Did you know there is a word for the people who think they can cure every single wrong thing through correct application of nutrition? Its called Orthorexia. I have a lot of sympathy for folks who get snared in the idea that if we just figure out the right way to eat (and really, the right way to do everything) we'll all be happy and healthy and live long good lives. Everyone can see how believing nutrition matters too much is a trap leading to unhappiness. No one wants orthorexia.

Put another way, a wise woman once told me that controlling our food is a very common way of dealing with the chaos of life. If life feels out of control, at least food can be brought to heel. (Or heal, as the case may be.) Its really really REALLY good for me to keep these ideas in mind. I am aware of the chaos of life, of decay, of imperfection, of the ways we all fail all the time, the ways I fail all the time, and worst of all, the ways I am unaware of my failure. I wish I could eat my way around all of that. I know I can't.

That doesn't mean we should not talk about nutrition. We still have to think about feeding ourselves better. Almost all of us are doing an actively bad job navigating the boondoggle of food in this place and time. Humans on the planet right now are getting unhealthier by the generation, for the first time ever. (Weston Price predicted this predicament as early as the 1930s.) Our fertility is in decline. I'm referring to fertility here in the way farmers understand the word. Fertility doesn't simply equal reproduction. Fertility indicates sustainability, normal good health with normal life span free from most disease, and increasing population within balance. Yes, balance does indicate chaos. And here, we've made a circle. But its a good fertile circle. Children living in a fertile circle do not get asthma, are not allergic to food, and are at no risk of diabetes 2.

If you happen to be a person who is lucky enough to get a hold of actual nourishment---the kind that improves your body, your outlook, your hormones, and your emotional equilibrium, you should be grateful. What you have learned about food is an important thing to talk about. Through legitimate nutrition, which, by the way, only comes from fertile systems, you have been lucky enough to glimpse a beautiful simple and nearly lost truth. You just (I just) have to keep remembering the other truth, life is chaotic and decay is a fact. A good fertile fact.