When I was a teenager, I religiously mopped up the grease from pepperoni on my pizza and filled a napkin with it by squeezing my weekly Sunday brunch traditional kielbasa to death. One could say I was afraid of fat.

Last month my sister-in-law looked at my pile of discarded pepperoni and asked me if I wasn’t allowed to eat it because of the pregnancy. I said something like, “Well, anybody you ask will tell you something differently, but I’m a little afraid of the chemicals in cured meat (nitrites).”

From low-fat dieters to dyed-in-wool Weston A. Price Foundation followers, when it comes to food, everybody’s afraid of something. [photo source]

Even the most carefree skateboarder dude who gives hardly a care to what goes into his mouth most likely jokes about a “heart attack on a plate” when someone eats a big ol’ pile of fried food.

And just as butter incites fear and trembling in most Americans, who think Paula Deen is headed for destruction with her stick-at-a-time saturated fat consumption, traditional foodies get a little quivery when presented with powdered milk, shortening, or artificial sweeteners.

As much as I claim that I’m all about the positive, taking baby steps, and doing what I can to be healthy without worrying so much about what’s “unhealthy,” well…I still get all tight in my chest when I realize that the yogurt at my in-laws’ house, where my kids will be this weekend, is sweetened with Splenda, they only have skim milk, and it’s a gamble as to whether they’ll have butter, ‘light’ butter (what IS that anyway??), standard margarine or the latest “heart healthy” tub blend.

My daughter, who reminded me at least five times this morning, “Butter too,” as I was getting toast ready, wouldn’t eat a roll without a thick slathering of whatever is offered in the name of butter. What will she be eating for breakfast Saturday morning?

What’s Your Poison?

Are you fearful of fat and think a meal with butter, red meat, and egg yolks will knock you flat? Or do you embrace all of the above with a knowing smile but seize up when presented with margarine, factory raised low-fat ground turkey and pourable egg products? Do you go whole grains only or do even those, if not soaked, make you wonder? Perhaps grains aren’t your thing no matter what…

Maybe you’re all about low-cal, low-sodium, and you don’t mind if the products you buy have high fructose corn syrup to replace the fat. On the other hand, maybe you’d rather find calories that count for the most nutrition, including healthy salt and healthy fats, and just avoid the chemicals in processed foods as much as possible.

Do pesticides and synthetic fertilizers send you packing, or would you eat any vegetable you find but think raw egg yolks in a smoothie is playing Russian roulette? And how about milk? Skim, pasteurized, homogenized, whole milk, cream, fresh raw milk, organic, powdered, ultra-high temp pasteurized…I guarantee if you’ve delved into the subject of what milk to buy, one of those words increased your heart rate.

If you’re giving healthy eating a chance, there’s got to be something you just don’t eat, no matter how hard you try to just focus on what you DO put into your mouth. Grab a banana (organic, perhaps?) and ponder:

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But don’t forget that God’s in charge. He’s bigger than food.

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