How Choosing A Healthier Lifestyle Causes Judgment In Local Grocery Stores

This past Sunday was the first of many Sundays that I would find myself sitting with my boyfriend watching countless hours of uninterrupted football on the NFL's Redzone. As we both sat on the couch eating pizza and not paying the slightest attention to the amount of empty calories or the high amount of carbs we had just put in our bodies, I started to get an enormous craving for cookies (I must say I make some of the best paleo cookies this side of the Mississippi). I went rummaging through my cupboards to try and find the necessary ingredients for my little pieces of heaven and I realized that I was missing two extremely important ingredients for chocolate chip cookies: chocolate chips, and flour. You do not have to be an expert on baking to really know that those are both very important ingredients and to be honest, if I attempted to make cookies without flour, they would not longer be the best on this side of the Mississippi. To solve this flour and chocolate chip dilemma I got in my car and drove to the closest Kroger where I quickly found myself lost in the aisles of yellow cards telling me which items were on sale and Oreo cookies screaming at me, telling me to buy them.

But what really, really blows my mind is that what I choose to put in my body due to certain diet preferences I have gets me put into a corner of judgment. Like I have written before, I have been practicing the practical paleo lifestyle for about nine months now. I have had my ups and downs with the diet and I have definitely have had my days where I have eaten pizza because I WANTED pizza! What I have learned over the last year is that no one should ever avoid eating something and then be unhappy as a result of it. If you want a cookie, do not deny yourself that cookie (as long as there are no allergies).

The World Health Organization defines healthy as a “State if complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” As Americans, we have turned this word into something that somewhat insults people who choose to eat something as salty as a bag of Fritos or something as healthy as celery.

I say this because of my lonely trip to Kroger.

Almond flour. One would think that almond flour could easily be found in the section where the isle is clearly labeled, “flour,” right? Well, apparently not. Kroger sets up their store with a healthy section that is stocked with enough whole grains and organic items to get us through an apocalypse. These items are that are higher in health, but most importantly higher in price. Whole grain equals whole paycheck, right? Well, when you go to school the primarily black city of Detroit, you do NOT want to be the white rich girl buying all organic.

Why are stores now separating the healthy foods for the so-called unhealthier foods? Why can’t food be food and people choose the food that is right for them without having to be stared at or judged for buying this so called, healthy food. Should food not just be food? There is already a constant need for women to be considered skinny, beautiful, and in shape but now society has put a label on. People that eating healthy is something that everyone should be doing, however we should be doing it in a way that is most beneficial to ourselves, not our peers around us. It still blows my mind is that people have yet to understand that everyone is DIFFERENT and everyone’s bodies react differently to certain types of food. If you are a person who has chosen food as your passion, yet judge people on each meal they eat solely because there was one gram of unsaturated fat in that last handful of crackers, then you are a person who should either choose a new passion or learn more about it.

Eating fruit every morning may be enough for someone to be able to function until lunch, however, someone else might get sick from all of the natural sugar in their stomach because they have digestive issues. Some people may simply not like milk, but does that mean they are unhealthier than someone that drinks four cups of milk per day?

Am I unhealthy? No, I am a person who chooses to try and stay as far away from grains, dairy and legumes as I can or my body could have a severe reaction. I am a person who applauses people that have or are trying figure out what kind of diet reflects the best upon their body. But most importantly I am a person who chooses not to focus on what others eat and compare it to myself.

I have said it before and I will never mind saying it again: judge people on their actions and kindness, not the food they choose to consume.