Quote Originally Posted by Joyous_5 View Post
I DO know what you mean. I've been thinking lately that we Americans have turned food/health/nutrition into a sport. Sometimes it feels full contact (like when everyone at a family dinner chimes in about how unhealthy the food you're eating is!). I think it's great that there is so much research being done--though I read recently that scientists are now releasing information after preliminary findings, where they used to wait until many years and more detailed research.

Anyway, I love food, and I do love to talk about it and health. BUT I also know my limits. I know when it's gone from, "gee, this is fun," to "yikes." There are many different ways of eating for many different types of people. And sometimes one way of eating is right for you at one time in your life and not for another. It's cyclical, I think.

I hear ya, Tiam. Glad you posted this as sometimes I feel like I'm on a crazy train to foodopolis! (Especially online)
Re: the bolded. It's gotten to the point where I don't enjoy inviting a group of people over for dinner, which is something I loved to do. My own family is fine, they will pretty much eat anything and if they can't eat a specific dish, they just don't eat it, without making a fuss.

And I don't mind cooking for vegetarians or vegans or someone who's avoiding gluten or soy or eggs or whatever. But when you invite 5 people over for dinner and 4 of them have special requests, it starts to be less fun choosing recipes. The last get-together I had there were guests who could not eat salt, soy, gluten, peanuts, or dairy. Plus one person was eating Paleo and one was on Weight Watchers and one was a vegan. While one or two of these wouldn't have been much of an issue, it starts to get difficult finding something that everyone can eat. I ended up with two main dishes, one vegan, one not, and a variety of side dishes, plus salad and homemade bread and butter, in the hopes that everyone could find enough food so that they wouldn't go home hungry. But I cooked a lot more food than I normally would have, to accommodate all the medical issues, and it was more work than I had thought it would be. And I don't think there was much except the vegetables and salad that could be eaten by everyone. Apparently, the days when you can put a lasagne or pot roast, salad, bread and wine on the table, followed by ice cream and cookies, are gone.