Better late than never.

Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm. ~Ambrose Bierce

I love food. Reading about it, sharing information about it, eating it. Eating....I LOVE eating. Comfort foods,bursting with flavor, some tasty, warm, fatty, sweet thing. Eating is fun. And I'm good at it. I had never been a picky eater, this was evident by my borderline Rubenesque physique, and penchant for large portions, and more often than not, second helpings. Be it pizza or pot roast, potatoes or lasagna...I wanted more. Savory, sweet, candied, roasted broiled, grilled- I had no objections. And even now there is a part of me that wants to eat with wild abandon. No second thoughts about the origin or global impact of what I'm consuming...Ah, ignorance- like a good porterhouse steak with a side of creamed spinach, garlic mashed potatoes and a generous glass of Shiraz- is bliss.

Backing up a bit...
At a particularly young age, when I was about 8, I came to the daunting realization that I was fat. Not gross morbidly obese fat. Not even get teased at school fat. But the kind of fat that made me feel like I had to be extra funny, or extra nice always so nobody would call me fat. And luckily all of that came easily for me. Nobdy ever really did. I always had friends, and people to sit with at lunch. And in reality I was just a kind of chubby kid- not quite fat enough to get teased, or run through the mill of unjustified cruelty. I was just very well aware of my chubbiness. Not because of anything my parents would say- or other kids. I just knew. So that was the end of second helpings(while people were watching...If I was lucky I'd squeeze in a 3rd if no eyes were on me), swimming without a t-shirt, and the start of chub-rub, feeling self conscious when I was in pictures and looked bigger than the other kids(even though I was always one of the shortest), and my seemingly never ending battle with food. But as we all know that when one door closes another one opens.

Early on it was guilt, and media driven desire to be a blond gorgeous amazonian woman that would shape my dietary choices. Atkins diet? Did it. Pfft...20 lbs shed in a month and a half? Nice. One handful of jelly beans, and a slice of pizza helped me quickly add on what I had lost with an additional 15 for good measure. South Beach? Oh great...I need to make food even more fussy? Then came Sugar Busters, Eat Right for your Blood type, Weight Watchers, LA Weight Loss.....Yeah, madness. And after each attempt I started to feel like I'd just have to deal with the extra weight. But I was hoping it'd stop...and with time I learned in my own way a REALLY easy diet. It's called pulling my head out of my ass and eating normal sized portions(with a hearty thank you to Weight Watchers for helping me learn that portion control is actually quite important). Also, exercise...but that's a whole other topic.

So what is it that now drives my never ending power struggle with food?

Politics. It's a farther reaching and integral issue. Where my food comes from is more important to me than how many or how few calories it has. I want to know it's Fair Trade. Local if I can help it. Organic is important, and they're much kinder to the planet as well as our bodies. Eating things that aren't processed, and degraded is really the key. Foods from a lab are not for me. Genetically Modified foods are destroying our food supply and making us more susceptible to a famine. Agribusiness is really damaging and it's the epitome of greed and one of the largest contributors to global warming.

I think that every step that has led me to this new way of thinking about food has been a healthy one. And I can thank everyone from the many chiropractors I've worked for, to Michael Pollan (or Jason Schneiderman for reccommending his books to me) to helping open my eyes to these things. At one point it became an obsession. I had to know more about the evils of the conventional foods we don't often hear enough about. Like the EVIL VILE PUTRID SCUM that is Monsanto . About the terrible things that large companies do to get money at the cost of peoples health and well being. I digress.

Being political about what I eat isn't the same as being obsessed with calories. It's a healthier way to choose whats on my plate. And screw the labels that go along with it. Be it omnivore, or level 9 vegan, I just want my food to be healthy because you are what you eat- but I want to keep my planet healthy so it can give me food. I'm such a selfish bitch.