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Nutrition as Religion
Nutrition | April 30, 2015
Every now and then I’ll post a recipe or a dietary suggestion only to be criticized as ignorant or foolish by someone for promoting a specific type of food or dietary approach. I understand that some of these people may have good intentions, but their criticisms aren’t always very rational.
Diets can really be the equivalent of religious beliefs sometimes. People often advocate and defend their diets with as much screaming and shouting as a religious fanatic. And, of course, everyone thinks they are right. If you happen to dare suggest something that may not be allowed in their current diet or goes against their dietary perspective they sometimes get a bit crazy and break out their pitchforks. Honestly, I’m amazed at how harsh and personal people can get!
There are so many different diets out there, that it can be dizzying. Add to that the various claims and studies that supposedly back up any given diet and it can be enough to literally drive someone crazy. For example, when people argue that such and such diet is ‘most natural’ or what ‘cavemen and women ate’ I have to laugh a little. If we’re really going for genetic ancestry to support our dietary claims why stop at Neanderthal? How about the Chimpanzee Diet or, better yet, The Bigfoot Diet? 🙂
While I think it’s important to always link up studies and research as much as possible, I also try to be cautious about making outrageous claims. I try to share things that have worked for me personally and what I’ve learned through the many years of nutrition education and practice. Ultimately, it comes down to what works for you and what makes you feel the best from the inside out. If a specific diet works for you and you’re seeing results, stick to it! Some people feel better after avoiding gluten, some people avoid coffee because they don’t like the jittery feeling, and of course there are a lot of different food allergies that affect people’s diet too. If you feel like experimenting with your nutrition by trying something different with a recipe or plan then I recommend you go for it and see how it makes you feel. Of course all of your personal nutrition practices should match up with your physical activity level. You can’t just eat like a caveman and expect to get results if you’re not hunting and gathering like the cavemen did.
What just about all of us can agree on is that moderation is essential for any diet to be successful and having a variety of different foods is most beneficial. We can also agree that the less processed the food the better and that refined sugars are usually more harm than good. We may not always agree on the particulars of what exactly to eat, when to eat, or how much calories to eat but we can agree on some basic principles that are applicable whether or not we are following a vegan diet, paleo diet, Atkins diet, raw diet, etc.
What are your thoughts on criticizing other people for their dietary choices? Can’t we all just get along! 🙂
Private Member |
Zuzka, great post! I work as a nutritional therapist – I design dietary programmes for clients all the time, and every programme is different! There are definitely a few universal dietary principles that work well for everybody. At the same time, we are all individuals with different lifestyles, genetic inheritance, personal preferences, ethical stances, health goals etc etc. When it comes to the ‘right’ diet, our main concern should simply be that are all making informed choices about what we eat.
Private Member |
Oh, wow… wonderful post, glad you wrote it. “You can’t just eat like a caveman and expect to get results if you’re not hunting and gathering like the cavemen did.” That is the best part. I personally find mostly vegetarians and vegan fanatics. Do not want to offend anyone, but my experience says I get insulted by these people quite often. Judging me by my yoghurt. It’s fascinating. Isn’t it?
Private Member |
Vegetarians are not always like that. 🙂 I am a vegetarian and I am completely okay when the other people eat meat as long as they do not critize my way of eating. I think it is everybody´s personal choice what to eat. 🙂
Private Member |
The only reason you could care less what meat eaters do Paja… is because you are vegetarian and as a vegetarian you still support animal abuse, through your consumption of at a minimum dairy, and possibly chicken, fish, and eggs….as vegetarian is a very vague term. As simply a dietary vegetarian you could care less of the ethical issues of veganism…. like the environment and the needless killing of animals. It your world it is all about how you benefit and the cost to others is of no concern to you.
Private Member |
I Love all your posts on food and recipes, even going back to the old days when you were under a different site name your knowledge and teachings about nutrition is awesome!! You have helped me change my diet, get interested in nutrition, cooking and clean eating thus changing my life for the better. Im also a vegetarian and do not judge anyone for their food choices xx
Private Member |
I love all food. I look forward to the vegan food truck that makes its round at my work during lunch hour. I also love bacon with more bacon. I come to your site for new ideas and reminder of portions. Let the food religion followers do their thing.. just don’t let it keep you from sharing your awesome content.<3 Many hugs
Private Member |
I love this! Dont know if youve ever heard this quote but a wise lady once said that its easier to change a mans religion than to change a mans diet. Or something along those lines. I was wondering if you have ever posted an article or video about your diet approach. If not It would be great if you could post up an extensive article/video about it. It seems like its working for you! Thanks for your hard work and dedication to this. Youre amazing and a true inspiration. xoxo
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
Check out my nutrition guide – it’s right on top of my Nutrition page. There’s all you need to know about my diet 🙂
Private Member |
and by the way, David is absolutely right in terms of ”meat is meat”. there’s no difference which animal to kill. so i hope you’ll be fine when some homeless person kill and eat your dog or cat. as long s he gets a meal, right 😉 oh no, you feel sorry for your doggy? well I, for example, feel sorry for a cow. so why you ppl saying that’s any different? it is not.
