantity they want--some of the time.

But, the one thing that everyone needs to learn is that you have been lied to, systematically, and with deliberate intent, primarily due to a profit motive for most of your life about food. While any number of dietary changes have been implemented due to the results of long or ongoing studies which have given us better scientific data to supplant previously assumed facts, these have been far smaller and of less impact than the constantly increasing commercialization of the world's food and nutrition.  Whether it's at the level of growing it with the use of pesticides and fertilizers, patenting of seeds, to human growth hormones added to all livestock feeds, to the depletion of natural minerals and soil nutrients due to over exploitation of the soil itself, all the way up to adding sugar in some form to nearly all processed foods because of its addictive qualities, to creating menu items that lack nearly all nutritional value (such as soda pop, french fries, or blooming onions).

In the Euro-centric "western" world, we've changed our dietary habits from just a century ago where one indulged in festival foods once or twice a year to it becoming a standard to include dessert at the end of every supper and to where now one feels entitled to something sweet and dessert-like several times a day as a snack, and maybe a super-loaded sugary espresso coffee drink, and of course salted snacks as a meal accompaniment. We've doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled our serving sizes for protein on a daily basis, and have increased our carbohydrate food items accordingly, i.e., the sandwich in some form. Where only the very wealthy knew about deep fat frying for a long time, it gradually crept into our consciousness at the beach or at the fair, until it was offered daily in many regions or locales. It became part of the regional cooking style of the south. Naturally, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancers have skyrocketed. Asia has been rushing to catch up during the past 20-30 years.

The very human primal need to have enough food to survive and thrive has quickly become twisted and warped because few have been paying attention and validating the difference between need and want. The very individual primal need of being loved is smothered in a gravy of wants: the want to feel good, to be self-indulgent, to reward, to console, to impress, and so it goes -- all of it hiding the true need of self-like or love. None of it accomplishing the true need. To validate anything, one must start with a long look within.