Wednesday, 21 September 2016

DON'T JUDGE MY BREAKFAST

"Bet there's a lot of sugar in that," he said, disparagingly.

I looked at my bowl of muesli. The banana slices I'd just cut were floating like lilies over the nutty, crunchy mulch. I sighed, sounding disappointed.

I don't think I would ever dream of judging someone else's breakfast. Seriously, you can eat what you like - bacon rolls, pain-au-chocolat, croissants, cold pizza, yam soup, Alpen with greek yoghurt or just a spoonful of coffee beans. It could be terrible but I won't be condescending about your choices.

It seems, following last week's nutrition talk, everyone's a bit of an expert and can't wait to share their expertise with the uninitiated.

As I walked back to my desk, awkwardly clutching the bowl, the banana skin, a spoon, a mug of tea and my phone like a dishevelled waiter, it occurred to me that this disappointment is probably the exact reaction a lot of people have towards evangelism.

I don't want to get too deep into this - I really don't, but it did strike me that there were similarities.

After all, from that perspective, a stranger approaching you and telling you you're doing life all wrong could surely be offensive, supercilious and embarrassing.

"But don't you know that eating too much sugar will take you to diabetes, obesity, even death's door, my friend?"

By the way, the guy who sneered at my breakfast goes running every lunchtime.

"Don't you know that the body can't process all that junk and will store it as fat? Don't you know that things that taste sweet are really really bad for you? Don't you know that there's a better way to see the light, to come into all the fullness of a healthy diet, to really live?"

I didn't enjoy it very much. It's the kind of breakfast that gets stuck in your teeth. And actually, he was right, there's 8.6g of sugar per 50g serving! I think though, that if someone's going to tell me how to live my life better, they ought to be modelling the kind of life that looks attractive and healthy, rather than disparaging other people's muesli.

No comments:

Post a Comment