Sharing the Reasons for Our Food Choices

While eating at social gatherings, many of us seem to feel the need to talk about WHY we are eating the food we’re eating.

One of the reasons for this is the way that our society places moral values on food - "sinful" dessert, "guilt free" baked chips, eating "clean". This leads to us to feel that we need to verbally justify our food choices when we eat in public.

However, we make lots of personal decisions every day without talking about them out loud. Many people who would think nothing of saying or hearing about the reasons behind one’s food choices, would be uncomfortable in the same setting when hearing or saying "I kind of have to pee but I don't have to go that badly so maybe I'll finish this report and then head to the bathroom." or "I really have to poo but I'm hoping the bathroom will be empty so I'm going to wait until the meeting breaks up and people get off this floor."

It’s fine to talk about food - what we like, what food we don't, recipes and preparations etc. However, each of us chooses to eat what we eat for our own reasons, and we have no need to justify our choices by publicly sharing those reasons during meals and other eating occasions.