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Originally Posted by ElizaJ  Yes, I'm the same way. Food is merely a necessity to keep my body going; other than that it doesn't matter what I eat as long as it's not constant unhealthy food. I'm not a picky eater and I will try anything once. |
I have a very strange duality with food, though I don't think its an unhealthy one. On a day to day basis, I'm a lot like you--food is a necessity. I make every effort to put my daily food consumption on autopilot: I buy a lot of groceries so I don't have to think about what I have and don't have, and I make a number of simple, healthy meals over and over again. I also don't eat meat on a day to day basis, though I love cheese and eggs. I don't drink caffeine or eat sugar in the course of an average day.
However, I love food and love to eat out. When I eat out I become a real "food snob". I love nice restaurants, will eat more than I usually do, and its the only time I'll eat meat. My thinking is that not eating meat in a nice restaurant is like asking an artist to paint without using a certain color. Since I only eat out like this once or twice a month, I'm very fit and healthy but I can enjoy this gastronomic "splurge".
Basically, I guess its a distinction between food as a day to day necessity for survival on one hand, and as a pallet for the culinary arts on the other. I've always felt that this duality allows me to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keep food in its proper context without denying what I feel is one of the great pleasures of life.
Being a food snob actually has advantages in maintaining a fairly simple and healthy diet day in and day out--since I care about food and fine dining, I'm unwilling to compromise. I have a profound awareness of what goes into food and how it is produced. For that reason I'd sooner eat out of a dumpster than eat junk food or fast food. For me at least, this knowledge of the culinary arts makes me less susceptible to cravings for sweets or salty food that bedevil many others: why would I want to eat a pack of little chocolate doughnuts from 7-11 when I can go out to eat every couple of weeks and have an incredible dessert prepared by a pastry chef?
I'm not saying that this is any sort of philosophical brilliance on my part--its just the way I've been for most of my adult life and its typically worked pretty well for me.