Hi, friends!

Today is one of my favorite days in the blogosphere—What I Ate Wednesday.

Instead of going the traditional route by showing you photos of my recent meals, I’m going deeper by asking:

Why do you eat the way you do?

It’s not a question I ponder daily, but it is one of the reasons I began this blog.

For most of us, eating is comfort. It’s also sociable (who doesn’t love a good potluck with friends?). Most obviously, eating is a necessity, fueling our bodies to make it through each day, fend off disease, and maintain muscle, bone health, etc.

Eating isn’t something we can just forget about—lest we suffer severe consequences like malnutrition.

Nevertheless, eating is no longer simple. There are so many food and diet trends today: some of them are ethical (veganism, local food movement, etc.), but even more are superficial (“gluten free” for reasons other than having Celiac, allergies, autoimmune disease, etc.).

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I wouldn’t say that I’m quick to follow trends. Sure, I’ve discovered new foods (chia and hemp seeds, green monsters, and cauliflower crust pizza to name a few) through blogging and other media, but I’ve never followed a food fad or diet simply because it was the next big thing.

Likewise, reading vegan recipe blogs, articles on animal rights and advocacy, and books (such as Eating Animals) on factory farming has led me to consider more carefully how and what I eat.

Advertising through traditional and social media is a double-edged sword. In some cases, it innocently leads us to new ideas, products, foods, etc., but it often fuels our addictions to the latest craze by bombarding us with too many stimuli. It is particularly disturbing when targeted toward children (McDonald’s Happy Meals, for example).

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We shouldn’t eat something because of dubious marketing or popularity among celebrities. Likewise, we shouldn’t fall prey to the health claims that adorn processed food packages. By allowing advertisers to dupe us, we’re actively supporting a wasteful, environmentally-damaging, and expensive (by way of farm subsidies and eventual healthcare costs) food system.

Eating, on the deepest of levels, defines us, but only to the degree we allow it. It can be a burden to those who struggle to put food on the table, but it can also be one of life’s greatest pleasures. It can be a political act, but ultimately, eating is our way to determine our own health and happiness, and participate in a community, no matter what specific doctrine we choose.

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I don’t advocate any particular diet or lifestyle—but I do support eating with consciousness. As Michael Pollan puts it in The Omnivore’s Dilemma,

 “ […] how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world – and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction. By comparison, the pleasures of eating industrially, which is to say eating in ignorance, are fleeting.”

Just a little food for thought as we head closer to the weekend. Happy Hump Day!

What are your thoughts on food trends, advertising, and “conscious eating?”