I had this WBEZ piece in my list of opened tabs for a very long time. As much as it sounded reasonable, I internally disagreed with its message. When Lena visited last weekend, we ended up talking a lot about changing eating habits, and I decided to go back to that piece and the research it referred to.

To be precise, I agree with the opening statement that there is no “one best diet.” Also, I understand that the new immigrants might feel lonely in many ways, including missing familiar foods. However, many traditional foods of most cultures, including American traditional food, are objectively not the healthiest.

There are many historical and economic reasons for eating habits to be formed a certain way, but it does not mean we should keep following them out of the force of habit. The conditions of life have changed; most of our lives have changed compared to how people lived a hundred years ago, not even talking about the earlier times. Maybe something is wrong with me, but I don’t understand the “food nostalgia” many people born in Russia mention, like missing the condensed sweetened milk or some types of ice cream or sodas. I am not saying I am rejecting my heritage food entirely. There are tons of great foods that I not only use but also frequently advertise, such as multiple vegetable soups or buckwheat, but definitely not the fried fish or soups for which you would sautee the vegetables before adding them to the broth.

I often hear these ideas about “it’s better to eat what you are used to eat,” and i discgree with it categorically. When I chatted with Lena during the weekend, she told me how difficult it was for her to break the eating habits that were engraved in her brain by her mother and her grandmother and how long it took her to learn to listen to her body and to eat only when she wants and what her body really wants. And now, it makes some sense, I am coming back to the statement that was made on this WBEZ show – there is, indeed, no “one size fits all” in what, when, and how we eat. The same as one shouldn’t blindly follow “what everybody says is healthy” patterns, they probably should not follow “traditional” means “better pattern.

All of this was to say that I am really happy and proud of Lena for breaking her old habits and making positive changes in her lifestyle. Now, she does not say that “she does not like strength training,” and I am sure that very soon, she will be faster than me on her bike!