In which "healthy eating" articles are like baby books. In a bad way.

[commodorified]

It is not actually the sole and only goal of parenting to get your child to go to sleep. I admit, it can feel like it when they're very small [1], but there is actually a whole lot of stuff you can and want to do with babies: feed them! Wash them! Play with them! Dress them in cute outfits and take them places! Teach them to walk, talk, and play the accordion!

You could, however, be forgiven for getting confused about this if you just scanned the titles at the bookstore.

Similarly:

Ok, look: first of all prescriptivist language about food is mostly[2] total bullshit.

But even were I prepared to stipulate the contrary: if your headline is "X food: not The Healthy Choice After All", is it too much to expect your thesis to be more like: "the iron in dark green leaf vegetables isn't very bioavailable, don't try to use spinach as a main source", not just "omg, X actually has A LOT OF CALORIES!!!"

Because, you know what?

Food is supposed to contain food. It's like we're supposed to believe that our single overriding goal when we buy food is the maximum number of chews with the minimum actual results.

And, um, no. Food is supposed to be made of food. Take your zero-fat fake-sugar flavoured gelatin mislabelled as yoghurt and stuff it up your jumper and give me some gods-damned breakfast.

I have shit to DO today.

ETA: I can tell the outside temp has gone up; the X-ray TV tonight at the nurses' station is all lungs and skulls instead of hips and arms and ankles



[1] it's not that all these tricks for getting kids to sleep don't work; trust me, by the time your kid is, say, 15, they'll sleep right through, no problem, and often well into the next day as well.

[2] And when I say "mostly" instead of "completely" it's to allow exceptions like "don't leave raw poultry at room temp, especially if it's stuffed, ok?"

Comments

[zillah975]

"the iron in dark green leaf vegetables isn't very bioavailable


It isn't?! D:


Crap. I need a nutritionist or something, it's amazing I've lived to adulthood.

(That is totally not sarcastic, btw, I know basically zip about food.)

[zingerella]

Or, you know, the fact that you've lived to adulthood could be presented as evidence that one can, in fact, live to adulthood while knowing "basically zip" about food, and that maybe the societal preoccupation with the alleged virtues of various foods might be a wee tad unnecessary.

By which I mean, had you been being sarcastic, I think the sarcasm might have been totally warranted.

[jackandahat]

I strongly suspect people who know "sod all" about food probably have a healthier (both in the sense of "getting everything they need" and being happier) than people who think they know all sorts. There's a lot to be said for eating on instinct - when it's genuine instinct, and not distorted by years of being nagged about how if you eat, you'll get fat and no-one will love you and you'll die fat and alone just like your grandfather*.

But. It's a matter of being able to get back to that instinct after all those years of media/family nagging.

(*...not that that's a quote or anything.)

[ilanikhan]

^^^^THIS^^^^

100%

[jackandahat]

I'm working on my eating at the moment - trying to get over a history of food scarcity and shitty parenting. It's both interesting and a wee bit horrifying how many Really Bad Messages I'm having to untangle.

[ilanikhan]

I'm living proof that it can be done. 15 years of dieting and another 10 or more before that of anti-fat messaging. I still struggle sometimes with some things, but I have normal hunger signals again (took me three years) and I actually enjoy eating sometimes now.
I still don't/can't eat when I'm upset.

*nod nod*

[commodorified]

That particular example was in my head because IF you happen to be a) vegetarian b) anaemic c) *really* fond of green leafy vegetables, and so inclined by preference to use them as your main iron source, then the fact that they are yummy as anything but that really really isn't going to work is a Thing Good To Know.

But there really aren't that many people it's an issue for; I just happen to know several of them.

Re: *nod nod*

[lizzieladie]

This was helpful for me, actually, since one of my roommates is vegetarian and recently found she's anemic. Among the things she did after the diagnosis was switching to spinach from a lettuce in her salads. She likes the lettuce better, so if she's not actually getting any benefit from the iron then she can switch back.

But that's the thing about a lot of nutrition advice, it's really helpful for certain people in really specific situations and but then gets picked up and talked about generally as something that everyone ought to know and adhere to.