Wednesday, September 28, 2016

The Cheese Grates It: There Is No "Good" or "Bad" Food, But There Is Plenty of New Age Bullshit


The following is a response to a post on Alternet, which refers to "good" fats and "bad" fats.
http://www.alternet.org/food/when-youre-stressed-good-fat-isnt-so-good-anymore

To save what is left of my sanity, I stopped categorizing food as "good" or "bad". I aim to eat fewer highly processed foods, and because of my diabetes I should try to moderate my carb intake. However, I find labeling foods as "good" or "bad" unhelpful at best and triggering of disordered eating behavior at worst.
I like to eat guacamole any time. I ate a lot of guacamole after a really bad breakup. Guacamole was much better than my crappy so called boyfriend, who was a thing that was way more unhealthy for me than even either bad guacamole or deep fried food could ever be.
The aforementioned article is one of those New Age "health" pieces. I fell for the New Age mindset for many years, to my detriment. More on that in a minute.

Commenter Freydis had this to say:
AND we're supposed to be responsible for the amount of stress in our lives! Family, children, tRump, gun violence, plummeting finances, etc., have no relevance.

This was my reply:
That whole "you're responsible for your stress levels" line of thinking always increased my stress levels. So, is the person writing such Pollyanna poppycock going to get me a better job which pays more than 30,000 a year (for a credentialed person to do skilled work, mind) and allows me to work 40 hours a week or less as opposed to the average of 50-60 hours a week that I actually have to work? My 30,000 dollars a year has to cover more and more every year. Plus, I suspect that my mother may be developing dementia. Plus, my son is a high functioning autistic person who has trouble with anxiety and depression and has never been able to hold a job due to said anxiety and depression. But yeah, I'm just supposed to "think myself happy," and it's my fault if I'm not. Sorry to rant. Your thoughts are spot on, and I'm so over this New Age crap, which I used as yet another reason to belittle and berate myself for many years.

So, that's what I have to say about that. New Ageism has been more hurtful than helpful to many people, and Diet Think has certainly been more hurtful than helpful to our entire society.


~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

1 comment:

Unknown said...

So right, Cie! Bad guacamole is better than a crap boyfriend any day.
I'm glad I don't have a man in my life at this point. Never worked out very well for me when I did have one.