On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 10:14 AM, thentor <bherring@fast-5.com> wrote:
Thanks, Heather.
I have been the only moderator of this group until now and my philosophy has been to lean toward permissiveness rather than moderation. After all, I do not know what the perfect diet is, so discussing advantages and disadvantages of different approaches is relevant to those who care enough about their health to try Fast-5. The feedback posted recently indicates that the food evangelism isn't being ignored as I thought, but is being perceived as hostile and bullying. I do not know why some who eat a particular way feel so strongly about it that everyone should. Perhaps it is so that if their choice turns out to be an error, they will have company in the outcome. Perhaps they see the choice as obvious when to other perspectives it simply isn't so.
It could be beneficial to our descendants for each of us to adopt a specific philosophy of food selection and stick to it (i.e., vegan, vegetarian, paleo, carnivore, low carb, zero carb), so that one day we might actually be able to sort out what is the best diet for people of a particular genetic makeup. That said, I don't feel any real obligation to stick to something forever if it gets boring, doesn't feel good, or some piece of evidence suggests it may not be such a good idea. Life is for living. Enjoying food, particularly with others, is a part of it.
I think Pollan made a good point about this in "The Omnivore's Dilemma". We *want* to have a "food culture" that just works, so we can all know what to eat and sit around the same table. But, in this time and place, for whatever reason, we are stuck. Our "food culture" we grew up with simply doesn't work. No one knows how to fix it.
In that circumstance, people try all kinds of fixes. In parallel, which is a great way to come up with an answer quickly. Fast-5 is one of those answers, at least for me: it fixed some of my long-term issues very quickly, as I was recovering from undiagnosed celiac.
It also led to a new set of questions, like: "Now that you only have to cook ONE meal, what meal should that be????". Hmmm. Hard question! In the past, cooking 3 meals a day, each meal was "whatever is the fastest, and makes the fewest dishes". But one meal: it should be good, and amazing. Food becomes a different thing in the day. Our "one meal" becomes the main point of the day, most days. A lot of it is homegrown or locally grown, cooked according to our home traditions (we have special spices for certain dishes, for instance). My family knows the difference between our own eggs, and storebought (they will not eat the storebought), and ditto for lettuce and tomatoes. Yet we used to live off poptarts and macNcheese and frozen pizza, with no complaints.
I totally don't have "the answer". I do tend to share my short-term conclusions, though I try to keep most of them to my blog (which gives details about stuff like, say, how to grow vegies or why I prefer certain foodstuffs). I know my family would prefer we just have some favorite foods and that I serve them ... they do not want to know the details. I expect, per Pollan, that is the norm. OTOH, they are fine with one meal a day at a certain time, and their health has improved. So while *I* am online philosophizing about food, *their* policy is "don't ask, don't tell!". They really do not want to know about the meal, just that it is their favorite.
Anyway, this is only tangential to the issue of "food evangelism". I guess what I'm getting to is: the whole "Fast-5" paradigm can change a LOT about a diet, and in ways you do not expect. Certainly in ways I did not expect! So I mostly like open sharing of experiences. I also know (from experience) that the "bully" types of people can take over the conversation in ways that are not helpful to many people. Dr. Herring is very much NOT one of those, nor Tamara. Basically, people who think they are "aggressive" are usually not the ones who are (Catch-22, that!). Human interactions are way more complicated that human food issues, I think.
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