Thankfully, most of my friends are just as into eating better as I am now (and they’re also very real, meaning we don’t always succeed), but somehow I often still find myself in situations where I’m the lone weirdo. I’m really not a food snob, and it’s none of my business which foods people choose, but I have to wonder, who really is more radical? The one who does what they can (imperfect as it is) to hopefully avoid future health issues? Or someone who already struggles with degenerative diseases due to their diet (often at young ages), and still don’t have a desire to learn more and to make some changes?
Believe me, I know there are no guarantees. Someone could eat a perfect diet (which I certainly don’t by a long shot) and still get sick, that’s life. Others eat a crappy diet or generally don’t take care of themselves, and may suffer no ill effects – but not many. Just look around and that’s easy to see.
Here are the most common excuses I hear for not eating better – let me know if I missed any:
1. “I can’t afford to eat healthier foods.”
Yes, it is often more costly to eat better, but it’s not impossible. First focus on educating yourself – there are many links (see below) for eating healthy on a budget. After you’ve scoured this information, implement what you can and prioritize what to put off until there’s more room in the budget. Then keep educating yourself, so when you’re able to do more, you’re ready.
2. “It’s all up to God when you live and die, why worry about what you eat?”
Yes, God is in control of our universe, but He also gives us free will to either harm or protect the gifts He’s given us, including our bodies. Part of that free will includes the consequences that go along with it. While I’m far from perfect, I want to do the best I can with not just my own body, but with the little people He’s blessed us with to raise.
3. “I’ve made it this long haven’t I?”
But are you living as full a life as you could? What if you’re settling for a quality of life that could be much improved by being able to get out of your chair and move around easier, or if you weren’t on so many medications with their various side effects?
4. “It doesn’t matter how you eat, health is mostly determined by genetics anyway.”
Genetics are powerful, no doubt. But why not do your best with what you can control? There are a lot more health risks out there than whatever might be in your family line.
5. “You only live once, you may as well enjoy it.”
Do you want to enjoy life into your 50’s and 60’s or into your 70’s, 80’s and beyond? How will you feel when your degenerative diseases prevent you from enjoying life even more than changing your habits a little does now? It’s not about denying yourself as much as it is about finding better alternatives to the foods you may be eating now. (My site is full of ideas for doing just that – see the rookie tips.) 
I certainly don’t feel deprived when I’m eating my super nutritious popcorn, with plenty of butter and sea salt; or when I’m enjoying our homemade ice cream, better than any I’ve ever had; or when I’m eating the super fresh salad made with veggies from our backyard and my yummy homemade ranch dressing that took me 3 minutes to make, using herbs from our deck. You get the idea.
6. “You could get hit by a truck and die tomorrow, why worry about what you eat?”
I don’t worry about what I eat, but I do try to think about what goes into our bodies. And while I very well could get hit by a truck and die tomorrow, I’m going to assume that won’t happen, and try to do the best I can with what I can. This way, if I don’t get hit by a truck, and I’m blessed enough to live into my old age, I’ll hopefully still have a body that works how I need it to, so my quality of life is good until the day I do die.
7. “I’m too busy and it takes too much time to eat a more nutritious diet.”
Yep, it does take a little more time, especially at first when the learning curve is pretty steep, after all these years that we’ve bed fed rotten “politically correct” nutritional information. But once you get into the habit of doing things a little differently, it doesn’t take that much extra time. (Lots of hints here on this site and at other Real Food sites for that, too.)
8. “This is a normal part of the aging process.”
Maybe it’s “normal” these days (after all these years of being fed a line of bull about what foods are best for us…as we get fatter and sicker), but it’s not normal for our bodies to start breaking down and hurting in our 40’s and 50’s; it’s not normal to be on a dozen, or more, medications as you age; neither is it normal to not be able to go up and down steps, even when you’re 80!
DON’T SETTLE!
It’s not about perfection, it’s about learning more and more, making different choices as you can, and doing better a little all the time. I’d love to hear what you think about all this!
Have you seen this post: 5 Ways All Lifestyle Changes Are the Same? Another one that is definitely related to this one: LAY OFF KITCHEN KOP! Want to read some Real Food testimonies?
Now take a look at these posts on how to afford real food:
- My collection of posts on Eating Healthy on a Budget
- From Kristen: Eating Real Food on a Budget
- From Carrie: How to save money with menu planning, tips on eating local and organic on the cheap, and one on dumpster diving (frugal extremism!)
- From Kimi: Nourishing Food for a Single Gal on a Budget
NOW GO CHECK OUT MORE LINKS AT REAL FOOD WEDNESDAY!
photo: idea champions
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
CHEESESLAVE 08.05.09 at 12:52 am
Love this post, Kel. I agree with you — it is a little more effort but it’s so worth it. Especially when you think about being able to be healthy as you grow older. I want to be as healthy as possible as long as possible.
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Shannon 08.05.09 at 6:08 am
#2 really gets me because this is what I hear from my mom. The truth is that God is sovereign over all, but also commands us to do certain things and desires us to be obedient. While His salvation is entirely by grace through faith so that we can not boast, doesn’t Jesus also say that if we love Him then we will keep his commandments? There are no contradictions in the Bible, only our wrong interpretations.
Sorry for the rant
.
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Betsy 08.05.09 at 6:16 am
Oh, yeah, if we can’t bother eating well because we’re going to get hit by a truck tomorrow, or whatever, then why get an education? Why get a good job? Why have kids? It’ll all be gone in a poof, so why bother with anything?
Sheesh!
Great post, Kelly!
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Jessie 08.05.09 at 6:42 am
Great post! Regarding #2 – the word “stewardship” comes to mind. God calls us to be good stewards of his creation – including our own bodies. Regarding #7, I heard an interview with Michael Pollan about how cooking has become spectator sport – something you watch on TV, but not something you do. He quotes a figure that the average American spends 27 minutes cooking & 4 minutes cleaning up a day. Wow. How could you be cooking if clean up takes 4 minutes. Americans aren’t cooking period. The interview was on Fresh Air & the link to it is http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=08-03-2009
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Vin - NaturalBias 08.05.09 at 9:27 am
Awesome post, Kelly! These two drive me CRAZY!
4. “It doesn’t matter how you eat, health is mostly determined by genetics anyway.”
Lifestyle habits, including the way you think, have a significant impact on the expression of genes. Genetics may make you susceptible to a certain condition like diabetes or heart disease, but that just means that you have to be MORE careful about your diet and lifestyle. It’s actually pretty rare for a disease to be caused by a single mutated gene, especially in relation to the high incidence of disease we have today. The incidence of heart disease and cancer are much higher than they were just a century ago. Did genes start mutating out of control during this time, or did we simply start making bad lifestyle choices?
Anyone who subscribes to this lame excuse should read The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton.
5. “You only live once, you may as well enjoy it.”
Is enjoyment eating a sugary meal and then spending the next few hours tired and irritable from a blood sugar crash? Is enjoyment a lifetime of eating whatever you want and spending your retirement dealing with the limitations of disease and the side effects of multiple medications?
For me, enjoyment is eating a nourishing meal and feeling energized and refreshed as a result.
The bottom line … there are much more important things in life than satisfying taste buds (which can be done with healthy foods anyway). Perhaps people who embrace these excuses need a little more purpose in their life.
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LittleMissGrok 08.05.09 at 9:36 am
@Jessie- I love watching cooking shows, yes. BUT I also like getting ideas from those same shows for something I’d like to cook at home. Good Eats, Iron Chef, Chopped..I LOVE those shows!
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Erin 08.05.09 at 9:44 am
This is encouraging to those of us that really do feel like the “lone-ranger,” and yet, I don’t want to come across condescending to others either. Thanks for the excellent post!
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Mischele 08.05.09 at 9:57 am
I could add one more excuse. “I can’t find real food.” I had that problem until a few weeks ago. Most of the health food stores in my area just carry supplements and organic junk foods. To get real foods I had to drive at least 2 hours one way or use mail order. Some things I just could not find (raw milk). And living in a tiny apartment makes it hard to stock up on some things (frozen items). Thankfully several local farmers started a farmers market just down the street from me a few weeks ago. Organic fruits and vegies, grass fed meats and even raw milk in glass jars!!!! After years of struggling to eat right with a very limited range of real foods available this is wonderful. And I have found many more internet resources (your site included). I have to say thanks for all the wonderful ideas and info.
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Martha 08.05.09 at 11:25 am
Yet another great post, Kelly!
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Charles/Campaign for Real Health 08.05.09 at 12:55 pm
Mischele, above, added number 9, and here comes number 10. “My doctor says there’s no reason to eat such a diet. He says organic food is not better for you and that it’s OK to eat sugar. Besides, if I get sick, my doctor can fix me up.”
I know a sweet little older lady in her 70’s who had breast cancer recently. I saw her at church out on the patio after a service and she was eating a cookie(!!) I asked her “do you think eating sugar is such a smart idea just having been through breast cancer?” She replied: “my doctor says it’s OK.”
Weston Price said, “You teach, you teach, you teach.” Obviously with all the excuses listed on this post, there is much teaching we ALL must do. Kelly, you are leading the way. Great post as always!
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Kathy 08.05.09 at 1:55 pm
Wow– thanks for this post. I’m still in the learning curve, and it does take more time for us to have real foods on our table. And it does cost more, and we’re in the process of figuring out where we can spend the money and where we have to compromise. And I know there’s a lot of room for improvement and learning…
And I’m grateful to have found these ideas in my 40’s while I still have some time to improve my health. I’m noticing the impact of the years of politically correct nutrition, and I have no intention of becoming a weak, dependent old lady. I want to be energetic and alert and able to function well, as long as I can. I had a grandma who traveled and gardened and really LIVED for most of her older years. She did have health troubles, but she’s a good role model for me.
Eating real food is making so much more sense to me now. I’m amazed that people don’t get it. They eat processed supermarket food, that takes them little time and money, and they think they’re really living. They think it’s not worth it to spend the time and money it takes to eat well. The more I learn, the more tragic this is to me.
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Maggie 08.05.09 at 2:49 pm
Great post! I have been eating “real food” for only a few months now and it so easy to fall back in to the mindset of #5 “you only live once”.
I just came back from visiting family and there were limited healthy food choices (if any at all). I ate what they had (to be polite) and ended up being sick to my stomach all weekend from all the greasy food and crap i ate. I am actually so glad to get home to my green smoothies, oats and veggies. These foods are my comfort foods now!
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Leanne 08.05.09 at 3:41 pm
Great post! I’m still on the learning curve but am very grateful for all the info out there. I feel like my biggest learning curve right now is figuring out where to get healthy foods. If I look at my genetics I see that my grandparents lived into their 80’s and 90’s, but I know they ate more real foods their whole lives than I have as they were farmers and raised a lot of their own food. I’m in my 50’s already and starting to see the effects of often unhealthy choices despite being interested in “health food” for years – unfortunately the politically correct version however! I’m adopting my granddaughter and starting over as a mom and want to be around – in a healthy body – for many more years yet as God wills. I really appreciate your site and all the work you put into it.
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Catherine @ Healthy Fit Mom 08.05.09 at 3:47 pm
Oh my goodness! I often think about #6. LOL! But it is so worth the effort.
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Amy Green - Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free 08.05.09 at 8:17 pm
I have had to change my diet due to health problems and it took a seriously focused effort for months but it’s now a natural part of how I live. I wouldn’t trade the benefits for anything.
Mostly, it hurts my heart in a big way when I see people using the excuses above because they don’t want to take the time and effort to care for themselves. Food can really kill people so slowly that they don’t know it’s happening. I love this post. Maybe it will wake some people up.
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suzannah 08.06.09 at 9:33 am
i agree with what someone said about how if the medical community isn’t concerned, why should anyone be? until people realize that so many “old age” diseases are largely preventable by proper eating (and how very little food is in our food!), many people won’t come around.
people complain that fresh foods are expensive, but my goodness, it’s the convenience foods that really add up, (even on sale or with coupons). people compare (and complain) about the prices of organic vs. non-organic or farmers’ market vs. wal-mart, but what they aren’t comparing is the price of meat, grains, fruits, and veggies vs. the actual cost of frozen pizza, breakfast cereal, snack foods, tv dinners, etc. eating well is not about spending a fortune–it’s about reorienting the focus of your food budget–spending WELL and wisely.
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LittleMissGrok 08.06.09 at 9:39 am
Suzannah- I agree that people do make excuses but still buy the junk food, but I don’t buy the junk food and find the organic, grassfed meat to be too expensive to buy. I try to buy organic local produce when I can, but the meat is outrageous! $9 /lb for organic grassfed ground beef, but a conventional ribeye only costs $8/lb??
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Organic and Thrifty 08.07.09 at 3:20 am
Kel,
I just read this post and it’s so raw and honest, but I so appreciate it. I am also the lone weirdo (I feel) in my community. It’s so nice to know I’m not the only one! I feel for folks who don’t live close enough to resources or have the space to store extra “bulk” items. We live in a condo with less than 900 sq. ft. but thankfully there’s still room for a large freezer out back!
Thanks for the link love!
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Sustainable Eats 08.09.09 at 1:47 am
Amy Green – I love that line – Food kills you so slowly you don’t even know it’s happening. I try to explain to my 3 and 5 year olds all the time why we eat the way we do instead of the way all their friends & neighbors and Grandma, etc do. It’s hard for them to get their minds around the concept of health and the fact that food can kill you slowly. I guess it’s just as hard for them to understand how they can be getting bigger so slowly they don’t notice it too. I’ll try that analogy next time!
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Arlo 08.09.09 at 4:41 am
Or maybe you could just give up your dietary god, and eat, explore, exercise and play to fulfill your evolutionary heritage. That is, what your body and mind evolved to find peace to exist in.
I believed in low carbohydrate for years until I realized it’s place in my evolution. “Real food” means the closest we can take it to the source without getting sick or disabled. Lightly roasted meats, vegetables, nuts and berries. It’s an ideal, yes, but how could it not be closest to the truth?
(I ask these questions honestly…)
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Local Nourishment 08.10.09 at 2:26 pm
I recently had a conversation with my mom, a little old lady who just survived a bout of breast cancer and a hip replacement. She was breaking out the soy protein breakfast bar and I said, “Mom, wouldn’t you rather I scramble you an egg?” She said, “Life’s too short to be spent bending over a hot stove.”
Later that day we had a salad for lunch. She got out the hard, flavorless grocery store tomato to slice up and said, “I don’t know what’s happened to tomatoes this year. They’re just awful.” I said, “Mom, let’s go to the farmer’s market this afternoon. Life’s too short to eat lousy tomatoes.”
That was a maxim she could get behind!
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KitchenKop 08.10.09 at 2:59 pm
Peggy,
THAT was a cute story.
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