What is good and what is bad? Is red meat bad? Is dairy good for your bones? Good and bad, black and white, healthy and unhealthy are generalisations. They are used to sell stuff or to steer a large group of people towards a way of thinking, people who have no time or interest to understand the detail of something. Is the night dark? Is the day light? It depends, particularly if you are in the North Pole.
Extremes are good to be looked at, to understand the range, the continuum, the wheel of possibilities. If there’s no moon and you are in the middle of the desert under a cloudy sky, the night is really dark. But if it’s full-moon or you are in a city full of lights, darkness quickly assumes a different connotation.
The same applies to food. Nothing is inherently, absolutely good or bad. High quality foods in a whole form are all a gift of Nature. They can be relatively bad if you have a sensitivity though, or if they are processed and adulterated, or if eaten in large quantities, if there is no balance between them. It’s the concept of the Yin and Yang, and it’s one of the basis for understanding the world.
Once we have learnt what choices we have, looked at the range of possibilities, we can slowly move from the middle across the range, explore the right and the left, understand those points of view and see how they feel.
Ultimately most of us will prefer to be somewhere close to the centre, the middle ground. With work, relationship model, lifestyle and food too. Yet others will feel more comfortable closer to an extreme. Nature is made of all colours and society needs different types. The beauty of our human existence is that we are all similar yet all different.
And some of us do well on a vegetarian diet. Some others are more naturally inclined to break down animal proteins and fat very efficiently. Most are eating a range of foods and too many are eating poor quality, packaged food.
And if it’s true there is something for everyone, it is also true there is something no-one needs. Low quality chocolate. I love chocolate, although I eat it in rare special occasions, but 90% of the stuff on supermarket shelves is gross. Hydrogenated fat, simple sugar, preservatives and additives of all sort. We are better than that, all of us, I know we are.
Yes, packaged food multinationals have to earn money too. True. So, is low quality chocolate absolutely bad, or the relativity rule applies here too? Ahhh… I am not a philosopher and I don’t have all the answers, so you gotta judge by yourself.
Grow some awareness by stepping away, zooming-out from your day to day comfort zone. Detox for 1 week, then look for high quality 80% raw cacao artisanal chocolate with 2-3 ingredients, take a small piece and eat it slowly. Taste the cocoa, the sensations of it melting in your mouth, the effect on your nervous system. And then try a piece of ultra processed junk food. You’ll quickly know what is good and what is bad.
