We were taken aback.
What did he mean by that? Yes, they had sugar-the regular white sugar sold in supermarkets.
He proceeded to explain to us that he had a "problem" with "refined" sugar and how his precious digestive system couldn't really "handle" it (thank goodness, sparing us the details of the logical gastrointestinal conclusion of 'handle'), and how it made him terribly uncomfortable, etc.
My husband and I could barely contain our giggles. Him and I are on the same wavelength about meals in our house-there are always two choices: "Eat", "Or Not".
Anyway, I did find it odd over the years to encounter this mentality over and over again-with the stakes getting higher and a little crazier all the time.
There was the dolphin free tuna, now there is "organic" and whole-grain and cruelty-free, and free-range, fair-trade.
It certainly is a form of obsession-a focus on consumed goods in lieu of a spiritual focus.
I see it's getting picked up by the non mainstream media now as well.
1 comment:
Yes, I've run across the same phenomenon many times myself in the last twenty years or so: grownups who, when invited to dinner, essentially present a list of items that they find unacceptable in the menu, for "health" reasons. This was once considered the height of bad manners, to question what your host was going to serve you. When I was little, I remember being carefully schooled by my parents on the impropriety of not eating whatever one was served when a guest . . . and woe betide me if I should embarrass them by doing so at somebody else's house. (At home, of course, the rule was, as at your house, "Eat what's served, or go without," which is the same rule we applied to our kids when they were little [and not so little].)
Mind you, I understand that some people--notably type I diabetics and those with severe food allergies--have to breach etiquette if they eat at someone else's home. But relatively few people fall into this category. Most refusals to eat what the host serves are based on exquistely egotistical dietary notions, and are just as rude now as they ever were.
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