I stood there in the aisle looking at the two lemons and wondering which I should pick. One clearly stated that it was organic, while the other….wasn’t. I took in the almost $1.00 difference, wondering if it was all just a ploy to get us to pay more. If you haven’t heard of the dirty dozen and clean fifteen I envy you. Before I got into organic foods and products my life was a lot less complicated. Now I spend a lot of time at the grocery store wondering if my budget will suffice for the way I want to be living.
If you’re in the know, you know that eating organic is basically signing up for a pesticide free, insecticide free, hormone-free and antibiotic-free existence. From chicken to zucchini, all sorts of foods can now be found with an “organic” label. But is it all that it’s cracked up to be?
If you know me, you know that I will do most anything if you tell me it’s good for my health. Eat organic, take cold showers, go to bed earlier…To me, health is a priority above all else and I have gone to extreme lengths to try and maintain it. What started out as a necessary protocol to get my gut to work for me, quickly evolved to a new way of life and I can now see no other way. And yet, even I have occasionally paused.
Recently I heard about a revolutionary cure for recurring gut infections: fecal microbiota transplants. Basically, you take a pill derived from human feces. Especially in the case of C diff— Clostridium difficile— this new treatment is said to work wonders. Now I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me I can cure my gut problems by consuming human feces, I stop. I start to wonder if the medical community has gone gaga and I take another look at my life and my options.
How far am I willing to go to get “healthy”?
In the past few years I – along with many others— have become obsessed with living a clean toxin-free life. I have turned over my habits in an attempt to get back to nature, forgoing chemical filled cleaning supplies and hormone and preservative laden foods. But this way of life has also taken a toll on my mental health and my bank account, to say the least. In an attempt to get “clean”, I have done away with many of my “unhealthy” habits, including eating dairy and running in regular sneakers (for all those not in the know, barefoot sneakers are the new it thing). I have tried to replicate a life before technology infiltrated all of our domains, but it’s been easier said than done.
Recently I went to a wedding in El Gouna. Ever-prepared, I brought my own snacks with me, consisting of some raw fruits and vegetables: bananas, cucumbers, dates, just to name a few. My friends looked at me weirdly when I whipped out the food from my tote bag.
“Enty gayba maaki akl? You brought food with you? People come to weddings to eat.”
Yes, I wanted to respond. You never know what they’re gonna serve. But in that moment, even I became aware that maybe it was a bit too much, that I had crossed the threshold from healthy to obsessive.
In matters of health, how do we know where to draw the line?
Six years ago I used to be a hardcore painkiller user. At my worst, I would take up to four pills of Panadol Extra per day, sometimes surpassing that if I was dealing with a particularly bad migraine. I don’t know if it was the headaches and their “cure” that started it or if it was just a byproduct of having a weakened immune system from the painkillers, but soon my gut became out of control. I would wake up to “kawlun 3asabi” attacks and have to navigate the minefield that was the foods I ingested. Even though I knew what I was doing was unhealthy, I didn’t know where to draw the line. Getting clean and ditching the toxins saved me. However, it also made me lose sight of what is normal. Every day I would wonder “is this too much?”, “is this too little?”. I started believing that the way to health was to ditch all of the toxic and non-natural things, taking it to the extreme of not even having a cheeseburger if I felt like it.
Health obsessions are common and not easy to get rid of. Whichever way you happen to swing, you are shamed for it. Having a popsickle? Stay away from the evils of sugar. Eating a kale salad? You’re not taking in enough protein. Have some chicken instead. Drinking tea with honey? Watch out for honey in hot beverages because it turns poisonous.
I don’t know about you, but I find health to be one of the toughest topics to talk about. Especially in matters of health, everybody has a different belief system (similar to how everyone believes in a different God). With some people it is blasphemous to make a point against medicine, while with others just mentioning chemo or surgery is an immediate minus point. But how much is too much?
In Chinese medicine joy, just like anger,worry or fear, is seen as an emotion that has to be balanced. Too much joy can turn into mania or agitation while too little joy can lead to sadness and depression. Hence, it seems that balance is the key word for us. Just like everything else, we need to have a healthy balance of healthy and unhealthy, even if it’s only to preserve our mental health.
Recently I’ve started reintroducing dairy back into my life. I started with yoghurt and have evolved to taking the occasional milk in my coffee (although my favourite is still oat milk). After 4-5 years of being ultra-“healthy”, I’ve decided to relax my measures a bit and see if there’s a more balanced way to live life. I’m not gonna lie, the programming in me is screaming bloody murder, but I’m more worried about the long term effects that being super health conscious has had and will have on my sanity and my role in society. It’s not about being more or less healthy in the short run, it’s about endurance of overall health long term.
Do I still eat organic? Yes.
Have I also had a burger recently? Also yes.
I can’t tell you what’s right for you and your health, but I can tell you that eating organic is most probably a good choice. Does that mean you should buy every single item with an “organic” stamp on it? No. Does that mean you should break your bank account in an attempt to live organically, no. Does that mean you have to give yourself shit if an unorganic vegetable sneaks into your cart? Also no. But it does mean starting small and introducing some healthier crops into your life. We’re playing the long game.
Health-consciously yours,
Girl With One Earring
A helpful guide:
Very well said…. Life is about balance in every aspect ….. And a choice.