Everyone is on their own food journey, and each of ours are unique. By reading my blog, I’m asking you to join me so that this part of your food journey is essentially one we share. As I learn, you learn. That means something to me, so I hope it works out well for both of us. I thought I would start by telling you a little bit about how my journey began.

I was raised mainly during the 1980’s. My parents are baby boomers, and therefore were raised as a fast food generation. Food should be healthy but also fast and easy. As a kid, I ate cereal, chips, canned liquid cheese on buttery crackers, hot dogs and pizza. Our house was never short of processed food, artificial flavors and colors, “fat free” snacks, low fat milk and soda. To my parents credit, they tried their best to sneak the apple slices, green beans and tuna fish into my meals, but I often resisted. I would say my parents regularly offered real whole foods, but I seldom chose that for myself.

I remember that we were all led to believe that the processed foods we consumed were moderately healthy, or at least weren’t making us sick – by commercials and claims on the packaging. As I’ve recently discovered, we are all targets of the manipulative powers of the food industry. (Read Food Fix) As a result, when I was young, I was plagued with constipation. As a young adult, it was continued constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and a kidney stone.

That is how my food journey began. It’s how a lot of our stories began. But here is where mine took a beautiful pivot.

When I was in college, I had a relationship with a very romantic young man. He was an artist, a poet, and a former gymnast. So he had a way with words and ate super healthy. Our cultural differences, and the lack of maturity to navigate through them, made our relationship doomed from the start. But there are some memories of our time together that will stick with me forever, so I am grateful to him for being there when he was. My favorite memory was when he introduced me to “the peach.”

We were visiting my parents’ house, and he sat across from me at their kitchen table. After he got over the shock when I said that I have no memory of ever eating a peach, he reached for one and held it in front of me. First he told me just to say the word, peach. Peach. Doesn’t it feel good in your mouth, that word? Peach. Then he had me hold it, feel it, smell it. Next he cut off a piece and ate it. He cut another, and handed it to me. This was one of those times I was tempted to make the face kids make when you try to give them something they are convinced they won’t like – the nose scrunch with the face turn. But I was at least self-aware enough at that age to appreciate what he was trying to do, and I took the plunge. It was sweet and perfectly soft, where my teeth resisted it a bit but then sank right in. The flavorful gift spread all over the inside of my mouth. Holy cow. What was THAT?! It was my re-introduction to the beautiful world of real, whole food.

My journey has not been a straight line, and it continues on as I learn. But it was a beautiful pivot. And that is why it makes me so moved to share as I learn with others through this medium. So that if you pivot, it’s a pleasant one. And then maybe this food journey can expand to be OURS. I will try to cover everything from how to make good choices at the grocery store to how a plant absorbs the nutrients that end up on our dinner plate and in our bodies. If you want to join me, I’ll be posting every Saturday morning.