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Though just shortly into this journey, I have found myself, on more than one ocassion, eating a meal like a petulant child. I don’t want to eat, but I do because it is good for me. This in a scenario where I could have anything I wanted. Full-fat, full-sugar anything upon my command, but I sometimes don’t want to. I do it, but like a pouty, petulant child. 

Food is supposed to be fuel, so we are taught in any weight-loss plan anywhere. The success of turning your food consumption into something that is both fuel-driven and enjoyable can change a life in terms of weight-loss. As wrong as it feels, food is emotion. There’s the creativity and intellectual stimulation (hello, Science!) in preparing it. The art in plating it. The love that goes into the ingredients. The shared passion for flavors and scents. It’s how we celebrate, how we heal, how we console ourselves, and a way to communicate love. Back to the Last Supper, food … the breaking of bread … is social, it’s everything. 

 A former coworker of mine would like to tell me about the value of lunching with coworkers. After difficult conversations in a meeting, he felt it was important to go have a meal together. He told me that he felt it was important to break bread with colleagues as a way of strengthening relationships — that it was important to have bonds that went beyond the meeting topic and food was the most basic way to do that. 

At a previous place of employment, I remember doing that. There were just 3 (sometimes 4) of us, and our director felt it a good use of time to try to have lunch together. Not every day, but most days. With a small staff and each with unique responsibilities, he saw the importance of having conversation and bonding outside the typical work topics. It was a good thing; I think it helped us remember that we didn’t work with coworkers, we worked with human beings who had other interests and lives and talents.
Food, in those ways, keeps people together. It’s a bonding agent (tell that to the donuts bound to my butt! Hahaha). 

For me, food while necessary, has often been a vice. You can’t give it up, because.. health. But you don’t want to give it up, because it’s amazing. Ingredients combined through chemistry take on amazing forms and flavors. Pairing a homemade pasta with the right olive oil and home-grown garlic and herbs and vegetables from the garden–there are few greater loves.
Food is love. 

If I cook for you, there is love in it. No question. I cook with people in mind. If I am making a dinner for you, I have you on my mind throughout. Granted, and thank goodness, I’ve never had the experiencing of someone ripping their clothes off and riding off into the sunset with their true love a la Like Water for Chocolate (the Quail in Rose Petal Suace scene when Gertrudis is made quite emotional by the meal), but I do endeavor to create the perfect multi-course meal event after which I hope you (a) keep your clothes on, and (b) feel loved or at least feel the love for the food. 

I hope no one, in adulthood, feels like a stubborn child forcing down meatloaf when only the mashed potatoes taste good. But, I hope if it is important to one’s health, that you will do it anyway because that means more opportnities in between those brief times to enjoy pasta with artichokes, schnitzel, pecan pie, and General Tso’s chicken. All of which are filled with their own kind of love.