However in the interests of not leaving false impressions, i must correct the comment i made above, not because any of it was wrong, but there is new info. it appears that my fryups may have elevated my cholesterol. Well Duh! As the great God Homer would say.

So i for one welcome our new overlords of poached chicken and steamed fish.

Of course, I do think that there are many many very negative reasons for restricting your diet or depriving yourself. AND I think that there are lots of foods that are generally not worth restricting or depriving yourself of. But, to me that doesn’t mean that the concept is entirely bad.

I have two reasons for this.

First: health, and I really don’t mean weight. Paul and I once went on an anti-candida diet. We had both been diagnosed with candida and it was making us feel like complete crap (for want of a better description). The worst part about the anti-candida diet was that we had to take grapeseed extract in the morning (that stuff is vile). But a close second was the first few days where we had to cut out everything except vegetables, and then gradually reintroduce only wholegrains and vegetable-based protein (no yeast, no flour, no sugar, no FRUIT, etc.). It was hard. It was deprivation for sure. But the effect on my health was amazing. I had been feeling like sh*t for months and months and suddenly I felt great. Plus, after a few months, when it was clear that the evil candida in our system had died, we reintroduced everything and GOD it tasted good. That part was pretty cool too.

My second reason for defending restriction and deprivation goes back to the political nature of food. I think that sometimes it is justifiable to “deprive” yourself in order to consume in a manner that it consistent with your ethics.

Of course, that does bring back the issue of showing love through food and food consumption and in my strict vegan days this was definitely an issue. I hated telling my relatives that I couldn’t eat their food when it was made and presented with love. Pamela is right (although I wouldn’t go as far as eating flesh) one of the reasons that I have eased up on the strict vegan thing is that I hate turning down people’s hospitality (oh, and I love cake).

In fact, even when I was “strict” I found myself faced with the classic dilemma: I was in a refuge camp and was given lunch by my hosts – noodles with eggs and meat. I haven’t eaten meat since I was 5 but I really did try to get it down with a smile. These people were living on food aid! However, several mouthfuls in, my host took one look at me and said “You’re a vegetarian! Why didn’t you say something?” Her husband then happily consumed the meal while I was given some fruit…

To be frank, I also can’t get my head around your comment at #30 that you “still lost weight yesterday“, when you must know that a daily variation in what the scales says is meaningless.

I don’t think diets work, and I don’t think they make anyone healthier. I think exercising makes you feel good, and that eating a very wide variety of fresh, seasonal, unprocessed and where possible organic food does too.

If anyone is interested in the “Health at Every Size” movement that Anthony mentioned and the “fat acceptance” movement that I mentioned, a good place to start is the FAQ at Shapley Prose, which bills itself as “home of the mordantly obese”.

For example, in my childhood home refusing food was tantamount to refusing love. Not having an excess of food on the table was considered inhospitable. The ultimate rudeness was to visit someone else’s table and refuse food. These values persist into my adult life and influence the degree to which I am prepared to enforce my personal dietary preferences.

Don’t think I haven’t been there, sitting at someone’s dinner table having to say, “sorry, I won’t have any potatoes, I’m not eating carbs for a month”. But having been there I don’t want to go there again.

The most inspiring example I have witnessed of someone honoring the idea of accepting food as a form of social respect occurred when a few years ago a good friend and I were visiting my elderly grandmother for lunch. My friend had recently decided to take on vegetarianism. My grandmother had laboured all morning to make us spaghetti bol, which had little in it except mince meat. Instead of refusing, my darling friend said nothing and ate my grandmother’s care and love with enthusiasm.

My mantra, lighten up about it all and eat with passion with those you love.

this conversation has resulted in many eloquent observations about the sense of dieting as deprivation, when it really just ought to be about good sense and not eating more than you need to, and particularly about thinking about what you eat to help form and function, rather than aesthetics

I can’t agree, that’s why there’s a whole “fat-o-sphere” and “fat acceptance movement”. Like I said before, for many people in or near the socially normal/BMI approved range your description might be accurate. But you can’t reduce even western, developed economy, middle class human interaction with food and weight down to that.