Eddie’s food peeves: foodshaming
Adeline (nickname: Eddie) loves food, lots of it and often, both at home and out. Usually that goes well, but sometimes it doesn’t. In the series Eddie’s food peeves you can read about the latter. This time: how annoying is foodshaming.
On vacation, I suddenly had an exceptionally strong craving for one of those enormous juicy burgers with cheddar and dripping sauce on a crispy bun, so I ordered one—but I did so at a restaurant staffed exclusively by vegans.
From the herd to the pyre
The burger was definitely on the menu, mind you, but the vegan variations were well represented, and so doubt set in. Because of the possible ‘cow murderer’ label, I even briefly considered ordering the mushroom version. From the herd to the pyre in a split second, as they say.
I suddenly felt ashamed of ordering meat (?) even though I don’t eat it that often at all. The burger tasted just a little less delicious than usual, and that’s when I felt it: I had been silently foodshamed.
How it’s supposed to be
Foodshaming is downright shitty. It’s a completely unnecessary consequence of the twisted diet culture we live in. That strange diet culture is, in turn, a nasty manifestation of people having opinions about everything other people do. How bizarre is it that even when eating, we still have to bow under the weight of how people think it’s supposed to be?
Women who order a plate of lettuce while desperately craving pizza, because that super-fit colleague is watching. Men who are ridiculed because they drink mint tea with fresh ginger. Individuals who don’t dare order a burger in a restaurant because vegans are watching (hi!).
Butter with the peanut butter
I once even had to have a serious talk with myself to keep eating mussels. A shellfish lover explained exactly what I was doing to that invertebrate by boiling it, then gave me a detailed account of the animal’s innards, and voilà: I was done with my pan of mussels. This was shortly after I had an argument at lunch with someone who found my butter with peanut butter disgusting and announced it loudly every Friday.
Why, people, why all those comments about other people’s food? Vegans shame meat eaters. The salad movement targets junk-food lovers. Colleagues put you on the spot because you spread butter with your peanut butter (true story). And of course, there are also people who do the same thing the other way around, and quite apart from what everyone thinks: it’s simply so annoying and completely kills your appetite.
Eat and let eat
There’s the saying “live and let live.” I’d like to add: eat and let eat (except when it’s a factory-farmed chicken). One more thing about butter with peanut butter, by the way: it makes your sandwich incredibly creamy and keeps the whole thing from sticking to your palate. So don’t let anyone tell you that this is not done.
Also read:
- Eddie’s food peeves: diagonal rain and gale-force winds on the terrace
- Eddie’s Food Peeves: eating food from the microwave
- Eddie’s food peeves: eating a boiled egg in public
