That question was part of a conversation I was having a couple of months ago with someone who had recently finished cancer treatment. We were talking about how to change her diet to help her body recover. As my holistic doctor always says, “We don’t eat for fun, we eat to nourish our bodies”. Exactly.
When did we decide that food has to be fun? I doubt that cavemen worried about their food being fun after a long day, or who knows how long, of hunting. My grandparents certainly didn’t worry about food being fun, they were happy to have food on the table.
But this question is what we’ve become. We want to eat at restaurants that are too loud, with servers that wear fun buttons on their shirts, and food with fun names.
Last week we (my husband, brother-in-law and I) had lunch at a really fun place. It has a car theme. There are cars on lifts over the table and hoods of cars hanging on the walls. You can order a huge tube of beer to share with your friends and they are known for their variety of flavors of wings. The menu is full of cute names like “Biker Chick Salad”. It’s fun to go there. My brother-in-law ordered a shrimp appetizer. He said it was terrible and left most of it on the plate. My husband ordered a burger that he said was good, and I had a salad. That’s my usual default when we go to places like this. So even though the food wasn’t really that good (or even might be considered terrible), we go to places like this to eat.
We go because it’s easy and fun. Not necessarily to properly nourish our bodies. In our minds it’s harder to eat healthy because maybe it takes more time to prepare food…we just don’t have time…we want things to be fast and easy. We want our kids to eat and be happy. Kids don’t want to eat Brussels sprouts…they’re not fun. A “happy” meal will do the trick. The kids will be happy and even get a toy. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve done it a million times. When you pick up a tired and hungry 4-year-old from preschool it’s the fastest and easiest thing to do. When did we decide that a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets, fries and a coke is giving our kids what they need? When I was a kid we ate vegetables, yes, even Brussels sprouts. (Yeah, I said it…”when I was your age”) But it’s true. We ate a variety of fruits and vegetables because our parents introduced them to us at a very young age, and we even liked most of them!
The other day as I stood in line to pay at an office supply store, I stared at all the shelves of candy. They actually use the shelves to funnel you into the checkout area. What an amazing selection they have. I’ve always wondered why an office supply store has candy by the registers, but I suppose that they are hoping someone running out to pick up office supplies may have skipped lunch or just needs a quick chocolate bar to make them feel better about the job they are unhappy with or the boss they dislike. I would have grabbed one myself a few years ago.
Let me tell you another story. (last one.) A couple of weeks ago I was in Los Angeles visiting my daughter and my best friend. We went to several restaurants that offer plant-based menus. One is a Mexican restaurant. It was fun. It wasn’t fun because of the too loud music or over stimulating decor. It was fun to be able to order from the entire menu and not just default to a salad. It was fun to see and experience delicious recipes that I know nourished my body. It was fun to eat good food with people I enjoy spending time with.
I have personally witnessed the difference a good breakfast can make to someone who has diabetes. I have read about the difference diet can make in fighting cancer and know about people like Dr. Josh Axe (www.draxe.com) who have had success in that area. It can’t be fun to have radiation or chemotherapy everyday for months. I have experienced the difference that diet changes have made in my life. Do I get tired of struggling to order from a menu when we go out? Yes, but I don’t get tired of not living in pain. I don’t get tired of not being fatigued. I don’t get tired of having more energy. I don’t get tired of not having to spend time sitting in doctors’ offices for a sore throat, or rosacea, or just feeling awful.
What if we changed our attitude about food being fun? What if we could see that eating in a way that nourishes our bodies will allow us to have fun lives instead?
