Let's just make it clear.....

Now and again I feel as though I have to just explain why some people make the food choices that they do. This is mainly because people don't always understand that whether you choose to leave out certain foods, well there's a flippin good reason for it. 

Some reasons why people may leave out certain foods:

• allergy 
• intolerance
• vegetarian/vegan diet
• coeliac disease
• irritable bowel syndrome

The kind of things people will say to someone with one of these reasons for leaving out certain foods:

• there's so many allergies and intolerances now
• we never had all these allergies and problems with food before now
• it's all a load of nonsense
• oh yeah it's just a fad
• get a good steak down ya

If you don't have a problem with any foods or decide to eat meat then that's absolutely fine but it's a good idea not to make judgement on anyone else who does have to eat a certain diet whether it be out of choice or necessity. I've come across it a few times since giving up wheat/gluten products. For me it took a while to find out what upset me and I've worked out what I can eat and how to feel good about what I eat. 

Without going into gory details or maybe I should to make people realise what it really is like to be upset by food. Basically I will get severe stomach cramps, diarrhoea, excessive wind and just feel unwell. By all means, make a comment about my diet but if I eat gluten you will not want to be around me I can assure you.

So maybe instead of making any of those comments above, try learning about why someone has made that decision in the first place, it might be trivial to you, it may be to relieve a lot of discomfort or for some a matter of life or death. A lot of comments are because of a lack of knowledge. Of course we didn't have all these allergies and intolerances before because we hadn't exposed out selves to years of crappy toxic food before so if you do actually do some research about what actually goes into some of your food you would probably feel unwell too.

I respect whatever food choices people make, there is usually a valid reason for it but frankly why do people have to justify it unless it becomes a threat to their life. We have to learn to respect a lot of things about all people we don't always agree with whether it's food, religion or politics but my advice is if you can't say anything nice then don't say it at all. I'm trying to learn this myself, not always easy but sometimes we have to just nod and accept things as they are.

I hope that just clears a few things up, I feel we'll always be having to explain but I can only hope people will just understand.

Thank you for reading today, please pop back tomorrow for Autism Support Sunday but for now......

Take care.