I am not a “foodie.” I don’t spend huge amounts of time planning and preparing my food. They say that the French exist to eat, and that Americans eat to live. I am proof of that. Spending inordinate amounts of time and energy eating – or thinking about eating – is a sign of hedonism and decadence, in my opinion. Your time would be better spent learning or exercising.
So I eat only a few different things: chicken, turkey, brown rice, bananas, granola, peanuts, and spinach. This might vary if I am eating at family events or some other social occasion in a restaurant or wherever. But in normal times, if I have anything to say about it, I eat a few staples over and over again. I eat not so much for enjoyment, although there is that. I eat to avoid starving while at the same time powering my body for exercise and education. It is utilitarian more than recreational. Why and what one chooses to eat reveals much about a person: financially, culturally, and individually. I, and everyone else, make choices.
In particular, I eat one bag of spinach every day. Years ago I chose to eat large quantities of apples or carrots. But I gave those up around a decade ago and have eaten spinach ever since. Raw spinach does not taste good, and more than a few people have turned up their nose at the idea of eating five or six ounces of spinach this way at one sitting. My close friends sometimes make fun of me, and I laugh with them. “Another idiosyncrasy of Rich!” they think. They are not wrong. At first I recoiled from the taste of raw spinach. But I made my peace with it. I will not say I like eating spinach today. But I like how it makes me feel.
It fills me up. If I am driving down to Orange County to see my siblings or father, I will eat a bag of spinach around 9 am and not need to eat again until the early afternoon. I can go a good chunk of time without worrying at all about food – no hunger pains or the like – and that is what I want. And spinach does not leave me feeling overfull, as heavy foods like lasagna do. I still feel “light” with spinach. It has plenty of protein to give energy and fiber to aid digestion. I feel good with spinach in my daily diet. It helps me to get the vegetables, protein, and carbs which a generally healthy diet confers. There are not excessive calories. I will not grow fat with my diet, like so many people nowadays. I do not “eat my feelings,” as many women do. I do not eat to assuage my anxiety. Nor do I eat for the physical pleasure of it, at least most of the time. I often go to sleep with the slightest tinge of hunger, a choice which seems to horrify my wife and daughters. If I had to choose, I would much prefer to be a bit hungry than to be overly full. This is especially true close to bedtime.
I have one friend who warns me about the oxalates extant in spinach. He sends me YouTube videos on my phone about the dangers of oxalates building up in my body. The dangers of kidney stones and the like. But after many years of eating massive quantities of spinach, I have not had any trouble that I know of. My friend is one of those who is credulous about health conspiracies online and off, and so I listen to him guardedly. But it is information to keep in mind going forward.
But I could probably vary my diet more. My rational mind tells me to do this. I tried eating arugula once instead of spinach, but I found it to be bitter and unpleasant. Spinach tastes better to me. But I could probably learn to like arugula, as I did with spinach. You eat enough of something, you make your peace with it.
I also am trying to do that with Greek yogurt. That is another healthy, if unappetizing, food. Like spinach, I could learn to like it – and then eat it in great quantities. It could help power my life. I could eat a bowl of yogurt, stave off hunger, and move on to the more important activities of my day. Like I said, I eat to live, not vice versa. The impulse to bring yogurt into my diet is the offspring of my rational mind. I try to make it easier. My friends urge me to add some granola or fruit to make plain yogurt more palatable. I will try this. We shall see how it goes. If I can incorporate yogurt into my daily life, it could improve my health.
The food we feel comfortable taking into our bodies is such a personal and idiosyncratic thing. They say immigrants to a new country assimilate almost everything else into their lives before they change their choice of food. They stick with what they know.
Humans are creatures of habit, and I am no exception. If I can just make a few rational changes to jigger up my daily diet, it could serve me well. So this I will try to do in this next academic calendar year.
Any suggestions, dear readers?