Resisting Temptation
Pencil and Photoshop
Editorial illustration created to accompany an essay called “Bob’s Naked Salad and a Heartfelt Please.”

If the spirit of the season is good will toward all, one easy place to begin is to quit being so invested in other people's plates, palates and proclivities.

We live in a culture that has utterly lost its compass when it comes to food. For a half-century, we've been bombarded by ultra-processed food, wildly conflicting nutritional advice from the worlds of science and government, marketing messages that urge more-more-more, and snake-oil salesmen selling the diet du jour. Virtually all of us have been touched by this in some way — physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually.

Within that crazy environment, each of us does the best we can.

So regardless of whether the person next to me puts too much on his plate or too little by my lights, it is none of my beeswax. Whether she eats keto or an all Kraft mac-and-cheese regimen is above my pay grade and beneath my concern. Read more here.