Meg Haworth

When I went from eating chili dogs with cheese, pizza, doughnuts, pasta and beer to eating veggies, fish, fruits and supplements overnight, I quickly noticed I had been inducted into the world of food alienation.  The foods I had bonded with others over were no longer ingestible – I mean, they already weren’t, I just didn’t know it.  That’s when I realized what a huge part of life food is.

Food is essential to life.  We must have it to grow and thrive.  I noticed then that most food eaters eat based on what everyone else tells them is good and not on what makes them feel good.  I had been forced into the world of eating to feel good for me, not for everyone else, and what a world is was.  

I was already well-versed in separating myself out from the pack of carnivorous Southerners that I called my family when I declared vegetarianism in 1989.  Meat is eaten at virtually every meal in the south.  In fact it’s so overused that you can hardly find a side dish that does not have fully murdered, limp, colorless vegetables made with bacon grease.  So I was not a total stranger to being the odd eater out, but this whole allergy thing took it to an entirely new level.

The list of what I could eat was much shorter than what I could not eat.  I would walk into a restaurant or a grocery store, my stomach tight with hunger pangs and look around at the vast amount of food that I could no longer partake in.  I estimate that 90% of foods were forbidden. I felt like I was dropped in from outer space into this reality that did not include nutrition from the planet I fell from.

Once, I was out at sea on a fifty-foot trimaran sailboat in the Bahamas.  We were all having a blast that night, laughing, cooking dinner, sharing stories about our lives and of our day swimming with wild dolphins.  I was so relaxed knowing that our dinner did not include wheat or dairy.  We were having chili.  I had become a meat eater again due to my limited food choices coupled with the miracle that I could actually digest meat. Chili was happily approved on my new food planet.     

As I sat enjoying this moment, I looked over to witness one of my boat mates as he dumped an entire bottle of beer into the chili.  Beer contains wheat and was absolutely forbidden for me to have at that point.  I would suffer severe cramping if I had even the slightest bit of it.  Everyone knew of my allergies but most people don’t think of a liquid as food.

Well, I lost it.  I was out at sea in a foreign country where the corner market was filled with processed, boxed foods with additives and preservatives – and was on land, miles away.  Food was rationed out by the meal on the boat and I couldn’t just make up another dinner for myself.  There I was, once again, alienated by culinary circumstances and barely able to convey what it all meant without making an ass of myself as I once again explained all the bodily reactions I went through.

So, the point is that when you, or someone you love, can’t eat what everyone else is having, that person may be starving while they watch everyone else eat.  Have a little compassion for the food challenged alien from a different food planet.  We may love to eat just as much as you do but we simply aren’t able to.

Do you feel like an alien from another food planet?  Share your stories and comments on this Blog and feel free to contact Doctor Meg at www.DeliciousAndHealthy.com for food coaching, cookbooks, suggestions and support.