I want to respect food
Lately, I’ve noticed that most of my food content doesn’t look educational at all. There’s no instruction, no explanation, no tips. Not even a quirky comical story. It’s just food, plain and simple, as it appears in ordinary moments.
Social media seems to indicate that people struggle with food because they don’t know enough. If they had better rules, the right services, more fitness apps, more gear, or flashier role models, then healthy eating would fall into place.
I can’t possibly buy into most of the hype around food and fitness. Seriously.
Most people already carry an impressive amount of nutrition knowledge. The missing thing is ease. Food has become something to manage rather than enjoy. Meals feel like decisions that carry consequences.
That’s felt by me regarding diabetes and celiac disease, no doubt. But…
My ease around food
I love my lunch time! And my breakfast time, and dinner time. I love spending time feeling and moving around food. I don’t even remember what it’s like to rely on TV dinners (I had plenty of frozen meals in my college years).
How is food easy to understand and “deal with” for me?
- Diabetes at a young age
- Living rural during formative years
For example, anything I need requires a corresponding amount of insulin so that my blood glucose doesn’t rise abnormally. Celiac is like an allergy – a mistake there could also have bad consequences. So food is top of mind whenever I eat.
I noticed many times now, when the power goes out, my dad instinctively starts talking about the wood stove. He has a pan pre-selected for boiling water so we can make tea, porridge, or noodles. He’s got small boxes of noodles ready to boil.
Media taints our meaning of food
When food is mostly encountered through plans, numbers, and weight management regimes, it becomes abstract. Calories are mentioned everywhere online, in books and magazines, and on the products. You’re no longer eating lunch; you’re evaluating it. And once eating turns into constant evaluation, anxiety and poor coping behaviours move in.
We consumers are exposed to a lot of food lingo every day. If you have a nutrition-adjacent disorder (like diabetes), you might not question the claims or news you hear regarding food. Wow! That freaks me out. I know from LOTS of experience, that a food mistake for me can make me very sick, so I follow my instincts to dig deeper about ingredients and food claims.
At the same time, every day pretty much, I naturally enjoy the rewards of daily trust in my food choices. I know what I’m eating is healthy, and often boring/ordinary, not processed. I’d rather have a potato than fries or chips, right? I’d rather have cheese on vegetables than a pizza.
You see it now? Little habits over a lifetime make food activities easy.
Filming my food flyovers does something very special
You see food in it’s mouth-watering, enjoyable state. You don’t see the tips I followed and could share, or the number of calories.
In a video flyover/flyaround, there’s no expectation. Nothing to take notes on. The food isn’t presented as good or bad. There’s no judgments! It’s just there, and unremarkable.
One of the worst social media rules of thumb is “add numbers to the title” as in 7 tips for this and 21 business ideas for single parents. Luckily, the trend is moving away from that. There’s millions of tips out there now. Yippee. Anxiety thrives on anticipation and abstraction.
To battle un-ease of meals, recognize it as a physical object again—on a plate in front of you. It brings eating back into the real world, where meals happen. It’s food to be eaten, enjoyed, and eventually get energy from. That’s one healthy way to respect your food.
Enjoy some not impressive meals
I’ve also noticed how underrated normal meals are. The kind that are literally meat and potatoes, or beans and home-made soup if you prefer. They are not impressive meals. Not showy. They might even be unbalanced. They are just the ones people eat in real life using fresh and ordinary foods.
So-called plain meals don’t carry much symbolism. They don’t promise anything, nor signal a win or failure. They’re forgettable—and that’s part of their value. Hand-made meals help build a foundation for loving your food, just when you need it.
Flyovers spark your imagination
And they might make you smile.
They show a result (usually). A camera flying by your home-made pizza or mashed thing is scenic. It’s looking for answers. The ‘flyover’ videos might create questions however! When you’re not being told what to do, you have freedom to notice what’s inspiring you.
Information is only useful when you’re happy with the idea of food (just my opinion). Without that, even good advice feels like pressure, and is counter-productive for the long run.
For now, this is why I keep filming food this way. It’s an important area of my life. I share it with you without an agenda. I would love to see less friction about food in the world.