What are You Eating?
Running: Getting better. 2-3 miles per day
As a consequence of my job as an emergency physician, I eat lunch and dinner (and even breakfast, depending on which shift I am working) at my desk. Since I get the opportunity to work on the sickest of patients, who are often unstable and can deteriorate quickly, I have to be close to the action at all times. This means eating at my desk most days. Years ago, I never realized the consequence of eating in public. Since I have been a vegan and back, and vegan again, I have become acutely attuned to an interesting phenomenon: people are always quite interested to what other people eat. While sitting at my desk checking labs, looking at past medical histories, and making medical decisions, many techs, nurses, and other physicians pass me without a second glance. Add an open food container sitting innocently next to me, and suddenly every single person who passes me asks the same question: "what are you eating?"
The interesting thing about the question is how it changes when I am sticking to a vegan diet. It isn't the words. They remain the same. It is the tone that changes. When I have a "balanced" plate in front of me, with meat, veggies, and grains, I get the normal "what are you eating?" No tone, no curiosity, no agenda. Similar to when someone asks "how are you today?" They don't really want to know. All they want to hear is "good," or something similar. It is mainly a rhetorical question.
Oddly, when I have a vegan entree in front of me which is non-traditional, the tone of the encounter changes. Take as an example two days ago. I had for lunch red kidney beans, quinoa, and avocado. Besides being delicious, this dish is full of protein, fiber, good fats, vitamins, and minerals. In short, it is the perfect lunch. Despite its obvious health value, when people looked at my food, they took on an incredulous tone when asking about it. Based on the tone, you would think that I was eating fried tarantula or something equally crazy.
Thinking about the responses of these well meaning people merely confirmed how screwed up our American diet actually is. The reason for the unusual responses is that quinoa and beans is unexpected. It was out of the range of what people who eat the standard american diet expect. These days, we consider a plate of 10 oz meat, a small spoonful of veggies, and a cup of potatoes normal. The diet we were designed to eat was quite different than that.
Our ancestors, before agriculture, were only able to eat what they could find or kill with their bare hands. If you think logically about what their diet might be composed of, we can make some conclusions about what we should be eating. Our ancestors would eat mostly vegetables, as those are plentiful and available year round. Next most likely would be fruit. Fruit is seasonal, but stays still and is easy to collect. Finally, and in the most limited of quantities, would be animal products. Although there are a great many animals in nature, they are rather fast and hard to catch. The ones who aren't fast outweigh us by hundreds of pounds, and have teeth, claws, and tusks to kill us.
Thus, since we are essentially unchanged from our primeval ancestors from a genetic standpoint, the proper diet for modern man should be as follows: 70% vegetables, grains, and legumes. 25% fruit. 5% (or less) meat, eggs, or dairy. Completely off the menu are processed sugars, oils, and flours, as those don't exist in nature in any form. Our bodies are simply not made to process them, and they are the cause of many chronic diseases that we suffer from.
A couple of years ago, when I wasn't quite as mature, I was quite annoyed by the "what are you eating" question. I have since revised my view of the situation. The best way to lead is by example, so when I am eating an extremely healthy meal, and someone asks with suspicion what I am eating, I choose to use it as a teaching moment. Hopefully, if I expose enough people to exciting new vegetables, grains, and fruits, and teach them to avoid animal products such as dairy, meat, and eggs, I can improve not only my health, but also the health of those around me. Not only is that my duty as a physician, but also my goal as a health educator.
The next time someone asks you "what are you eating," consider what you are eating, and if that food is the right kind of food to fuel your body. If so, please share your knowledge with others. For more info on what to eat, please visit www.devolvehealth.com, and learn to eat like our ancestors, and like our bodies were designed to eat.
Quinoa and Red Beans With Avocado
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 can red beans
1 avocado
1/4 tsp salt
Cook quinoa according to package directions. Drain red beans. Once quinoa is finished, mix both together. Peel and pit avocado, and dice. Mix in with quinoa and beans. Add salt and mix well. Serves one. Goes well with salad or other green veggies.
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