Some Thing To Eat

I feel like it is maybe a good time to provide a brief statement regarding my food philosophy. With the prefaced request that you not view this statement as a judgement. It is just a pretty big part of who I am and how I view the world. My last post was a rant. What you see is what you get at this blog--sometimes a little uncensored, and, well, rant-like. But now let me articulate a view of food. When I was in grad school my work focused on this particular point: We are made and re-made by political systems and our bodies do manifest resistance in the form of dis-ease. I used Frida Kahlo as a prime example of this type of manifestation. Her body, caught in the choque of the Mexican Revolution and the street car/bus accident (itself a result of "modernization") which led to continued illness and confinement--as the revolution failed to become institutionalized --yet, also she created brilliant, moving , and often beautiful meaningful art--as the revolution allowed for a civil society in which art was supported. Her art could not yet capture the dimensions of her resistance,turmoil and passion, it seeped from her body, it was in excess of her body's ,both the literal and that of the canvas, capacity to hold the "stress" of these systems. My committee did not like this assertion. They allowed me to explore it prior to my exams, they gave me consistently high marks. Then, they said it was not clear enough. I needed to have a way of talking about what was at play in this analysis I was proposing. The missing link? There are many. It could be, indeed, a health based analysis of stress related to social turmoil. It could be claims around a pathology of illness, or it could be food. Yes, I suppose it could also be food. We are what we eat right? We know this at a base level. Come on, it makes perfect sense. The quality of the food we consume becomes us. Some foods are packed full of extras nowadays. For me, since I was RAW for a long time, I really notice that when I eat whole foods I feel better. If I get too processed, I feel bad. And there is still this whisper reminding me how real it felt to eat everything being able to identify its original form rather quickly. It was wonderful feeling. But there are other considerations, like, the other significant reason to eat besides to live--PLEASURE. So sometimes you have to indulge and enjoy, and just savor the experience of good food. I feel like I know I make it hard, that it shouldn't be such an issue. But I really do think our society is out of balance on its consumptn of white flour, high-fructose corn syrup, butter, and meat. Its really way too much. We should be eating whole grains, lots of fresh vegtables and fruits and some dairly and cheese--I said Cheese not Cheetos. Why not just try to eat healthy generally? For me, it is a slippery slope. It is appealing to just give in, but it only gets more removed and amore removed and then So I like the thoughtfullness around source, method and mixture in consideration of the food we eat. I want to instill a sense of caretaking in my children for the health of their bodies. I also want to make sure they get what they need and are healthy. I think this is a challenge for all parents, no matter their dietary standards. Back to wrap up with Kahlo. Food could be one link into how our bodies are connected to political systems. We eat pesticides, we eat fruit harvested on different continents. We eat meat where we have no idea how the animal was treated or killed. A lot. Food is energy, and it is also ENERGY. Our food becomes us. We are made by it and the experiences of its making. It doesn't help me with the Kahlo stuff, and maybe that was my committee's point. Although writing a grant to go study the mexican food of the revolution --MOLE-- would be really quite amazing. But it does help talk about interconnectedness of relationships and it broadens the implications for how we treat our resources. Food is sacred. it is beautiful, it is to be cherished and honored and certainly enjoyed. Sometimes I fear we have lost this in our culture. That is why, on this issue, I continue to walk against the tide.