Got tons of interesting questions at / after the wellness panel of the Charlotte Vegfest. It was a blast. Some questions were frustrating though. And those are the ones that I keep hearing all the time from friends, clients, on social media … The worst kind of questions:
IS X FOOD GOOD FOR YOU?
IS IT BAD TO EAT CARBS?IS IT BAD TO EAT BEFORE BED?
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF KETO?
What frustrates me the most about questions like this is that people take a complicated system of a human body, take it out of context of somebody’s lifestyle, work, schedule, family situation, stress, sleep and everything else and try to come up with a one-size-fits-all response weather eating before bed is good or not. So, don’t be surprised if your smartass asks a fitness professional one of those and hears
For who?? In what circumstances? Compared to what???
in response. honestly, I really want to answer every single one of them with “compared to what”. So next time somebody asks you a generalizing question, you don’t have to dig through all the information on the topic you may potentially have learnt and try to package it into a short useful answer. Just throw a compared to what the person who’s asking! When someone asks a question like this – they typically don’t care to hear your opinion or some latest research info anyways. People ask to acquire reassurance that they’re right. People want to hear either “Keto is awful, I hate Keto!”, or “I’ve lost 50 lbs on keto myself, it’s so great!”. No one cares for “well show me your bloodwork, typical daily diet and medications first, and I’ll think about it.”
– Is peanut butter bad for you?
– Compared to what?
What amount of peanut butter? Peanut butter over whole nuts? Are you trying to gain / lose weight? Oh, and before I forget
– do you have a peanut allergy???
– Is eating before bed okay?
– Compared to what?
Have they eaten anything else that day, or is that the only time since breakfast they get to eat since the person’s schedule is so demanding? Very different than eating before bed for a person who has already had a large breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in between. Especially if what they’re eating before bed is a jar of ice cream.
I think I made my point by now. Share irrelevant questions people asked you about health and exercise in the comments below please and how you’ve handled them without being rude, while making one reconsider the perception of the problem at hand.