Food For Thought

From the gooey fresh baked cookies fresh out of Mom’s oven to the sautéed chicken sizzling on the skillet-food is our friend, not the enemy. I believe food should be embraced and not pushed away by our fear of what might happen when that food enters our bodies and how it might affect our physique. As a young girl I always looked forward to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and desserts of course. Eating was never something I gave a second thought about. If there was food, I would eat it. Growing up I learned that I had to eat healthier food. Even then I enjoyed my green broccoli and bright orange carrots. It wasn’t until health class freshman year in high school that I realized food could have a bad side.

I was sitting in my uncomfortable plastic chair and my teacher was teacher our class about eating disorders and how people with those kinds of disorders reject the idea of food, and I was utterly surprised at what I was learning. I knew about eating disorders before, but I guess I had never really thought about them too much and never thought I could relate since I loved food so much. I had a friend at the time that didn’t eat as much as I did but when I noticed she didn’t eat much of anything at all I began to wonder and then worry. Over a week or so I would look at what she was eating, and if she even ate at all. When she didn’t eat I would offer her my food and she would decline my offer. Once I made sure I knew she wasn’t eating as much as I knew she should be I asked her, “Why haven’t you been eating a lot lately?” She said, “I haven’t been feeling too good and food isn’t agreeing with her stomach very well.” I let the lie pass and after a few weeks I watched as her weight dropped and dropped until I couldn’t take it anymore.

Sitting on my black leather coach one day, we were watching True Life, and I decided to let her know how concerned I was by what I was noticing. I said to her “I’ve been noticing that you haven’t been eating a lot lately and you’ve been loosing a lot of weight. I’m getting worried, are you okay?” At first she got defensive and said “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” but after I told her parents about my concern, and I persisted the topic, her parents and I got her to go to the doctor.

This was all so real now. Just a couple months ago I thought food was the silver lining on a cloudy day, but I now know every rose has it’s thorn, but we cannot be afraid of those thorns and we cannot be afraid of the good, wholesome food that makes the world go round.