Decolonizing my plate
flavors of salt, sugar and fat, blended in various proportions into portions so satisfying and sumptuous yet wholly addictive. especially when stress or anger or anxiety or sadness provide the context, the body spirals into comfort-seeking habits. how did the ancients dealt with stressors? were their practices healthier than turning to highly processed foods? perhaps had my people and the societies they built been allowed to evolve i would remember. foreign and artificial flavors have long supplanted the flavors and food practices native to my ancestry.
memories broken, yet remain embedded in the fabric of dna. somewhere. for many generations we were forced then compelled then developed a taste for foods that were leftover, cheap and accessible. pasty white-flour-goods filled bellies while clogging bottoms. sugar and salt filled processed foods and drinks expanded hips and waistlines, driving many to pharmaceutical dependency. these faux foods and the people and systems that produced, distributed and forced consumption create chronic inflammation, deficiency and imbalances in our bodies and families, in the environment and with the climate.
abundant and heavily subsidized investments in monocrops that supplant diversity and wind up in everything, leave the earth and plants stripped of nutrients, deficient of life-giving energy and lacking genetic and ecological memory. petrochemical companies that create fertilizers and pesticides are the same as those that create the medications many must take after being fed a diet of these so-called food products. the industrial supported food system fills bellies while creating dependency and dulling minds. together with the pharmaceutical industry, the food system creates just enough illness to require dependency on pharmaceuticals.
when i think of decolonizing my plate, all of this comes to mind. i want to remember the food culture of my ancestors, before colonization and enslavement. i want to remember so that i can shift my practices to be in greater alignment with theirs, with modern adaptations, of course. and then when i consider what is available at the grocery stores near where i live, there are moments that feel so overwhelming. and yet the answers are there: learning through reading, study and asking questions; growing vegetables and fruits that are possible given where i live; buying what i can from farmers markets; eating with the seasons; consuming less overall; and reducing waste. and what i realized too is that i can shift my tastes by incorporating more whole and natural foods and reducing processed ones, including condiments. i can share my experiences and what i am learning with others and learn from them too.
decolonizing my diet requires that i pay attention to my practices and interrogate where they come from. and more than that, it requires that i actually incorporate new practices and develop new habits around food, which means working through emotions and stress differently. sometimes i need help with this. and that is okay. families and communities, those we are born into and/or create can provide systems of support for these such moments. and i am so grateful that there are folks in my life who can do just this. i just need to remember to ask for help when i need it.