I’m sitting at a table with two bowls of salad in front of me – one with leaves, tomatoes and avocados; the other with quinoa, beans and nuts.
Pretty healthy, right?
Well, maybe.
I eat this stuff a lot and perhaps it works. I am physically strong (as shown in my Brazilian Jujitsu practice), have a BMI in the so called perfect range (3 points above professional athlete levels), rarely if ever get sick and have a good relationship with my sleep states.
And yet I had an epiphany a few weeks back.
It happened when I was at a restaurant with a Caribbean guy. He was telling me about eating ox tail soup and cows hoof stew… but wouldn’t touch anything in the Japanese restaurant – no fish unless it’s fried, won’t eat chicken, not touching the vegetable dishes and has to have meat at every meal… even if it the cheap, filthy Tesco TV dinners.
Why? His answer, “because it’s healthy.”
Good Japanese sushi is 1 day from the boat. The Japanese philosophy of food is high quality, made with exquisite care and presented as an art form. For instance, it takes 5 years to qualify as a sushi chef.
A caribbean cafe near me looks like poverty food in comparison. The guy looks sloppy. The food is cooked in a 44 gallon drum cut in half to make a BBQ steamer. The ingredients look a day away from going off.
But that’s “healthy”…?
After eating almost nothing at the restaurant, that guy bought a sandwich on the way back to the office. He wasn’t even willing to try something new – as if eating one mouthful would strike him down.
I thought he was crazy. Until I ate with a guy who smokes, who was telling me it’s not healthy to mix more than one protein type in the same meal.
And that’s when I had my epiphany. I eat what I do because it’s healthy. Well what makes my “healthy” any more right than Mr Cow Hoof Muncher?
Because I eat vitamins?
Really?
Show me a vitamin.
What’s it look like?
And how will I know for sure I’ve eaten one?
So what really makes me eat what I do? Not direct observation. Instead a bunch of rules (like eating organic, live foods, non-hormone-laden meat, etc) and a whole lot of belief.
And maybe that’s the key… Maybe it’s the belief.
I’m still going to continue with my rationally held ideas knowing that rationality is only as good as the inputs given to it. I’m also dual-pathing the hypothesis that both of these people might also be, in some way however slim, correct also. Meaning I’m ok with people around me eating poison-laden trash foods because maybe it’s their belief keeping them well.
There were “cheeses” made from cultured cashews, “caviare” made from I-don’t-know’what, dehydrated samosa covers filled with finely chopped cubes of greenery…
Beetroot and herb caviar with sweet potato blinis.
Root vegetables wrapped in flaxseed skin samosas.
Cashew “cheese” trio (paprika, olive and pesto)
Cashew “cheese” wrapped in aubergine skins and zucchine pappardelle
Chocolate torte with dehydrated orange zest (fab!)
Mousse Trio (mint, rose, fig swimming in strawberry love heart sauce)