Private Member |
It was brave of you to speak up, as you can see on this thread the meat eaters game plan is to attack the messenger… so they can continue living in denial and continue needlessly killing animals that wanted to live! Take care!
Private Member |
I just came to say that veganism is not a diet, but a lifestyle. You can use the terms “vegetarian diet” or “plant-based diet”. Just not “vegan diet”, please? Thank you
Private Member |
Agreed! Good Point!
Private Member |
I would add …. veganism is an ethical stance and lifestyle.
Private Member |
Hey everyone 🙂 I never answer on blog posts, but today I feel inspired!! First I want to thank you Zuzka for all you do for us, all your advices, all your recipes, all your kindness, all your smiles and all your everything!! I was following you when you owned bodyrock (don’t know if you still do, no offense I don’t mean to hurt you by making you remember bad stuff), you really seem to be a good person and honestly if I cross you on the street you’d be scared because I’d jump on you just to hug you :))
I read all of the comments, especially David’s. I have to say I understand perfectly what he says because I’m vegan as well 🙂 and I’m very proud to be vegan! It makes me sad that people seem to not really undestand what veganism is about, and some people were really judgy about david!
Allow me to tell you why I’m vegan!
I don’t think david meant to be harsh on zuzka when he said that she should eat her dogs. You know, I read a post that she wrote about a rescued dog, the one with the broken legs that died few weeks ago, and you can see the woman really cares about her dogs. It’s just that’s for a vegan, all animals are equal. I have a dog (more a puppy, 5 months old, eating all my shoes!!! so funny ^^) and I can never eat my dog. For me, I have the same love for my dog that I have for a cow, for a veal, for a chicken.. The only difference is that the society have created two categories of animals, one that you can eat, the other one that you can have as pets. That’s why it’s disgusting for us to think about eating a cat, or a dog, because those are our pets. But for a vegan, eating flesh (whether it’s meat or fish) means eating “someone”, someone that used to be alive before it was killed to be eaten.
Of course, we don’t blame wolves or lions for eating animals, because they are carnivores, they thrive on flesh. But we human beings? I believe we thrive on a plant based diet and there are a lot of studies out there to prove that point, like the China Study, or numerous lifestyle out there like the starch based solution. All I can say is that people advocating a flesh centered diet like atkins or all the people eating paleo are not is good shape after some years.
I really do belive you thrive on carbs, not fat. I also think the human body is amazing, of course you can survive on meat, on dairies, on fat, on chips and soda, you can eat pretty much everything and stay in shape and good health for a while, but in ten or twenty years, we’ll se what diet is best for the human being!
I personaly (and this is a personal choice) choose to have a diet that is high in carbs, low in fat, and free from any products that come from the abuse of animals. I eat hips of fruits, rice, potatoes, veggies, and I don’t gain any weight. I have lots of energy, I run every second day, I do yoga, swimming, hiit, I need so much energy to do all of that!! I don’t restrict my calories, I eat whenever I’m hungry, I stop when I’m not hungry anymore, and I eat again when my body needs fuel.
I’m not judging people who eat flesh, and my friends really love the fact that they can eat burgers around me without hearing boring stuff about veganism. Because yes, lots a vegans out there think it’s their role to educate people and people really freak out when you “attack” them!! I choose to live my lifestyle as I want, if people want to ask me what I eat, what exercise I do, why I’m a vegan I answer to them, and people are very hapy to have a conversation with a vegan without beeing constantly jugded!
Of course it breaks my heart to know that millions of animals die each year when humans could eat a plant based diet, can’t help it, couldn’t eat meat as a child because of that, I’ve always been sensitive 🙂 but it’s not a reason to judge people. And it doesn’t give the right to meats eaters to judge us because we are vegan. Please let’s be compassionate towards each other, and let’s try to understand each other’s point of view! I understand that people love the taste of meat and that for them eating meat is different than eating an animal alive, if people had to kill a veal to eat it, I think a lot of people would be vegetarian, or even vegan! I also understand that some people don’t care about animals but do other great stuff to help human beings for example! So please understand that for us vegans, animals are just like humans beings and we just are trying to live a life that has a low impact on the environment, without making anyone suffer. I really love human being, as much as I love animals, and I just wish there was more tolerance between us.
I really like you zuzka, and I hope my message won’t be seen as an offense to anyone, especially the non vegan!
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
“I don’t think david meant to be harsh on zuzka when he said that she should eat her dogs.” I don’t agree. I see that as a very aggressive statement. A kind Vegan to me sounds like an Oxymoron, thanks to all the verbal abuse I’ve been receiving in forms of comments and emails over the years from vegans. Just because I’m a meat eater like the majority of the people in the world? It’s completely natural to eat meat since Vegans are the minority and we’ve been eating meat for millions of years. China study messes with people’s heads too much.
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I promise there are kind vegans! We just don’t stand out because we don’t spend our time judging other people’s dietary choices.
