Diet as Religion

Pray to Vegetable Jesus...

Food, shelter, companionship: there's not much more that we truly need. Some would throw in "God" or "religion" in the mix, but that would be like confusing software (content) with hardware (framing device). The need for grub, a roof and sex are all innate drives within us necessary for the continuation of the human race, and religion is one way to make sense of what otherwise can seem completely without order, meaning or pattern.

Recording my food logs that follow these entries every week is something of a ritual -- ritual: the foundation of any religion that creates a feeling of order and security. There is comfort in the repetition, in hopes that loyalty to this thoughtful "prayer" will lead me to self-improvement and improvement of that which is around me. So it is with little surprise that a professor of religious studies finally got around to just saying it: most cockamamie diets being pimped these days require the faith of religiosity, because they're not based in the reality of science. (Bolding mine.)

Religion helps people make sense of a chaotic world: Suddenly, there is order, and there are instructions. All you have to do is follow them. “You have a certainty about the choices you make,” Levinovitz said. “That gives you a way to make decisions, and it makes for a comforting world.” Likewise, nutrition science is a chaotic discipline. Eggs are bad for you until they’re not; MSG is a dangerous food additive until it’s not. It’s understandable why people would pick a way of eating and then stick to their guns; it gives them some solid ground to stand on amid ever-shifting recommendations.

But what about when diets aren’t comforting? Many of them, after all, suggest worlds in which modern life is overflowing with toxins, even in safe-seeming foods — shouldn’t these beliefs be aversive rather than attractive? Not so, said Levinovitz. He used the Food Babe, the very popular food blogger who sees terrifying chemicals everywhere — and who is frequently wrong in her doomsaying — as an example. “One thing I realized — why would you want to live in a world filled with toxins? Why would you follow the Food Babe — isn’t that a terrifying world to live in?” Levinovitz said. You could easily make the same statement about religion: Why would you want to believe in a world where humans are inherently sinful creatures? The idea sounds upsetting from a nonreligious perspective. “But it’s not. It’s a comforting one … The only thing scarier than a world full of toxins is a world in which you don’t know what the toxins are.” If the choice is a nuanced, complicated understanding of the world that contains some uncertainty or a more clear-cut and sharply defined approach, the latter vision is often going to win out.

So beliefs that gluten is the devil, or carbs are the root of all problems, or if only we ate like cavemen did thousands of years ago, or whatever specious thought can pop into your head about food...they all can give focus and "answers" that the science and research can not. As long as you buy in, don't question too deeply, and "keep the faith", your answers will always be true.

Did Mary get pregnant without ever being touched? Did all those Genesis guys live to be 400? (No, not Tony and Phil, the biblical ones.) Is our guess at what a paleolithic diet really better than the modern diet, even though the lifespan was literally half of what it is today? Does food require moral judgement: is there inherently "good" food and "bad" food,  or is all food just different ratios of fat, protein, carbs and nutrients? With a smattering of contaminates?

One of my best friends in the world is a vegan, through and through, walks it and talks it. I enjoy observing her diet when dining with her, and on rare occasion cooking for her. Her food and her lifestyle and spirituality are so intertwined that I suspect she would not be offended by the idea of diet as religion. Diet is religion, and why wouldn't it be, as food is a key point where the world enters us and we become the world. Why not treat that world kindly as we want ourselves treated?

Why does this feel more like a defense of cannibalism?

As with religion, diet is a framework that is bendy enough that it can be used for good or evil. Good: saving the world. Bad: trying to look like an unrealistic role model for the sake of others. My dietary religion is not organized, published or followed by anyone other than myself -- I have a direct and personal connection to my diet god, no gatekeepers or priests or hucksters needed. My holy trinity:

1. Makes me feel better
2. Makes me look better
3. Supported by science

Another religiousy-feeling organzing concept in regards to food was popularized by Mark Bittman a few years back: Eat real food, mostly plants, not too much. The framing device I personally keep coming back to to help make sense of why our food supply has been seemingly degraded and making us fat and sick is quite simple: Capitalism's amoral drive for profit takes advantage of and amplifies the human's amoral drive for sensual pleasure, regardless of civic responsibility or consequence. Damn, I should write a book about that and start my own diet religion...Scientology will have nothin' on me...

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 3141
Good week. Eating neither slim nor out of control. A few weeks to the scale, to see if this is the way to go...

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MONDAY COUNT: 3550

SLEPT: 10pm - 4:45am, 6.75 hrs

AM SNACK: 5 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, Fage with almonds honey, vanilla,  450 cal

LUNCH: noon, falafel, chicken soup, health salad, pickles, 610 cal

PM SNACK: 2pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, slice of pizza, +/- 300 cal

DINNER: 7pm, flounder, asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 520 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 7:30pm, popcorn, +/- 400 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 8pm, peanut butter crackers, kind bar, chocolate chips and cashews, +/-  800 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 9pm- 4:45am, 7.75hrs

AM SNACK: 5 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal  

LUNCH: 2pm, chicken meatballs, curry lentils, steamed strignbeans, pickles, 620 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 7pm, grilled pork loin, poppa salad with dressing, 700cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, popcorn, kind bar, +/- 700 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3050

SLEPT: 11pm-4:30am, 5.5hrs

AM SNACK: 4:45 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, Fage with almonds, honey, vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, grilled pork loin, poppa salad with dressing, pickles, 720 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, cashews, 310 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, chipotle burrito, ice cream, +/-1380
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THURSDAY COUNT: 3645

SLEPT: 10:30pm - 6:30am, 8 hr

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, steel cut oatmeal,  450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, sauteed shrimp and mushrooms over poppa salad with dressing, pickles, 575 cal

PM SNACK: 2pm, Jamaican patties, 830 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad and cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, Stouffer's Frenchbread Pizzas, 820 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 8:30pm, chocolate chips & cashews, veggie straws, +/- 500 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 9pm-3:30am, 6.5 hours

AM SNACK: 4am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, slaw, pickles, 610 cal

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, momma salad and cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, slice of streetza, +/- 200 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal