If you have consistently read any of my blogs, it will likely come as no surprise to you that I’ve got gargantuan scruples about integrity. I have many identities which result from chronic exclusion and castigation from society. Because the unfolding of my existence has so often required resistance to the status quo, I am intimately aware of judgment and misunderstanding that privilege often produces. My latest subgroup under the microscope is about food culture. I so frequently stumble across blogs dedicated to promoting Paleo, grainfree, traditional nutrient-dense lifestyles as an indicator of status. These pages seem to broadcast and aura of self importance and pontification, which alienates people like me. People who are attempting to nourish survival, cultivate healing and ultimately secure a space on this earth. The status markers of trendy nutrition do not represent the unattractive realities of cucumber juice, fermented foods or grain-free, dairy-free,egg-free, almost everything-free survival. The absence of these delicacies from my pallet is not a cultural crutch, a contingency for friendship or criterion for social standing; it is a sacrifice, a window into the many things I’ve had to say goodbye to in order to be here now.
In Between The Lines 