Ethical eating?

[sarahmichigan]

I've been thinking about the idea of how to balance ideas about ethical eating (buying locally, being a vegetarian, eating organic) vs. ideas about legalizing food, un-doing negative weight-loss dieting programming, etc.

I *hate* talking about food in good/bad terms, and yet I have some pretty strong opinions about what it means *to me* to make good, ethical choices about where to buy my food, not eating most kinds of meat, etc. Does anyone else struggle with balancing these issues? What have you come up with? Do you worry that you're just substituting one set of "rules" about eating (i.e. traditional weight-loss diet talk) for more hip-sounding ones (macrobiotics, veganism, animal rights, whole foods, eating organic)?

I posted a slightly different version of the following in the comments at body_positive:
"I strive to eat free-range eggs and eat no meat except sea-food on occasion, and I shop for organic foods and whole foods when I'm able to. I believe in trying to buy locally, from small farms, etc. I think there is an ethical component to eating and buying food. However, I refuse to beat myself up for not always making the most ethical choices because it leads to black-and-white thinking that I find destructive. If I'm eating mostly vegetarian and eating whole foods, organic foods, free-range eggs MOST of the time, I'm being more conscious of these issues than 95 percent of Americans, and I refuse to get down on myself for not being perfect.

Certain foods are, of course, more nutrient-dense than others. But when people start judging other people in moralistic terms for what they eat, that bothers me. Of course each person should set whatever ethical eating standards s/he wants for his/herself, but making blanket statements about what *others* should/shouldn't eat gets my back up."

[modified version of this entry x-posted to body_positive]

Comments

[tallizen.livejournal.com]

cost of Organics is Crazy High. I go to Randazles and by most my fresh fruit and Veggies, I have been increasing the Amount of Fish I am eating.

But it all makes me wonder how is it our GrandParents and Grand Grand Parents ate large amounts of food and did not Get huge. What Happen ??
My grand parents used to have a 200 acer farm. in grand rapids
we ate great meals

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

Um, our ancestors worked their butts off from dawn to dusk.

[purple-marf.livejournal.com]

I'd rate myself at maybe 30% aware of the moral impact of the things I eat, so I don't really feel qualified on that score. But I think I can comment on the last part of your post.

I try very hard to avoid rating myself, my life, anything important to me in terms of how well other people are doing it, or their opinion of how I rate. Best example I have to offer: I learned a lot when I took this lower-pay, lower-stress job and *kept* at it. It flew in the face of everything I'd believed up to that point about what "success" is.

Hell, you're one of the people giving me good food for thought regarding the way I see my body, and what makes ME happy in terms of weight/fitness, etc. I think the most important part about it is, again, that I'm trying harder not to look outside myself to gauge what's good/healthy/fit, but inward - paying attention to how changes in activity level & eating choices effect how my body feels.

My guess would be that, on an ethical level, if you feel you're putting the time and effort that you have available into the issue (procuring the absolute ideal in ethical food isn't the primary focus in your life, so no, perfection is not attainable), that's good. Obviously the amount of time and effort you can/want to put into it will be different from someone with harder access to local sources, or someone who has kids, or someone with restrictive food allergies, etc...

Hope that was interesting input instead of redundant blather. ;)

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Hope that was interesting input instead of redundant blather. ;)

Definitely that first one.

On a completely unrelated note, I keep meaning to tell you that I used the word "relationshit" in an LJ post many moons ago; I don't know if you coined it, but you were the first person I ever heard use it, and it amused me greatly.

relationshit

[purple-marf.livejournal.com]

*guffaw* I'd forgotten that one utterly. Brings back images of high school, so I dunno if I can rightfully claim it or if it belongs to some long-gone friend. Thanks for the reminder though.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I'm bringing this over from the comments at body_positive. Another poster said:

I think the idea of "good" and "bad" foods needs to be coupled with a purpose to have any meaning at all. Food is just like exercise or "fitness" - it's for something. That something can be any physiological purpose - nutrition, physical recover, emotional satisfaction, taste.

I responded:

I think that's a really good point and shows exactly where the over-simplification of 'good/bad' food starts.
-A food might be "good" in that it tastes good, but it might make you feel sluggish and queasy.
-It might be "good" in that it's high in nutrients, but if you're allergic to it, it could kill you!
-It might be 'good' in terms of the number of vitamins and minerals it contains, but is might be heavily-processed and full of chemicals (like a lot of "fruit and grain bars").
-It might be nutrient-dense like one of the fishes with the oils that are supposed to be good for you, but eating it would violate your personal ethics if you're a vegan.

[razzle.livejournal.com]

It's easy, so easy, to slip into food moralizing because it's so ingrained in our culture (with its puritanical roots). Junk food is "bad" for health. Processed food is "bad" for the environment. Eating meat is "bad" for the animals. None of these statements are always true, nor are they always false.

I like to be informed about food composition and processing methods so that I have some kind of scientific basis for my food choices. From there I can build a personalized set of food ethics. I'm still working on this, and probably always will be, because new information is coming in all the time.

Because I want to be a nutrition educator, I want to have the facts in order to share them with others when asked. What I do NOT want to do is become a professional food priest and pass moral judgement on other people's diets. It's frightening how quickly people start *apologizing* for what they're eating when you tell them you're in dietetics.

I think the most important point is exactly what you said: "I refuse to get down on myself for not being perfect." If we set rules in stone about any aspect of our lives and then beat ourselves up when we break them and then (usually) abandon them because they only serve to remind us of how imperfect we are... these rules are harming our lives, not helping.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Great insights, as is usual for you.

[peggynature.livejournal.com]

"It's frightening how quickly people start *apologizing* for what they're eating when you tell them you're in dietetics."

Haha, so true! (I'm just an undergrad nutrition student, currently, but I get the same reaction.)

[razzle.livejournal.com]

I'm a dietetics student too! Hi!

[peggynature.livejournal.com]

I think I actually have a really hard time with this one. Because my eating has been so messed up in the past, I've had to completely forego issues of ethics in eating, at least until I feel more secure about feeding myself.

But I am one of those people who definitely has issues eating animals (if I allow myself to think about it), and I definitely would be in favour, personally, of eating more organic food (esp. if it were regulated) and definitely more local food. There is privilege inherent in this also, which sort of bites. But they are likely the choices I would make for myself, IF I weren't so terrified of any messages that seem to moralize or good/bad-ify food.

Seems like the two - ethical eating choices and overbearing food morality - are still heavily intertwined. If we could separate them, of if I could just separate them in my own head, I'd be so much happier.

Until then...bring on the hamburgers! (j/k)