Food Judgments . . . .

Living with diabetes, I often feel like others constantly judge what I’m eating.  Since they often don’t understand diabetes beyond the many misconceptions out there, when they judge me I probably score pretty low.



A few weeks ago, Pete and I had lunch out with a friend.  We were just finishing up when I noticed two women at the next table staring at me.  I figured I was just being paranoid, as I tend to do, but every time I looked up they were both looking over at me.

“Hey, the ladies at that table are staring at me.” I whispered.
“What?  No they aren’t.   You’re just imagining it.”
“No . . . . really . . . they keep looking at me!”

Just then one of the ladies leaned over and said “We were just watching you eat that carrot stick as we sit here sharing out dessert!  We were commenting that we should be eating  more like you!!”



What a great feeling to have someone judge what I’m eating and throw me some high scores for once!!!  I’m so used to being criticized by the Diabetes Food Police that I was shocked when they complimented me on my food choice.

Of course, I did feel I needed to come clean about what we actually ate for lunch.  I let them know that the three of us shared an order of fried calamari, some mini-sliders, and a spinach and artichoke dip.  They hadn’t seen me eating any of that, just the last carrot stick that had been served with the dip.

I hope my confession made them feel better about indulging in some dessert.  Because as someone who has often had strangers try to heap on the guilt over my food choices, I’d hate to make someone else feel guilty about what they’re eating.