I'm a Qualitarian, How About You?

For years, people would routinely pose the same question to me, "so what are you?" Pretty sure that people are clear that I'm a brunette, a female, even that I'm a dietitian (though sometimes they confuse that with a nutritionist -- sorry folks, I have a license and the education years and internship to show for it). So since the question usually came amidst a conversation about food choices, I would presume they were asking about my eating habits. And for years, I wouldn't really have an answer. I had been a vegan, a pescatarian, a person following a macrobiotic diet and later Westin Price's protocol; I had dabbled with Atkins out of curiosity (and the promise of daily lattes with half and half), the Body Ecology diet (despite not having a yeast problem, call it "professional curiosity") as well as other "plans." But I stopped in my tracks when the question now came to me. It was about me and my eating for sure, but also recognizing that it came with undertones of obviously if I was doing it then that must be the plan I endorsed for others. It got me thinking -- what protocol or plan do I endorse?

Around the same time I had the good fortune to vacation, truly vacation, as in no cellular service once we hit the seventeen miles of dirt road that took me to the ranch, as in no cell service while I was casting, wading or glaring at the bank in search of snakes, and as in not eating a single thing from a package. During that trip, a ranch hand cooked dinner for me one night, a fly fishing guide brought me lunch daily, and a group of women invited me to their gathering where I sampled some of their amazing treats. Yet, I was in Montana -- and in Montana they eat meat, and not just meat but game. I haven't eaten meat in years (like 15) after a rather memorable experience with some veins in a supposed chicken breast in my college campus café almost sent me right into the hands of my frozen yogurt-loving, bin-food candy eating friends. While that didn't work out too well as fuel for college requiring energy, the no meat part lasted. But back to Montana, at first I declined to eat antelope, to taste have bison, or any other meat and said no to the dairy from the cow I could see eating the grass as I looked out the window. Then, someone said to me "so what's your objection? Is it animal cruelty, taste, or what they might be fed, cause I can tell you I treat these animals like they are my kids -- no hormones, plenty of grass..." and then he chuckled and looked at his grown son" and I do kill them when it's time -- I guess that's where it's a little different than my kids."

"So what was my objection?" I pondered.

I object to animals fed food they wouldn't eat in nature, to the medications used to treat them when they develop illness related to eating the wrong foods; I object to artificial ingredients, chemical combinations made in a lab to look like things in nature but that don't chemically resemble what's in nature. I object to genetic modification of plants (and certainly of animals) so that we can speed growth up or get more of something when what nature provides should be plenty. And I object to making claims about components of foods when tone doesn't have anything nice (or worthy) to say about the rest of the food or product. Thus, I realized, I had no objection, other than what my palate may or may not enjoy, to the meat being presented to me in Montana. And further, thus, "Qualitarianism" was born.

Being a qualitarian, is, I believe, the solution to our health issues today -- all of them. We wouldn't have the quantity and intensity of health issues (mental and physical) if we ate better quality foods exclusively. And if we all ate better quality foods, they would cost less resulting from greater demand for food coupled with lesser need for advertising money to be spent to counter the poor quality food products. If we all ate better quality food, better quality food would be more available, too.

What does it mean to be a qualitarian? It means, first and foremost, that you choose to be the gatekeeper for what goes into your body. That you don't feel deprived but rather empowered when you turn down a veggie burger with genetically engineered ingredients or hexane and enjoy one made from organic quinoa and mushrooms or a wild salmon burger or a grass-fed burger. It also means saying no to a ready-to-eat salad of chemically sprayed lettuces in favor of cooking your own organic broccoli (great to start with frozen too). And it means taking pride in being smarter than the front of a package or a commercial. Yes, you are smarter than both of those; yes, you are. You are smarter than the package that tells you what it wants you to know but doesn't tell you the rest of the story. Or what about the commercial, do you think whoever made it feeds that food to their kids or eats it themselves? So just as you wouldn't judge a book by it's cover, get to know the whole story before you buy and certainly before you eat.

There are so many amazing resources out there today to help you on the journey to becoming a qualitarian. I have added one more -- the Ashley Koff Approved lists -- so that if you don't know what questions to ask, don't have the time, energy, or even don't care to do the work, you can feel comfortable that I have asked the questions and have evaluated the products for you. Why should you trust me? Because I became and remain a registered dietitian to address my curiosity, which can be at times relentless, about what is actually good quality in our food system. That, and because I am not paid to evaluate any products -- the Ashley Koff Approved stamp of nutrition for optimal health can't be bought, it's earned.

I hope you will join me in becoming a qualitarian and please email me ([e-mail]) questions and follow me on facebook at the Ashley Koff Approved fan page or on Twitter @ashleykoff for daily tips and discoveries on being a qualitarian.

 

Follow Ashley Koff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@ashleykoff

Comments

[Puffin16]

03:45 PM on 01/24/2011

Thanks for a great article, and an extra thanks for coining the word "Qualitarian." I have become something of the food expert at work since I lost 85 pounds - everyone comes to me with what they should eat, what is better to eat, etc. I offer up what worked for me, and one of things I did besides eat less and exercise more was to find out what exactly was in the food I was putting in my mouth - where did it come from, how was it harvested, etc. etc. It's not only the nutrition of the food itself, but the humane or inhumane way the animal was treated. It seems to me that eating good, quality food is getting harder and harder.

[Organic-Guy]

02:09 PM on 01/23/2011

To be a qualitarian and the gate keeper of what goes in your pie hole you need to know what you're eating and if Monsanto and others have their way soon it will be impossible to know. They are introiducing more of their frankenstein foods to the martket everyday. Even when it's not something directly given to you they introduce it into the feed for animals. They do it for every creature from Catfish to Chicken. Hannafords and Shaws and more have their own lines of animal products usually laced with words like natural or harvest for farm fressh and many of them have animals that are raised free range or not caged but are fed a steady diet of genetically modified feed, either from a bag or from GMO crops planted in the fields. This is one deceitful way they get their product out there in a less direct way.
We need to keep up the pressure on the EPA, the FDA and Department of Agriculture and even the patent office so people can know exactly what they're eating by requiring honest and truth in labeling and put a stop to all this back door fooling around these greedy, thoughtless corporations are all about these days.

[mssreader]

01:27 PM on 01/21/2011

Ashley, great article and why didn't I think of Qualitarianism before? It's an apt word! I was called a snob by some HP poster yesterday in a discussion over w/marts biggie decision? I stated that I eat a plant based diet, have been a veggie for 41 years, this past 1 Jan, and turned vegan before taking up the PBD 8 years ago. I only eat organic and am very fussy about what I put in my body. Some people are fussier about the oil and gas they put in their cars than the food they put in their bodies! Anyway, I proceeded with the fact that I'm not afraid of dying but I don't want to be sick not that I have 100% control over the sick part, I can do all I can to make an effort to take care of my body to ward off sickness and thus far I've done a pretty good job. So now I can add Qualitarianism to what I do because I don't eat a lot but I make sure the food I do ingest is quality foods and liquids. I am sure that I spend less on food than most people because I buy lots in bulk like grains especially legumes and brown rice and always organic which taste better therefore one is satisfied without the need to eat more. I read labels and eat out seldom and yet I eat well. Thanks for your article.