What happens next?
Does a fist fight break out like happened on my blog last week?
Since I came out as no longer vegan, the insults have been flying. Not only at me, but between people who identify themselves by one diet or another.
And I wondered if I had done the right thing by coming out. Not because I was ashamed of my diet, or felt wrong for how I expressed it, but because it triggered a storm of chaos and hostility.
Am I adding to the toxic food environment I’ve been trying to improve, I wondered?
Am I throwing fuel on the fire between camps, making it impossible to create connection and learning?
No. I will not participate in the battle.
I see, more clearly now than ever, how we can use our food to define ourselves and draw moral battle lines in our lives.
The point of view that one way of eating is better than another, or makes you more right or moral than another is not my point of view.
While hundreds wrote to me of their disappointment and anger about my choices, hundreds more wrote that they wanted a new way of eating.
I just want to eat what my body needs without the fear of being judged, they wrote.
I want to enjoy my food, guilt-free, and know I’m doing what’s right for me, I read.
I welcome you to join me. Together we’ll find the foods, habits and lifestyle practices that help you love your body and your life.
I still believe that a plant-based diet should be seriously considered by anyone who wants to transform their health and their body. And there are many other diets to consider, learn about, and experiment with.
We are all different, but we all deserve to feel healthy and well in ourselves without fear or shame.
So I invite you to my virtual table. I welcome anyone who wants to find a new way of eating that serves your vision of health and a life you’ll love.
That’s the kind of table I like to sit at.
Inclusive, delicious, healthy and fun.
You too?
Then click here to join me over on Facebook to keep this conversation going.
Have a beautiful day ~
XO,
Alex
It makes me sad that our society has become so unkind. From politics to religion and now to food, we scream and shout at one another.
You teach that food can be a source of health.
I believe words — whether you say (type) them aloud, think them in your mind or feel them in your heart, can be equally healing or harmful. Putting hateful messages into the world hurts the sender as well as the sendees.
“The point of view that one way of eating is better than another, or makes you more right or moral than another is not my point of view.”
Same here. Judgment and shame have no place in diet. Every body is different, every person has had different experiences and has different needs.
How can anyone make the right choices for themselves if information is being hidden away? We shouldn’t ask people to hide what they are doing or what they believe just because it doesn’t line up with our own beliefs. Knowledge is power, and the more of it we have, the better, I say.
I’m glad to have found your website. A couple years ago I started eating more meat and animal fat because I seemed to need those foods more than anything else, but now I feel like I’m sort of “caught up” on those and need to start focusing more on plant foods now, and I really need inspiration for getting more into my diet. Hoping to find that here.