This was enjoyable writing Kate and I came upon it through the Substack Go path. I navigated to plant-based eating a number of years ago for health reasons and have been very happy with the results and occasionally post about it. Your take was breezy and not preachy. The rest of my family eats meat and I do when it is the option. The vegetarian mantra is too much for me an my pat answer when someone asks if I am a vegan is "No, I wear a belt". My journey was more analytical. Many paths I suppose. Good luck with your writing. I will give it a try. I have posted about 100 times since starting in September and have now backed off the frequency. Probably 5-10 posts about food and philosophy. I enjoy humor about food extremism, people who eat pulverized beets until their skin reddens. Here is an early post of mine that you MIGHT enjoy. The title is a little like clickbait though :) https://markdolan.substack.com/all-hail-crucifer
Thanks for reading, Mark! I checked out that post and really enjoyed it, and I'm impressed by how prolific you've been in such a short period of time. Huge fan of cruciferous vegetables (including cabbage, though it can at times be a little stinky).
Thanks so much. I was obsessive in the beginning and feared burnout. I have backed off in length and frequency. My goal these days is 3X per week and 5-7 minute reads as a maximum. Tomorrow night will be my 100th post.
I did not even know what a cruciferous vegetable was until I changed my approach. Food, work, hobbies, almost anything can die if we get obsessive I am afraid. Sometimes it is a blast to just eat a smashburger. Stinky cabbage is FUNNY. When I am eating my cabbage and kale in a salad, I clean them, cut them an then SQUEEZE them hard in a paper towel which seems to get rid of some of the bitterness. I've done it with a towel but end up with red an dark green stains -- lots of good chemicals in there somewhere even if they stink.
There is a part in Dumas' Three Musketeers about Felton. It is very powerful to understand how it relates to us, including our perception of reality, today. It is a conversion of a true believer into an assassin, a terrorist in today's parlance. Should help.
More bluntly and directly - is deriving pleasure a sin, and all of your life decision making is framed trying to understand why you need to punish yourself physically and or mentally for experiencing it in any form?
Thank you for sharing a complex piece. I am wondering if you connected with the ways different foods feel in your body and impact other parts of you beyond the taste. Even taste is overwhelming at first, with the only adjective for it - amazing, right? As you weave feelings and words accurately and thoughtfully - obvious talent in this area, consider the possibility of your body made for the staples you know and love so well. With other foods giving you additional inputs to help you develop a body and through it, other aspects of your being. What about food textures? Can clearly see Puritan background in the language of giving oneself permission to do something. I have no idea, frankly, what this must be like - to self-censor as a way to regulate one self. If you ever see Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, what observation point will choose for yourself? The children's was the film maker's. Was there a way in which the people failed to connect and correct? The idea of punishing self as a result of guilt - what are your thoughts? Is it healthier to hurt self, and does this act correct, or otherwise - what is the point of guilt? And if you decide to make changes, would that be such fundamental changes to your core, that you no longer feel yourself? Came up lately, and I thought I'd ask the specialists.
This was enjoyable writing Kate and I came upon it through the Substack Go path. I navigated to plant-based eating a number of years ago for health reasons and have been very happy with the results and occasionally post about it. Your take was breezy and not preachy. The rest of my family eats meat and I do when it is the option. The vegetarian mantra is too much for me an my pat answer when someone asks if I am a vegan is "No, I wear a belt". My journey was more analytical. Many paths I suppose. Good luck with your writing. I will give it a try. I have posted about 100 times since starting in September and have now backed off the frequency. Probably 5-10 posts about food and philosophy. I enjoy humor about food extremism, people who eat pulverized beets until their skin reddens. Here is an early post of mine that you MIGHT enjoy. The title is a little like clickbait though :) https://markdolan.substack.com/all-hail-crucifer
Thanks for reading, Mark! I checked out that post and really enjoyed it, and I'm impressed by how prolific you've been in such a short period of time. Huge fan of cruciferous vegetables (including cabbage, though it can at times be a little stinky).
Thanks so much. I was obsessive in the beginning and feared burnout. I have backed off in length and frequency. My goal these days is 3X per week and 5-7 minute reads as a maximum. Tomorrow night will be my 100th post.
I did not even know what a cruciferous vegetable was until I changed my approach. Food, work, hobbies, almost anything can die if we get obsessive I am afraid. Sometimes it is a blast to just eat a smashburger. Stinky cabbage is FUNNY. When I am eating my cabbage and kale in a salad, I clean them, cut them an then SQUEEZE them hard in a paper towel which seems to get rid of some of the bitterness. I've done it with a towel but end up with red an dark green stains -- lots of good chemicals in there somewhere even if they stink.
Thanks again for reading.
There is a part in Dumas' Three Musketeers about Felton. It is very powerful to understand how it relates to us, including our perception of reality, today. It is a conversion of a true believer into an assassin, a terrorist in today's parlance. Should help.
More bluntly and directly - is deriving pleasure a sin, and all of your life decision making is framed trying to understand why you need to punish yourself physically and or mentally for experiencing it in any form?
Thank you for sharing a complex piece. I am wondering if you connected with the ways different foods feel in your body and impact other parts of you beyond the taste. Even taste is overwhelming at first, with the only adjective for it - amazing, right? As you weave feelings and words accurately and thoughtfully - obvious talent in this area, consider the possibility of your body made for the staples you know and love so well. With other foods giving you additional inputs to help you develop a body and through it, other aspects of your being. What about food textures? Can clearly see Puritan background in the language of giving oneself permission to do something. I have no idea, frankly, what this must be like - to self-censor as a way to regulate one self. If you ever see Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, what observation point will choose for yourself? The children's was the film maker's. Was there a way in which the people failed to connect and correct? The idea of punishing self as a result of guilt - what are your thoughts? Is it healthier to hurt self, and does this act correct, or otherwise - what is the point of guilt? And if you decide to make changes, would that be such fundamental changes to your core, that you no longer feel yourself? Came up lately, and I thought I'd ask the specialists.