I hate food culture in America. I just want to say that up front because I’ve been thinking about it lately. I re-read posts on Ask A Manager, and I’ve been absorbed in one about a nonprofit charity that deals with people with a certain chronic disease (and how to help them eat healthily*. That wasn’t what the letter was about. The letter was from someone who worked there who asked how to implement a:
healthy eating policy that is respectful and non-judgmental.
My immediate response on re-reading that question was, “There isn’t. Next?” Which, to be fair, many, many, many people pointed out. But, reading the comments reminded me again about how deeply endemic these issues are in our society.
To be clear. The vast majority of people were against the policy as it stood. Oh, the policy would be…not even sure, but something about eating similar to what they’re pushing their clients to eat? I don’t know, but the letter writer, named QuestionSubmitter, elaborated in the comments. They were shamed for bringing chocolate into the office so ended up eating it in their car. They said in their letter that there were people who ran their food program who were frustrated that they “had” to police their coworkers food choices. I put had in quotes because they didn’t have to. They were doing it all of their own volition. What’s more, there wasn’t support from the uppers in this push for ‘healthy’ eating. The uppers wanted cupcakes at meetings, which did not bode well for a policy.
Alison’s response was wonderful and hit most of the important points I had in mind. It was interesting to see how people pushed back, though. There was a woman who compared a food policy to a dress code, which, no. I mean, I think most dress codes are ridiculous, too, but in most cases, you can’t get sick from those restrictions. The same woman said something like we can all agree that certain foods aren’t healthy–like Skittles. Several people pointed out that Skittles were perfect for diabetics who needed a quick hit of sugar.
Other people said it was getting into not everyone can eat sandwiches territory (adhering to the very special/rare cases), but it’s not because a blanket policy will affect many different people in different ways. In the comments, people were giving their specific dietary restrictions such as several needed to eat more salt than was recommended. Another could not eat leafy greens. Then there were those who were celiacs and/or had Crohn’s disease. The point being that what was healthy for some was not healthy for others.
Other people said it’s easy to eat healthy by societal standards (lots of vegs and fruits), but they included a lot of meat beacuse they lift weights. Somebody pointed out that lots of meat would be considered unhealthy by many doctors, which is true. It was discouraging that a very vocal minority wanted to dismiss food deserts as a problem.
Then, there was a sizeable number of people who declared that all food is fine in moderation, even though they, themselves eat ‘healthily’. But they do have a cupcake once a month! Which is fine for them, but it’s just very amusing to me how eager they are to point out that they are ‘good’ people, not ‘bad’ ones.
In re-readiing, I went to the end of the comments which apparently I hadn’t read before. Or I’ve forgotten. That’s one of the downsides to my medical crisis–my memory is porous. Anyway, the same woman I mentioned above commented again, trying to push her agenda of banning certain foods. No matter how she tried to dress it up, though, it came down to her thinking a policy banning certain foods was fine. Even then, though, it was based on what she deemed to be ‘good’ and ‘bad’. She said white rice would be fine, but many people don’t consider it so because it has no nutritionous nalue. I love white rice. I don’t care about nutrients. I eat white rice every day. But is it ‘good’ for you? Nah, son. Then she said that HCF (high corn fructose) and palm oil should be banned. Which, I mean, the former is in so many foods and how are you going to discover is the latter is in someone’s food?
It was very sad how she was so eager to spin it as being benign and that no one would use it to bully others. Riiiiight. The LW already said they were being scolded for their lunch choices. The few people who were for the policy were saying those of us who were anti were being unreasonable about asking where we would draw the line. I don’t see anything unreasonable about asking that. The one woman kept bringing up candy, but there were plenty of people who pointed out that for people with diabetes, candy was a good quick sugar spike.
There was an astute post by fposte (she’s pretty thoughtful in general) about how this was going into orthorexia territory. That’s when ‘healthy’ eating crosses over into disordered thinking. It’s ptuting food into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. It’s harping on ‘clean’ eating at the expense of everything else. I read Geneen Roth decades ago and really liked her belief of listening to your body and eating what you wanted when you wanted. What I didn’t like, though, was that she said while you would feel like you were out of control for a while and gain weight, you would ultimately settle down (and implied that you would lose weight). She’s quite thin herself, and there was a thruway of it’s a way to lose weight. That’s why I prefer Health At Every Size (HAES). They have the radical belief that weight itself doesn’t matter. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a radical statement.
I like to pair that with the fact that it’s not about health because no one ever talks about the dangers of being underweight (which are more than being overweight). Any time someone loses weight, it’s seen as a universally positive thing. I know some people would say it’s because most Americans are overweight/obese, but that’sa circular argument. Ever since I’ve been alive, it’s been the case that people are looked down for being fat. Also, have we not learned by now that banning foods, shaming people for what they eat, making fun of fat people does not, surprise surprise, motivate people to lose weight? Honestly, if that was all it took, we’d be a country of skinny-ass fools.
If we really want to help people with eating fruits and vegetables, let’s work on food deserts, the cost of eating fresh produce, wage inequity, time crunch, the fact that we just had a pandemic and am now in the middle of an endemic. No one wants to talk about all that, though, because it’s so much easier to blame individuals–as it always it. I am not hre for it.
*I fucking hate that word, healthy, I mean, and I’ll get to that later.