Who got the song reference? You, my new favorite person? Great.
Sadly, this isn’t just a Billy Joel appreciation post. I do think, however, that it’s really appropriate song lyric for this trend I’ve noticed for a while.
We hear that something is either AMAZING, PERFECT, THE BEST THING EVER or it’s AWFUL, THE WORST, WILL DEFINITELY KILL YOU. Totally normal. Obviously everything falls into one category or the other.
Let’s talk about eggs.
Eggs and I have had a complicated relationship. It took me a while to find a way to eat eggs that I actually enjoy. I made an effort because of the research that shows how beneficial they are to eat. Lately, though, there’s also been information that has tried to negate that and tell you they’re actually the same as eating poison.
So should you eat 0 eggs or 5 eggs everyday? Are they a superfood or the same as eating toxic waste? Neither. The answer lies somewhere in the middle. It’s more likely to be true that, when eaten in moderation, eggs have health benefits but are just short of magic in a shell.
That’s true of most things.
Remember the 90’s? It was low fat everything. Snackwell’s were huge, and in retrospect, I am very impressed with us collectively for convincing ourselves that they were edible. They were not.
We were very motivated by the idea that everything related to fat was bad. Turns out, that was actually false. We need healthy fats to live and function as humans. But, since we can’t seem to manage to keep any semblance of balance, we are now in the world of the Keto diet.
The keto diet is super popular and tells you that FAT IS GOOD EAT ALL THE FAT. That’s a far cry from the days of pretending to love whatever Snackwell’s made their cookies out of that was masquerading as chocolate. Were we THAT wrong?
No. The answer is rarely at one end of the spectrum or the other.
99.9% of the time, the “right” answer or the truth actually lies somewhere in the middle. You should go outside and be in the sun, because vitamin D is important. But not too much, because then you burn and run the risk of sun cancer. Eating your favorite foods, even if that includes french fries, is good for your mental health and keeps you more motivated to eat healthier foods as well. But if you eat your weight in french fries everyday, you’re going to have a problem. Exercise is basically a magic potion for your health, but if you do too much, you risk injury and burn out. See what I’m getting at?
If someone tells you something on one extreme or the other is the way to go, run in the opposite direction.
There are very few (if any) things in life that are always good or always bad. Your relationships aren’t either perfect or not worth a second of your time. Most situations, even if they’re just plain awful, do have some semblance of a silver lining. The phrase “happy medium” exists for a reason.
We live in a world of social media influencers, click bait, and not so informed people giving information as if it were the absolute truth. It’s hard to navigate what’s factual and what is actually going to work for you.
So I encourage you to go back to what my BFF, Billy Joel, says. I really don’t know why you’d go to extremes.
