How to Be a Conscious Eater

become one of fear. Fear of fatness has long been around, but

today we’ve added fear of inflammation and irritation, and a

general overtone of avoidance. Diet books, blogs, and multistep

miracle programs sell fear to their advantage. Then there’s the

dramatic social, environmental, and political upheaval we’re

all navigating. Which brings us to a second potential driver:

control. There’s great power in saying no. In saying, I know my

body best. Rather than diets long centered on weight-loss goals,

the modern era of aversion is usually about optimizing your

own well-being—whatever that means for you. Eczema, joint

pain, bloating, brain fog, low energy, you name it. More and

more people feel that self-experimentation—through food—is

the path to healing.

All of this is completely understandable. But our new nor-

mal brings a seesaw: What goes down when individualized

eating goes up? At least three things, by my count.

For starters, happiness. Countless people shutting out delicious

foods in the name of health are robbing themselves of joy.

(Again, I’m not talking about people who make food choices

based on medical necessity or environmental or human rights

issues.) Joy is of course hard to measure, but less of it likely

means shorter tempers and less kindness, more tension and

more stress—a serious detriment not only to individuals and

home lives but communities and workplaces. In other words, if

you have a bunch of individual people who are each miserable

from all the pleasures they’ve expelled from their lives, collec-

tively it makes for a pretty miserable society.

Second, diet quality can suffer. People on gluten-free diets are even

less likely than gluten eaters to get the recommended amount

of whole grains; paleo adherents tend to consume unhealthy

levels of red meat; Whole 30 followers are missing out on the

benefits of various vegetables and legumes.

238 how to be a Conscious Eater

Conscious Eater_04 PT_4th patches.indd 238 10/23/19 1:38 PM