Within the past decade, we as a society have become increasingly aware of what we eat and how much of those foods we should consume in a day, week, month or even year. The diet craze seemed to have permeated American culture only within the last 40 years, but really it began much earlier with fads such as the Cabbage Soup diet, which consisted of only drinking soup for a week, as well cleanses and quick ways to burn off fat. In my experience, trying to avoid the freshman 15 (a myth told to college students in which they gain 15 pounds over the course of their first year) played a huge factor in my eating and lifestyle choices my first two years of college. It led me to make some choices that I believed were "healthy" but really this decision was damaging to my body since I denied it the nutrients it needed for me to function daily.

While it is important to eat a nutritious diet, like most things in life, it must be balanced. The 'Cauliflower Culture" that I refer to in the following poem refers to diet culture and how it contradicts complicated relationship the mass media seems to have with food. I constantly see images on magazines of how men and, women especially, have to "burn off fat" and "discover quick cheap ways to speed up your metabolism," However, there is not much information on how to eat a balanced diet so that you can achieve the results in a healthier way that doesn't adhere to society's body ideals, but one that is suited for that person's body type.

Body image is tied closely with one's eating habits and that has been an issue for as long as people have existed in society. There is no set standard for one's body type since everyone's bodies are different. It is important to get to know your body to give it what it needs and wants. Whether it is a fleeting thought or a constant battle in one's mind, women and men have struggled with what they think their body should look like according to societal norms but the best body does not have to be a slim or fat one... it is a healthy one, no matter what size.

BREAKING NEWS: All foods are bad, and everything will kill you

We, gluttonous creatures, must submit

to the all-knowing superpower

the illustrious

shape-shifting

Cauliflower

Replace all you consume

with a bulbous white root:

"eVERYTHING THAT TASTES GOOD

iS BAD"

it says

we blindly obey its command:

"cARBS? gET RID OF 'EM!

fAT? tRASH IT!

fAST FOOD MAKES YOU SLOW!

dON'T EAT IT

sTARVE INSTEAD"

Submit to the will

of the bulbous white root

we'll eat so much of it

until its time is done

and society replaces it

with another

We'll need something new

so, let's create more lies

poison our fickle minds

create a cauliflower culture

we secretly despise