Following The Contrarian Diet

I've never understood why people want to be labeled by the style of the diet they follow.

Yes, that's what we do – slap a title on ourselves like this makes us special.

Here's the short list of choices if you're looking for something to call yourself:

Carnivore – Eats animal products

Vegan – Doesn't eat any animal products

Vegetarian – Eats only plants except for dairy and eggs

Pescatarian – Eats only plants except for fish

Fruitarian – Eats only fruit

Nutritarian –Eats mainly plants-based but reduces their calories

Some people eat Paleo, low-carb, low-fat, ketogenic – there are many types of diets.

I know people must state how they eat when dining at a friend's house. Otherwise, they may offend their host by refusing the food lovingly prepared for them.

But I can't tell you how many times I've been in conversation with someone and they blurt out, with great pride, "I'm a pescatarian," "I'm vegan," or "I eat Paleo" for no particular reason. I can tell you I wasn't planning to invite them to dinner. I'm not sure why they think I need to know this.

The title that describes most of us is an omnivore who eats all foods.

If this is you, when was the last time you proudly announced you're an omnivore? I think the answer may be never.

But if we must have labels, I've decided to follow the contrarian diet. It's a simple diet: Whatever someone tells you to consume, eat the opposite.

I come by this naturally.

When it's suggested I eat more plants, I want to eat meat.

The idea of the carnivore diet makes me want to eat plants.

Tell me to lower my carbs; I'm going to eat more.

Suggesting I remove grains and legumes from my diet encourages me to eat more of them.

And don't get me started on what the idea of lowering fat makes me want to do.

All I have to do is listen to others trying to suggest what I should eat, and then I do the opposite.

Why are people telling us what to eat? Why do they think they know best?

The biggest question we should all be asking is, why do we listen?

Food has been seen as more than just food for quite some time.

The history of food as a treatment for illness dates back to the Egyptians around 2600 BCE (before the common era). Imhotep, the physician, high priest, and architect under Pharaoh Djoser, recommended specific food prescriptions to treat illness. You may be familiar with Imhotep as the villain in the movie The Mummy, but that was fiction. The real Imhotep was a good guy and revered.

Other examples of food-based healing systems, such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), date back to around the same time.

There are also plenty of examples of eating customs dictated by religious beliefs—all of these involve real food and some history for the cultures where they are found.

The first food diets were for weight loss, and the Banting diet, a low-carb diet from the 1800s, is probably the original.

The 1960s saw an explosion of weight loss diets. And this has morphed into creating diets for other purposes – all in the name of potentially better health.

And now we're stuck in the vortex between food as the solution and food as the problem.

The information comes from "health experts," who have found it easy to demonize some foods while promoting others.

Why is no one discussing why so many people can market a food diet concept, valid or not, and make a sh….t load of money.

For this, we have to look at what happened to our food.

For generations, we consumed organic (although not called that) whole foods prepared lovingly in the family home.

But in less than 100 years, food manufacturers took our real food and gradually removed nutrients and added chemicals. We didn't ask for them to do this, and we didn't vote for it. And had we been asked, most of us would have said no thanks.

The food companies did this for profit – it's that simple.

But this is where marketing comes into the story.

To convince us to consume what can easily be described as food that does not taste as good—chemicals never can, and the nutrients they remove are the flavor—they had to give us other reasons to buy the products they created. Promoting it as cheaper, convenient, and a time-saver, selling it with a toy, and telling us the food is "delicious" gradually brainwashed the consuming public to a degree that their health has now suffered.

Brainwashing is the product of repetition. Don’t underestimate the power of product placement in movies, TV shows, and other places. Even I find myself influenced, and as a contrarian, I must be disciplined and resist. However, I resent the insertion of concepts into my brain that are not valid for me.

We were left with empty food that could not keep us healthy. Before processed foods (pre-1950s), few people had obesity, diabetes, or heart disease as it manifests today. We ate less, were more physically active, and our diet served us well.

Today, many people have digestive issues, allergies, food sensitivities, and often, diagnosed conditions such as autoimmunity. According to a 2023 research article, there has been a significant increase in autoimmunity, which is linked to momentous alterations in our foods, xenobiotics, air pollution, infections, personal lifestyles, and stress as the most likely causes. 

Who did this? We did — as in mankind.

And it's left us with dysbiosis in the gut, food allergies, sensitivities, and digestive issues. In our desire to feel better or prevent disease, we are vulnerable to any health "expert" with a theory that poisons our minds about different whole foods, which aren’t an issue for most people.

Thanks to good marketing, the word spreads fast, and the health "experts" make a lot of money—exactly what the food companies did when they tampered with our food.

You may wonder why I put "experts" in quotes when writing health "experts." When it comes to food, I question their qualifications.

The traditional study of nutrition is food science, in which food is dissected into parts and studied from that perspective. Translating the science into the food we eat often leads to mistakes.

The story of margarine and vegetable shortening is a good example. These two commonly used foods were created in the early 1900s and touted as healthier than butter for 80+ years. In the 1990s, however, the trans fats they contained were determined to be more damaging to the heart and cause chronic inflammation than butter (which is still not proven to be an issue).

The story of fat is quite the political quagmire, with many vested interest groups determining the information we receive. But that's a tale for another time. I refer you to the book Death By Food Pyramid by Denise Minger...if you can find it.

The alternative health perspective on food does not escape scrutiny. If anything, this is where so many food theories find a lovely fluffy home where they can reside.

What strikes me about all the healthy food talk is the lack of consideration for taste, flavor, and joy. This is why I question the expertise. Th’ expertise. The plot has been lost. Food is treated like chess pieces. Could they really know much about food if they don't even consider how foods work together or that we're supposed to enjoy it?

If we want to change this, we need to all be contrarians. If a health expert can't promote the value of quality food and instill joy into the eating process, then they need to stop talking.

But this will only happen when we demand something better.

No one truly knows the best way to eat, and we should take everything we hear with a grain of salt.

We have to take our food back.