Posted by Janet Harriett on May.11, 2010

ⓒiStockPhoto - stephconnell

Hang around with health-conscious people long enough, and a discussion of diet - in the sense of a holistic approach to how you eat, not a weight-loss strategy -  is nearly inevitable. You’re vegan, vegetarian, locavore, raw, seasonal, paleo, clean, gluten-free. Like weight loss diets, they all have a label and a set of rules about what you can and can’t eat “on” them.  I’m never sure how to answer the question of “What’s your diet?” since I don’t fit neatly into any of the usual healthy eating categories.

Vegetarian?

I’m sort of vegetarian, but I’ll definitely order a burger when I go out to dinner with friends. I eat meat about once a month, more often if I toss some chicken in the veggie soup. No one will ever confuse me, with my cheese and egg love, for a vegan, but I make some unintentionally vegan dishes, like lentil soup. If I really analyzed my eating habits, I might be able to wedge myself into one of the many -tarianisms (lacto-ovo vegetarian, pescitarian or flexitarian), but I never quite understood the logic of fish or chicken not being meat.

Locavore?

I source my eggs and what little meat I eat at home from a farmer about four miles up the road, and I keep a home orchard and vegetable garden, so I’m sort of a locavore, but I’ll certainly get a box of Shredded Wheat from the supermarket and my favorite cheese is shipped to me from a dairy 2,500 miles away. I tried the local cheese and it doesn’t compare to the Tillamook Cheddar I grew up on.

Raw?

I love my green smoothies, but the full-on raw food lifestyle just doesn’t seem workable over the winters in a semirural area of Ohio, where the quality of allegedly “fresh” produce is questionable at best for at least five months of the year, and what is available then comes from Chile and Guatemala. Plus, my body seems to react to any ingestion of nuts by slapping two extra pounds on my abs. Seriously, I could eat 1,200 calories a day, and if 100 of those calories came from cashews, I’d still pack on weight.

Seasonal?

I stock up on seasonal produce from the local growers at my farmers market, but I freeze, can and dehydrate it so I can have “seasonal” ingredients year-round for soups, stews and stir-fries. I’m still not clear on whether the rules of seasonal eating mean I can have blueberry pancakes in January if I bought the blueberries from a farmer in July and froze them, or if my November chili is still seasonal if I canned the tomatoes from my garden in August and dehydrated the homegrown peppers in September.

Clean?

I do use what might be considered a version of clean eating, most of the time, based on the principle of choosing primarily foods that I would be able to recognize growing in the field. Oatmeal fits the bill; cornflakes, not so much. Of course, I’m not above the aforementioned shredded wheat, justifying it as a single-ingredient made out of whole grains even if those grains have been mushed and reshaped well away from a wheat berry. I eat canned food, but most of it, I’ve canned myself. Sure, it’s processed, but I did the processing. Most of the clean-eating adherents won’t do cheese, but I figure I’ve seen how it’s made, so that’s OK. Besides, I like cheese.

Eat What You Like, Like What You Eat

And that’s really what my eating style is. I eat foods I like and that fuel my body. I don’t eat much meat, not out of a philosophical objection, but because I don’t really like steak. Because I live at the edge of farm country, fresh local produce is convenient, at least in the summer, and I have plenty of room to grow the fruits and veggies I like but can’t find elsewhere.

I pick and choose parts of many eating styles that make sense for my body, budget and principles, without adhering strictly to any set of food rules set down by someone else. Since I’m one of the percentage of the population that can digest milk into adulthood, I see no reason to avoid dairy products that come from farms that treat their cows well; people who adverse digestive reactions to dairy or less access to verifiably humane milk products might not make the same decision. That’s their choice. This is mine. Eat and let eat.

So, what’s your eating style? Leave a comment.

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Posted under Cooking Healthy, Food, Nutrition & Recipes.