Do you monitor your psychological diet?

Most of us are very conscious of the food we consume and try to monitor our diet based on our age, health goals, or doctor's recommendations. We know that the type of food we consume has a direct effect on our physical health. The origin of many serious diseases can be traced to our dietary habits, this forces us to be a responsible consumer of food. But how many of us pay equal attention to our psychological diet? How many of us are even conscious about the type of food we feed to our minds? It should not come as a shock to anyone that the type of content we feed to our brain directly affects our thinking and in turn affects our behavior. Our personal and social life is affected by what we think and hence our psychological diet matters a lot in determining our social health. So, why don't we pay attention to our psychological diet, and if we want how we can monitor our psychological diet?

The first problem is that we can't see or feel thoughts like we feel other tangible things like the food we consume or gadgets we buy. When we eat food we can smell it, feel it, taste it and these factors can dictate whether we like that food or not. It is true that information also comes in different flavors, we do reject or accept some information or thoughts just based on their source, but such behavior is normally associated with some strong religious or cultural emotions. But in today's era, we are bombarded with information, it is continuously fed to us through different outlets like social media, online news, and other traditional sources (like books and print media). We hardly get any time to scrutinize them before consuming them as we receive them on our newly "acquired organ" called a cellphone. This is where lies the rub. On one hand, it is great that if we want we can receive a lot of information from different sources, but at the same time, these platforms guess our habits, likes, and dislikes and can channel only particular types of information toward us (welcome to the world of Artificial Intelligence). Most of the information we receive, especially on social networks, we have no clue from where it is coming or how authentic it is.

When we know that the type of information we consume shapes our thinking shouldn't we be more careful to verify the content or check the reliability of the source of that information before allowing it to become part of our intellect and sharing it with others? Getting to know every side of any issue is necessary and getting information from different sources may help us to look at the same issue with many different angles. But unfortunately, this is not what people are doing. These social media networks and groups are designed in such a way that people receive the same type of information from many unverified and unreliable sources. When this information gets validated by their idols (politicians, celebrities) who also get that information from the same unverified sources, it becomes a fact for that group. So, the lies not only get perpetuated openly but also go unchecked and get consumed as facts. It seems every group, political leader, or political party has its own set of facts, the same way as every religion has their own set of facts about its own book or messiahs. This is not a very healthy situation for any society.

When people stop caring about the quality of their personal diet society suffers from a serious public health crisis. In the same way, when people are careless about their psychological diet society starts suffering from various social and intellectual issues like political and racial polarization. If you are interested in preserving the good psychological health of your community, monitor the quality of your psychological diet, verify the information before you consume it, and see the effect. Our mental health is as important as our physical health. Remember, responsibility always starts with us, be responsible and share the information responsibly.    

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

Please don't bring morality in diet

Food habits are an evergreen topic for many debates and discussions. We all debate which food is healthier and which is not, the advantages and disadvantages of a vegetarian, nonvegetarian, or vegan diet, the health effects of processed food, and things like that. A lot of research is also going on about the effects of various types of diets and food habits on human health. There are many types of dietary habits in the world, but they can be mainly divided mainly into two classes; vegetarian (people who don't eat meat) and non-vegetarian (people who also eat meat). The nomenclature of nonvegetarians is utterly misleading, it implies that nonvegetarians only eat meat, but this is seldomly true, most nonvegetarians eat a vegetarian diet, but they also eat meat that's why they get included in this category. Actually, if we look at human history, as a species we are mostly omnivorous, which means we can eat both plants as well as meat. The ability to eat almost anything is a huge advantage for humans and can be considered one of the major reasons for being the most dominant species on this planet. Herbivorous and carnivorous animals have very specialized teeth, jaws, and digestive systems, it is not that easy for them to switch their diets but we can shift from one to another very easily. But this is not the topic of my post today. My argument is that it is inappropriate to bring morality while discussing various food habits. Very often vegetarian people argue on this point, somehow they feel that there is no killing of any living thing while preparing vegetarian food, and the fundamental basis of nonvegetarian food is violence, so, they have the moral upper hand as far as diet is concerned. Many of them argue that because of moral reasons, it is not appropriate to eat meat. If anyone argues about diet based on health benefits, then it is a reasonable argument, but I have a problem when people bring morality in judging the food habits of others. Eating meat is a widely accepted food habit all over the world, this has been a part of human culture for thousands of years, and judging it based on a moral compass is wrong. The truth is that every living thing survives at the cost of other living things, life feeds on life, and there are no exceptions to this rule so far.

I have observed that most nonvegetarian people try as much as possible to take care of the convenience of vegetarian people, they make sure that there are some vegetarian options available in case someone doesn't eat meat. But rarely favor is returned from vegetarians to nonveg people. The main reason is that most veg people make the diet a part of their belief system, not a personal choice, most of them think it is not moral to serve or eat nonveg food, so, there is a sort of contempt and rejection towards nonveg food from their side. Also, most nonveg people are fine with this discrimination and hardly they complain. Anyone can check this themselves if they want, any nonveg person easily eats a veg diet if there is no nonveg option available, but it will be tough to find an example the other way around. Anyway, it is not good to force anyone to eat any type of food if they don't want to, but somehow this sentence is interpreted as it is not proper to force anyone to eat meat but it is perfectly fine to force someone to eat vegetables. One can hear about several meat bans, but has anyone ever heard about some vegetable bans? Isn't it an example of a double standard or do we really think that meat-eating is such an evil habit that meat-eating people deserve to be discriminated against? If it is an evil habit, then why there are so many meat eaters on our planet, and why it is not illegal? I understand the appeal and protest of animal lovers against animal killings. They have the right to do so. In the same manure, I know many people who love plants, I wonder what will be the reaction of all of us who eat plants if plant lovers object to plant killings for food?

I am personally 99% vegetarian, I eat meat rarely and mostly outside my home. My diet is strictly my personal choice, several factors like geographical location, availability of food, my likes, dislikes, and health concerns dictate what type of food I eat. I don't judge anyone based on what type of food they eat, I don't force my food habits on anyone, and don't like anyone to force theirs on me. I respect other's food choices and expect the same in return, if they are not willing to respect my choices, I feel no obligation to respect their choices. It is a matter of mutual respect, rather respect has to be mutual in every case, one way respect or love never works. Many of these animals and plants are produced because there is a huge demand for them in the market, if there is no demand all these plant and animal farms will be closed, either way, their survival is in danger no matter if people eat them or not. I don't think many people who argue against veg or nonveg diets understand this reality. What I eat or wear is my personal choice and as I am free to choose these things others are also free. I have no right to impose my choices on others and others also should not do this. This is a very simple rule to follow, let's eat and allow others to eat.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]