October 2014
The other day I was at a Sequim Irrigation Festival Royalty function where a six-year-old birthday girl offered me apple cider topped with whipped cream. The "royalty mom" Mary (disguised name) laughed and said, "She gives Kristina the sugary whipped cream!" I didn't know what to say, so I just sat there with a confused look on my face. "Cause you're the healthy one. She gave you the sugary whipped cream. It's a joke." All the other royals stared at me staring at Mary. All I could manage to squeak out was "Sugar...?"
At times like these, there are so many contradictions racing through my mind (not to mention emotions) that I end up saying nothing. "Confusion" is what sums up my disposition at times like these. But yet, this is anything but the truth. Mary is the confused one. I understand so much more than she does.
I chose to give a presentation to sixth graders for my community service platform as part of royalty duties. It was about how what we eat effects the consumer, environment, economy, and farmer. Not once did I say anything about sugar. Did Mary hear any of it? Sugar exclusively concerns the weight of the consumer, which is unfortunately what health means to the public. This is foolishly ignorant of the real problems. Once one develops this false, superficial perception of health, it is near impossible to brake that.
Our society has a very isolationist mindset. There are so many reasons not to eat that canned whipped cream, and its sugar content is not one of them. It is irrelevant, and even selfish to think about. What about the preservatives? Artificial colors and flavors? What about the fact that you're supporting a monopoly of a corporation? What about how the production of that product impacted the environment? What about the cows from which that whipped cream came? What about their health? "Healthy" eating is seldom actually about our health.
I realized in that moment that I didn't exclusively want healthy eating. I want to live sustainably and meaningfully, and then I will have health. Health comes with that. Healthy eating is not my goal. My goal is something greater than that. When I started gaining an interest in this, my starting point was healthy eating. The further I got into it, I realized that one has to rearrange their whole lifestyle in order to eat well. Now, healthy eating is my ending point. My Point A is now a quest for a rich, meaningful lifestyle. In the middle is gardening, cooking, experiencing, tasting, caring and loving. I seldom think about this as "healthy" anymore because health is just a natural byproduct of this lifestyle. But how do I explain this to someone like Mary? That's why I still label my lifestyle as "healthy eating" and I say I want to be a "holistic nutritionist."
One time, at one of our parades, I was bullied by the other royals about my lifestyle and beliefs. I knew it was because they didn't understand, but that wasn't enough to stop me from feeling sad the whole weekend. They were offended by my belief that everyone should be healthy.
Once, I overheard one of the other Princesses say "I don't like that he smokes cigarettes. If he smokes, he is not beautiful." Everyone knows smoking is not healthy. People who smoke do it because they like it. It is a false joy, however, because it is a result of addiction. It is the same way with unhealthy eating habits. Dietary diseases kill millions of people every day and yet we still believe that we shouldn't intervene because it is "their choice." This is the same Princess who defended her "right" to eat unhealthily because that's "her choice" and she "likes food." (It is no surprise that she is on the Military Diet to lose weight before wrestling season; she is the type of person who has the "diet" mindset.) Unhealthy eating is taken so lightly now. It is so sad that I am abnormal for eating well and eating unhealthily is normal. We do not look down upon the obese for eating unhealthily, but we look down upon smokers for smoking. You would never see her saying "I don't like that he eats McDonald's five days a week and drinks 32 oz of soda each day. If he is fat, he is not beautiful." Both habits are equally dangerous and are done for a lot of the same reasons, and yet there is such a double standard.
Lest I conclude: we live within a system that - dare I say it - almost pressures us to be unhealthy. It is seen as being "confident," "strong," and "comfortable in their body" to be overweight. Just look at Meghan Trainor's All About That Base, which, though a very catchy and fun song, justifies obesity - and that is not okay. The media is now blaming other media for "pressuring" viewers into "settling" for salads so they could be skinny. It is all part of a complex, cleverly designed system that favors unhealthiness.