It’s okay to eat with the season you’re in.

Yes, sometimes food is simple. And sometimes it really, really isn’t.

Some people can eat pretty much anything and get on with their lives. Good for them, genuinely. Some people need more structure for a while. Some need it for a long while. Some are eating with the seasons. Some are eating around symptoms. Some are eating around grief, budget, burnout, autoimmunity, a child with needs, no time, no access, no money, food stamps, or a body that has decided, quite rudely, that three foods are now a threat.

That’s just… life.

I love sourdough and croissants. I love summer fruit. I love dark chocolate and red wine. But there were years where any sort of refined sugar, even the virtuous kind, meant I would be awake half the night itching and in pain. Not metaphorically. Actually. There was a solid stretch of years where even raspberries could do it. And there was a season where my gut was so wrecked from parasites, mercury, mold, and all the rest of it that I looked shocking and lived on bone broth, lamb, wild salmon, olive oil, avocado, and preserved lemons and had to chew an obscene amount just to get it down without more pain. That was not me being fussy or fashionable. It was me trying to stay upright.

I laughed my bum off recently at a staff Christmas party when a dear friend of mine told our new pastor’s wife that when he first met me I looked like literal death walking and had blue veins in my neck. She was appalled. I was amused. My friend is brutally honest and honestly does not do well in crowds one hundred percent of the time.

So when people get smug about food on the internet, I always think, you have absolutely no idea what someone else has had to do to survive in their body. Many leaders in my field are absolutely lovely, mind you, and that matters a great deal.

Yes, I talk about protein a lot. I built an app that helps with protein-forward meals because I have seen again and again that it helps many people, me included. More stable energy, better recovery, fewer crashes, less white-knuckling life. But even then, not everyone can tolerate high protein straight away. Some people need to build toward it. Some people need to support digestion first. Some people are in a very different place physiologically. That does not make them wrong but individual. This is why we talk so much about bio-individuality in my line of work.

The same rules go for fruit. Same with cooked vegetables or raw ones. Same with carnivore, keto, vegan, anti-inflammatory, elimination diets, and the people doing none of the above because they are just trying to feed their family with what they can afford this week without having a nervous breakdown in the car park.

People are often doing the best they can with the body, budget, history, and bandwidth they have.

That should be enough to earn a bit of grace.

And honestly, some of the loudest criticism online does not come from wisdom. It comes from dysregulated people who want somewhere to put their own frustration. You do not have to stand there and absorb it in the name of being nice. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for your own nervous system is block the troll, make your dinner, and carry on. Peace is not weakness. Rather it is stewardship of your body and soul. It is also common sense. And it is far cheaper than an autoimmune flare.

So yes, have convictions. Share what has helped you. Tell the truth about your own body. But leave room for the possibility that somebody else’s body, season, trauma, tolerance, access, or healing path looks different.

We do not need more food righteousness. Rather, we need more mercy toward one another.

Sometimes that mercy looks like saying, I’m glad that works for you.

Sometimes it looks like saying, that would put me in hospital, but cheers.

Sometimes it looks like quietly blocking the woman foaming at the mouth in your comments and going outside for a bit.

That, me dears, is also health.