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Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
Ok so you’re calling all meat eaters not decent people? That’s absurd. You know I’m absolutely against factory farming and animal abuse, of course! But let’s acknowledge that humans have been eating meat for about 2 million years while veganism – the purposeful avoidance of any animal products started only about 60 years ago. So eating meat is kind of in our DNA. I don’t care about the insults from Vegans. Meat is an important part of our diet and I don’t think it’s smart to avoid it especially as we get older. Yes, there might be some vegans that are doing great without meat, but there’s a lot of people that had to go back to eating meat because their body was not getting enough important nutrients. So yes factory farming and animal abuse – absolute unacceptable. I’m a supporter of old school farming, where the animals are roaming freely on the pasture and are grass fed like they suppose to be. And let’s not forget about some parts of the world were cows are not allowed to be eaten or abused like in India. However, these poor cows are not on a pasture in a nice farm. They’re roaming the city streets looking for garbage and most of them die of hunger (one of the worse ways to die) and sicknesses. These free cows are actually suffering. I think that a cow from an old school farm has a better life.
Private Member |
santa cruz, ca
Zuzka, virtue signaling is a very common tactic that people use when they want to impose their ideologies upon others in order to force them to do what they want. We are seeing this in the current politics in the US, as well as many other countries. It ultimately falls under this desire to “make everyone the same” and to “make everyone do what I want them to do/believe they should do”, and a desire to standardize everything. It’s not enough to change oneself, but they must force others to do what they’re doing. It’s a very strange way of creating a false sense of security. They take a “moral highground” to manipulate others with guilt, shame, and even threats. I respect vegans, but there are many who call themselves vegan, who also attack others that eat animal products and engage heavily in virtue signaling. If you analyze the arguments, they are fundamentally ideological to the core. It is factual that humans have consumed animal products for as long as they have existed. It is also factual that animals feel pain and are sentient beings. It’s hard for many vegans to digest the idea that many of us are aware of all these truths and STILL choose to eat animal products because—it is not worth causing our bodies to suffer. Vegan and vegetarian diets are diets that can work for many for the short term, and a few for the long term, but certainly not for all and lead to innumerable health problems for the majority over the long term. That is small thinking and an attempt to band-aid the issues. Simply eating animal products is not cruel. That is a serious insult to our ancestors, including our ancient and prehistoric ancestors.
If anything, Z, these people simply want to be listened to and feel heard. I would just let the insults into one ear and out the other and forget about it…..as I do with anyone engaging in virtue signaling. It couldn’t make my eyes roll any harder.
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
I absolutely agree with you and couldn’t say it any better. I can’t just ignore comments like this, because I’m responsible to let everyone who follows me know what I believe in. People come to this website, follow my workouts and want to know who I am. So it’s not so much about the person I’m responding to but more about everyone else who comes here and reads my comments. Virtue signaling sounds like an interesting topic btw.
Private Member |
santa cruz, ca
I totally get it! This is YOUR website. It’s technically private, not public, so you have the right to decide what content is appropriate or not. <3 <3 <3
Private Member |
Yep, I understand your point of view. I don’t spend time with vegan either, because I think they’re not very kind, judging everyone who’s not doing like them. I know you’re a meat eater, but i do remember you tried to become vegetarian (I told you I’ve been following you for a long time ^^) and you didn’t like the results because you felt that you were starting to lose some muscles, so somewhere you understand the vegetarian or vegan point of view!
I have a sister who’s vegan as well, and we don’t talk to each other anymore because I chose to feed my dog with food that contains meat! She feeds her dog vegan, which I can understand because she doesn’t want to participate to the slaughter of animals, but I consider dogs to be carnivores. Of course they eat some grass and they love fruits, they can eat everything, they can survive on rice if you feed them only with rice, but what about their health?? I’m not sure dogs’s stomachs were made to digest cereals, carbs. They have a short intestine, like all carnivores do. So yeah, basically she doesn’t talk to me anymore, and when she does it’s to remind me how evil I am, and to start the same discussions about veganism again and again… which is so boring -_-‘
About what you said “it’s natural to eat meat”, I don’t want to debate that! I think we cannot and should not force people to become vegan, and people who don’t like eating meat shouldn’t be forced to eat meat! And if one day I have kids, they will have the right to eat whatever they want. Becoming vegan, or vegetarian, or muslim, or christian, or buddhist, has to be an inner and personal choice. No one should force you to become anything if you don’t want to. I spent a year in australia, and this is where I started to study bouddhism. I read about something called “the middle path”, at a time in my life where I was really extreme in everything I was thinking or doing or saying. It really changed my life, as I understood that all answers are always in the middle, and not on the sides. I’m trying to keep that in mind and put that into practice in my daily routine.
Anyway, I’m sad you have a bad image of vegans but once again I understand. Passionate people are harsh sometimes. People always judge you on your choices, you are judged because you eat meat, because you’re a woman, because you do fitness, because you say this or that, because you had a boob job etc… it’s a never ending list!!
I like your website, and I really love your coffee talks! I wish there were moooore of them 🙂 kisses from france
Private Member |
medicine hat, alberta, canada
David you are being very rude. Cruel and trying to divide people… not nice. Your statements were full of posin and laced with anger and hate. Deeply intolerant. Bad form David, bad form.