You can’t escape the promotion of assumed healthy foods as you spend time with friends and family at local eateries either. At practically all fast food, fast-casual, and fine dining restaurants, you’ll find a portion of the menu labeled with some derivative of “Guiltless,” “Lite,” “Fresh,” or “Fit.” Denny’s menu has a Loaded Veggie Omelette that touts “fresh” veggies with melted Swiss cheese. It’s deemed “Fit Fare” because it’s less than 550 calories and has over 20 grams of protein. Chili’s features a Mango-Chile Chicken with “fresh diced sliced avocado.” On Popeye’s “Live Well” menu, you find items less than 350 calories, like Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya; and Culver’s “Mindful Choices” section has items, like the Beef Pot Roast Value Basket, that hover around 550 calories and are made of “fresh and delicious” premium ingredients.

In any case -- be it on boxes, bags, or menus -- all the words used to describe the unique qualities of these products are meant, whether in overt admission or subtle suggestion, to portray these items as healthy. And there is no need to be a sociologist, statistician, or industry insider to see that the effort is bearing fruit. The public at large has accepted these products as healthy, while many individuals have simply become numb to these bright boxes of noise.

However, none of this inspired me to write this article. I would like to tell you I’m different. I would like to say that I call bs when I see these suggestive labels on packaging as I grab a box of pasta on aisle 2 before hitting the produce. But alas, I fit squarely in the “numb” population. An altogether different scenario caused me to ask a few questions.

A few weeks ago while sitting in the back corner of our office on her lunch break, a co-worker devoured a bag of Amish microwaveable popcorn (an oxymoron, I know). As she polished off the last piece she said, “...but hey, at least it's healthy!” It was the silver lining in a sprinkle of regret as the 480th calorie and the 24th gram of fat passed her lips. I can't tell you why this expression stuck out; it wasn't the first time I’d heard it. But I was struck by it and straight away thought, “Is it really? Healthier than what? What does healthy even mean?!”

Healthy is an adverb, or qualifier, for the word health. Specifically, it means something that promotes a state of GOOD health. According to the dictionary, health means “the state of being free from illness or injury.” So in the simplest description, healthy means promoting an illness-free or injury-free condition. Given this definition, is eating three servings of buttery Amish popcorn in a single setting a healthy practice? It would appear in reality what my co-worker meant was, “It could be worse.” While that is true, the opposite is also true -- it could be a lot better, healthy even.

As vegans we believe our diet is not only the best for the environment and the creatures we share the earth with, but generally healthy. But if we subscribe to this more specific definition of healthy we are forced to hold our healthy diet to a higher standard or admit that the glass of red wine, soy-based hot dog, or that diet soda is NOT healthy. Maybe it could be worse and it’s better than the diet of most Americans, but it's not healthy.

So what are we to do? Do we raise our standard of a healthy diet? Many of us in the vegan world (like me) agree with the likes of Drs. Campbell, Esselstyn, McDougall, Fuhrman, and Ornish that a Whole Foods Plant-Based diet is THE healthy diet, as it promotes not simply a better state of health but an optimal state of health ---and illness-free and injury-free condition. Do we make this our standard and accept anything less as an unhealthy failure?

Or do we accept a relative definition of health -- “Hey, it could be worse!” approach? This definition is without a doubt less abrasive and would seem to lead to less self-loathing, although it does leave loopholes of aimlessness, backsliding, and rationalizing. Which approach do we choose? 

I propose we use both -- raise our standards while simultaneously celebrating our small steps forward along the path to reaching those standards and forgiving our setback as we resolve to do better. It’s this approach, I believe, that gives us a goal to strive for and the grace which allows us to learn from our mistakes.

So feel free to challenge yourself. Then forgive yourself, learn, grow, plan, and re-evaluate. Take one step forward. Take two steps back. Take one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. Remember the path isn’t linear -- or maybe it is. It's a long and winding road, except when it's not. And there’s one destination and a single path to that destination...your path.

And maybe next time, instead of saying, “Hey, it could be worse!” in subtext as you finish your own version of three servings of Amish microwave popcorn in one sitting, you can eat your second helping of Amy Johnson’s Macaroni Salad and declaratively say, “Hey at least it’s healthy.”