Thank You Sweet Baby Jesus for Cholula

Happy to report that Rebeca and I are done with the bullshit that is known as WholeDon’tEatAFuckingThingThatTastesGood30. 

Did I run marathons? Did I have more energy than a toddler on their fourth wind? Did I relive my days as a college student popping NoDoze, chugging Mountain Dew and maybe or maybe not doing some speed? No. 

Do I now hate the thought of chewing anything? And did trying to eat pizza the other night make me puke until I peed? Yes. Ugh.

I didn’t necessarily get the “tiger’s blood” that people went on about, but I also didn’t feel like a slug anymore.  So yay. 

Another good thing is that this is something that Rebeca and I did together.  And we saw it through.  Usually she says we’re going to do something and only I finish.  Or neither of us do. So this was a Go Team! kinda thing for us.

BUT…as I strolled the aisle of Sprouts ones day, it really occurred to me that diets are fucking racist and classist. 

I can’t eat rice? Or beans? Or tortillas? Or even tofu??!! Bitch, please.

This is what we eat.  This is what nourishes our souls, not just our bodies. When I feed my daughter a noodle from my chopsticks, I’m replaying a scene from my culture that’s been happening for eons. Could I feed her a piece of organic cauliflower roasted in avocado oil with kosher salt? Sure. But the taste and feel of udon or soba is in her bones. It's her history. 

One woman I was talking to remembered being a child and walking to the store every day to buy tortillas. She and her brother would eat two on their way home.  This was every day.  This wasn’t just because they were having Taco Tuesday or Enchilada Casserole, it was their Every Day. It was as much a part of their lives as air. 

Rebeca and I talked one day about how Privileged we were to even be able to do this damn diet. At the moment (because that can change at any time) we CAN buy produce that is so much more expensive than just buying pasta or bread.  We are able to buy nuts and “compliant” snacks that cost more a pound than chicken or pork.

At this time we can afford to eat healthy.  We can AFFORD to buy food that is good for us. 

You know who can’t? So many people. So many people from marginalized communities. So many people with children, with second jobs, with too many other things to worry about.

We are privileged. 

I work for a school that serves families who fall below the national poverty guidelines.  A family of 4 is considered living in poverty if they make $25,100 or less. Twenty five thousand!!! Who can survive on that? These families.  And why? Because they aren’t buying roasted cashews from Whole Foods or kale chips or coconut oil or grass fed beef or smoothie pouches for their babies.    

In our community there is a Heath Services Advisory Committee that our program partners with. They were behind the Sugar Tax in our city and also head many programs geared toward healthy eating. All very well and good, and all headed by a predominately (actually from what I saw, exclusively) white majority. 

Why does this matter?

It matters when they instill a program that gives double dollars at the local farmers market. This sounds like a fabulous deal! BUT, in our bougie little city, you know who shops at the farmers market? Ranger Rover with Greenpeace bumper sticker driving stay at home moms who stroll through with their Lululemon yoga pants and venti lattes from the local coffee shop because Starbucks is too commercial. Their babies are in Bugaboo prams that cost almost as much as my mortgage.

There are also the hipster students from the local university who drink kombucha and eat only raw/vegan/glutenfree/nosugar/organic/nonGMO but wear wool hats and haul leather bookbags. They loooooooooooooooooooooooove the diversity of this city and especially like to share this with their one yellow/brown/muslim/black/jewish friend.

You know who doesn’t go to the farmers market? Our families. Why? To be blunt, it’s a white space. It’s an English speaking space. It’s a truffle oil and blueberry basalmic vinaigrette space.

And that is not a comfortable place to be unless you’re part of that dominant culture. As an English speaking person, I’m not even comfortable there.

So when the “committee” wonders out loud why the double dollars program isn’t going well, it’s because they just don’t know.

They don’t know The Look. The overly widened eyes and humongous smiles to show how not racist They are. They don’t know the slowed speech or the over enunciation or the mangled way the other person tries to speak to us in the language that they THINK we speak. They don’t know the “Oh my god your child has beautiful skin color!” or “Your girls look so exotic!” or “Your English is so good!” *beam*

They don’t know how it feels like to be noticed just because you don’t look like every other person around. They don’t understand not speaking the language of the majority, not knowing how to ask “how much…”, “do you have…” or “can I get…”. You think I don’t feel the relief and sudden friendliness of cashiers when they realize that I speak English? It’s like being in a silent movie until I open my mouth.

They don’t know.

What was the purpose of this entire rant?

Two very important things. Diets are dumb and privilege exists even in the most well-meaning of places. Recognize it. Call it out. And push back on those whose good intentions are still laden with it.