David B's Blog


May 27 2009

Religion, Politics, Nutrition

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I find that any time at a social gathering religion, politics, or nutrition is brought up, nothing good ever comes of it. I have been in countless arguments at parties with people about religion. This is the big one. The thing is.. everyone is pretty closed minded in their views on this. Most people have it ingrained in their brains from an early age what is 'right' for them to believe in. It is a product of your environment kind of thing. Some people take the initiative to explore the concepts on their own, but the average person doesn't bother, and just follows along with what their parents tell them to believe in. Trying to have a conversation with someone like this seems to be a complete waste of time.

On politics, I certainly don't know enough to have any kind of argument with someone about public policy, economics, whatever. It just isn't something I know enough about to feel a need to comment on. However, there are tons of other people that have a similar level of knowledge and go around spouting off about how conservative they are, or how much they love liberal policy and blah blah. If you say ANYTHING against their beliefs, they get extremely defensive and start to argue with you and the hate seems to build immediately. It is uncanny.

However, the BIGGEST one I find is nutrition. What we know about nutrition is learned from our parents, or from our educators in school. Most of this is rubbish, what we call the 'american diet'. Now, I don't know a ton about nutrition, but I do know that eating fried food, tons of processed shit, and a bunch of added sugar in everything doesn't lead to longevity of life. This isn't an issue ever really, and most people agree with this assessment. Something interesting seems to happen though when you go on a non 'mainstream' diet.

I am now on day 9 of eating a vegan diet, and I am enjoying it very much. Don't get me wrong, I would really like to crush a giant steak, a crabcake soaked in buttery lobster sauce, and a giant piece of chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. I am doing this as a discipline thing to get myself back on eating healthy track before the series. Playing tournaments for 12-14 hours a day can be quite grueling, and if I am bogged down with processed junk in my diet, I tend to lose focus much easier than if I eat super clean.

However.. sometimes people seem to get offended when you say you are eating a vegan diet. It is an inexplicable experience. It is almost as if by consuming said diet, you are personally attacking someone else that consistently eats meat. You are essentially saying they are wrong without ever saying anything. Some people take offense to the mere fact that you don't want to consume animal products, and are greatly put off by it. They even get defensive and try to tell you that it is unhealthy, and that eating animals is much more conducive to long term health.

Regardless of whether or not this is true, I find it amusing that some people can get ridiculously worked up about this. I mean really, why the fuck does it matter what I eat? I am not doing this for other people. I am doing it for my personal health and well being, and am not trying to prove something to anyone other than myself and exercise a little discipline. In the last week or so, there have been probably 10 instances where people try to tell me that I will wither away and die, I won't get enough protein, that eating animals is way healthier than 'sitting around eating grass'.

Well, this is debatable, but I don't really want to get into that right now. I can see great arguments for eating a super clean diet without any processed foods, but adding in high quality fish, hormone free beef, etc. I honestly have no idea what is 'optimal' for long term health and fitness, but that isn't really the point right now. The point is, why do people get super defensive and offended whenever someone disagrees with their eating habits? I try hard not to impress my nutritional views on others, but if someone asks I will gladly talk about why I am doing what I am doing. I have never at any point said 'this is way better than what you are doing and you should do it too, this is the best diet ever you will live forever.'

It seems as though it is even more extreme than religious conversations. God forbid you go to a Christian school in the south and mention the fact that you are atheist (god forbid, get it?). You will likely get maliciously attacked, told you are wrong, stupid, going to hell, etc. Well, with nutrition, a very similar thing occurs. You won't get enough protein, you will die of b12 deficiency, animals are HEALTHY to eat, we were MADE to be hunters, to kill and eat our food, and on and on.

The thing is.. it is all but IMPOSSIBLE to change anyone's mind about these topics. Everyone seems VERY set in their views, and there is nothing wrong with that! I could care less what you believe in. It doesn't affect my life in any way. It seems silly to constantly try to impress your views on others. I think it is great when people can have constructive arguments about these topics, but in my limited experiences it just isn't possible. From now on I will try to avoid talking about politics, religion, and nutrition in any way unless the person is genuinely interested in learning or hearing a different point of view. I certainly have my ideas about what I believe in as far as these things, but I am always open to hearing other sides of the story. Many seem to not share this feeling.

Anyways, sorry for the minirant, just something I wanted to get off my chest. The 40k is in a couple days and I can't wait. Tomorrow I am going shopping to pick up a new suit, some nice dressy clothes, etc. I like to dress up, and haven't gone shopping for that kinda stuff in a while. I will probably stop by the Rio and try to reg during my shopping spree. I wonder how many people there will be.. I am hoping there are around 300, but that seems rather ambitious. In any case, it should be a lot of fun and a good way to start off the series.

-David

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David B
David B , Member Since '08

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