*So I originally started this post in November, but dealing with the mildest form of food insecurity now I'm revisiting this.
I don't recall when the term "foodie" really entered the public vernacular, but I do recall identifying with it. Still do, in fact. For me this extends beyond taking delight in fanciful mushrooms or sampling cheese at a hip new restaurant (is hip still a thing?). Food is my basic comfort, my daily regimen and how I evaluate many things in life.
There's a Chinese phrase that translates loosely to "the common people sees food as the sky", as in food is the most important of all. Above the emperor (or premier these days), above the god/gods of religion, and above even the sky. Without food there is nothing.
I recently visited a correctional center and realized for the first time what food is like in the system. I always knew prison food was the stuff of mythological status poor quality, but didn't think heavily on them. Didn't actually have the fully formed thought that someone has to eat this day after day, month after month, perhaps year after year.
How can you rehabilitate someone if you're not even going to feed them properly? Who can be rehabilitated, sit in therapy sessions, go to groups if they're living on lumps of potatoes with a sprig of carrots and practically doing intermittent fasting because of the schedules?
The slew of US prisons that have made news due to their terrible food - relying on margarine to meet calorie needs? What nutrition is in that? There's someone out there who's proud of pioneering this technique?
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That brings us to today, March 1st 2021. I'm somewhere in rural Labrador - where a Google streetcar has never been and it doesn't really know what roads are where. I've already been directed to turn off the highway and into some woods. Although even on mainland Newfoundland Google once tried to have me make a leap over a small valley to get onto the highway so...
I'm in sort of self-imposed isolation. Right as I was leaving, the metro area I live in suffered the worst outbreak of COVID we've had since the start of the pandemic. Fortunately I was on vacation and able to hide out at home for the worst of it. But Labrador does not have cases at the moment and I don't intend to be patient zero here. So I've received my day 0 swabs on landing (anyone else cry uncontrollably as a side effect?) and am staying in until my day 7 swabs are clear. There are no strict guidelines as I'm within the same province, but knowing that the most likely infectious source would be the airport I passed through, I'm trying to keep everyone safe by not relying on day 0 swabs.
All that to say, I have almost no food. I got some groceries delivered on the day I landed, but my car was too full of luggage to get much more in the way of groceries. So I ordered them for today and the car didn't arrive all day. It's finally come now, bearing many many boxes of food (I think the delivery guys thought there would be a whole family here for how much food).
For all of today I've been antsy, irritable (more than usual that is) and generally in a dower mood. It wasn't until I perked up with the food delivery that I realized. It was the effect of a near empty fridge and uncertainty of being able to receive food. As said above, it's probably the least insecure of food insecurities. I had packages of ramen. I'm not technically under real self-isolation and could have gone out to buy food. The grocery order was most likely coming. But just having the empty fridge was enough to drag my whole mood down.
I imagine I'm a more sensitive case, but this leads me to think of my patients. My patients who rely on the community outreach for 3 meals a day. My patients who don't have housing let alone a fridge. My patients who choose between meds, rent and food. How do they function? How can I expect them to keep a headache diary or work on meditation when their minds (I presume) are weighed by uncertainty of what their next meal is? How well can I possibly treat their medical concerns when I can't treat the root problem of food insecurity?
