independent of labels

Gluten Free. Raw. Vegan. Pescetarian. Dairy Free. Paleo.

 (BULLSHIT!)

I feel like moving to Los Angeles bred this new philosophy about nutrition. Everyone had a special diet it seemed and I was stared at for eating a hamburger. I did start to investigate after several months of being grilled on the topic. Last year, I decided to do a 21 day cleanse that involved weaning out certain food groups. The first one being meat and dairy. I went 7 days vegetarian, 3 days vegan, 3 days raw, 3 days vegan, 5 days vegetarian (after going raw you can continue doing raw food, go back to vegan for the rest of the 8 days).

I stayed vegan for the following month adding caffeine back in almost immediately. I tried a juice cleanse and that lasted an entire morning. But I did notice a change in my diet after that. For the past year I have experimented with my food and I started paying more attention to how my body felt after I ate. I noticed that certain foods made my energy drop and I felt tired, while others (mostly veggie based) gave me more energy. I started writing down what I was eating, how it made me feel and started to discover a whole new side of eating. You can go ahead and label yourself all you want, but here is my new label anad it reads:

                                                              I eat to feed my body. 

I eat to heal and energize my body.

I eat to stay alive.

I realized I did not need to label myself into a category or explain to anyone what or why I was eating. So here I am, after trying every fad in Los Angeles, whether it was good or not, laying down the truth. Every single label (vegan, raw, gluten-free and so on) has a valid reason behind why people have those allergies or intolerances, some are choices and they all have nothing to do with you. Your an individual with your own set of rules, eating food is a choice, you can choose anything to eat. Question is, at the end of the day is it helping you to live a longer life or is it just making you full?


**Allergies to food explained: Lactose intolerance results from a deficiency of the enzyme lactase, which is needed to digest the sugar in milk. At least one out of 10 people worldwide shares this deficiency and develops bloating, abdominal pain and, often, diarrhea when consuming milk. Gluten intolerance is caused by an abnormal immune response to the major protein in wheat and some other grains.