I think people go through phases. Everyone wants to preach when they start. They have been woken to the reality that instead of blindly following fad diets and government recommendations, they should try something else and actually look at the results. I was in the best shape of my life after the first four weeks. I wanted to tell everyone. People literally told me that I had different genes and wish they were born so lucky. Next, you get fed up with everyone calling you crazy. Now, I help people who want help. Other people, I just let go.

Unfortunately, food choices have been elated to the realm of religious faith and people get really annoyed if you preach out of the blue. If someone wants to learn and has an open mind, you can talk to them about food choices. Very few people will change their belief system because a stranger says "there are studies showing diet drinks trigger even greater sweet tooths"

At the end of the day, it is hard not to judge and it is even harder not to respond when I am told that I may look great, but I will die of heart attack if I do not change my ways.

I do feel bad, because I know how hard it is, and it isn't their fault. They're getting bad info. I feel bad when they're heavy, when they're fading away as vegans, and when they are regular weight.

I don't say anything to strangers, but friends and family ask and I tell them. I don't have abs, but I've lost a lot of weight, gained a lot of muscle, and I'm healthier than I've ever been. My sister and her gf did a whole 30 because of my success, and my mom is planning to join us in January. The info spreads, nicely and calmly, when people notice your weight loss. Without fail, everyone asks how it happened, and then you can feel free to tell them.

FWIW, I only think it's judgemental when you feel the people are bad/lazy/stupid. That's not how I feel.

I do openly tell people about what I eat and why. I do not wait for people to ask. I preach healthy food choices and I am not shy about it. If you know your stuff, people respect you. It is hard to argue with a person who obviously knows more than you do. Nobody (besides doctors) ever questioned my diet or things I say. They all know in their heart it is true. People just know, they feel it.

I actually tell doctors (dietitians) that they are wrong, because they are. Some doctors (dietitians and gastroenterologists) are the only people I have met who have a hard time swallowing the bitter pill.

You got to be a complete idiot thinking that a protein shake is better than real traditional food. No, even a complete idiot will be able to taste the difference between a well-made traditional dish and anything microwaved that comes out of a box.

We are brainwashed into thinking that some company that is based on profit margins would make things better than nature, or better than one thousand generations of grandmothers, passing their recipes from mother to daughter. How can people be so gullible?

I do feel bad for other people. Especially if I see an acne-covered young guy or girl chewing a Mars bar. I just want to yank that candy bar right out of their hands and say - don't do it. You will ruin your gut flora!

I did turn three people into Weston Price followers. Three total strangers that is. I turned my family into gluten-free eaters and my best friends into Weston price. Just today my best friend told me, "You would be proud of me! I bought ox tails and beef liver!" Isn't it wonderful?

I always pry into other peoples' shopping carts when I'm in the grocery store. I saw this sweet middle aged lady buying a nice big container of soy milk and cried Inside a little 2 days ago.

Since I'm only halfway to my weightloss goals, I know to keep my mouth shut. How would it look for me to be preaching to someone about cookies and waffles in their cart while mine is full of butter and full fat sour cream? I don't have much creditability at this point.

On the checkout line, it's hard not to notice what the person in front of you is placing on the conveyer belt and checking out with. Yes, many times I feel so bad when I see the junk they are buying and going to feed the family with. Nothing really to do about it.

I remember last summer when i was on a hiking tour in northern Spain (Camino de Santiago) in a village I stopped at a supermarket to fill up on supplies. (I would eat out of the backpack mostly.) I boought a litre of cream.

It was a hot day and as i was paying at check out, I opened the tetrabrik, as the cream had been refrigerated, and began to guzzle it down. The (slightly plump) cashier girl said to me: Oh, that's not milk, you know". And I said, "Yeah, I know. I eat a lot of fat in order to stay thin". She looked at me with shock on her face. Obviously she had never heard anything like this before.

It actually gives me encouragement when I see the choices people make and THEN hear them complain how sick they are all of the time. I live in an area where I am definitely the lone wolf with the Paleo lifestyle. In the beginning, I tried to convince a lot of people I cared about to just try it, rather than criticize me or ask me endless questions. Most people complained "It's too hard" and never gave it a shot. At times, I feel like a freak (at parties or restaurants, for example) and begin to doubt myself. Then I remember how crappy I used to feel, how I fought with my diet/weight/emotions....It's not that I glance in other people's shopping carts to feel "holier", but rather to put an illustration with the research I've done and to reinforce what I know in my heart (and gut) is right for me.

Yes, but I would never tell a random person how to eat. They must know the stuff they eat is bad for them on some level, and eventually they'll come to that conclusion on their own. I'm pretty new to this and still figuring it all out, but I'm hoping eventually I can serve as an example of how important this way of eating is to your health and my friends and family will make some of the same changes.

That said, I do cringe every time I feed the child I babysit foods filled with HFCS and tons of preservatives and synthetic chemicals. :(

Absolutely. I really get the heebie-jeebies when I see other people with health problems buy the worst things and it doesn't get better when they start complaining about their problems while not being open-minded. At home, it's fun too, watching my parents eat crap. It's almost like we were all smokers at home, I got lung cancer, changed my lifestyle and felt better than before. Meanwhile, they're still smoking and didn't learn a single thing.

But to answer your question, I just want to look great, feel great and talking about it just happens when someone comments on how I look or envites me to go eat crap and doesn't take NO for an answer.

i'm always weary of the holier-than-thou thing, but i'll admit it - yes! when i drive by fast food places and see lines of cars... when i see people buying margarine tubs...

I got hired for seasonal work at...See's Candy. Now most people are fine, they just want some Christmas candy either as a gift or for themselves. Life is life and that's great. It's a treat and I'm not going to give people the stink eye for wanting a nice holiday treat.

There are, however, quite a few that just look so deathly ill that they can barely even reach to the counter to sign their credit receipt. They I feel bad for. I want to scream at them to save their life. They are not the ones who are happy to see us and talk of Christmas time See's Candy as a child. They are not the ones looking for something to bring into the office. They are the ones who look like they're picking up a box of nails from the hardware store. This is everyday life to them. This is their grocery trip. I've seen some impressive Paleo transformations online but I just don't know about some of these people. I feel like I'm giving heroin to an addict because it's last few days of their life - may as well give them what they need.

I also kind of feel bad about giving samples to families and their children, but it always makes them so happy it's hard to feel TOO bad (our shop is right across from the mall Santa so it really feels like we're making these kids' day).

A shining beacon, however, was when one group of guys swung by and asked if anything we had was Paleo. This was surprising. Of course we don't, the closest would be our salted nuts but we use peanut oil on them, but it was still nice to hear.

I was always secretly judgmental of people's food choices, even before I went paleo. I was gluten free and we never ate junk. Our shopping basket was always full of veggies and fruit and meat, but of course some rice and pasta, etc. When I would see some people with their kids and a huge trolley full of coke slabs, chips, chocolate and ice cream, I'd feel sad, because a) it's bad for them, and that's not just from a paleo perspective; and b) they probably don't know any better (I mean, take a look at the USA or Australian healthy food guidelines - I can't believe they include things like white bread and cakes/sweets) and/or can't afford it. Or, possibly, it's just a perception that packaged, processed, sugary foods are cheaper and easier than buying veggies and meat. To an extent perhaps that's true.

It's easy to be judgmental, but I think socio-economic factors play an enormous part in why people eat the way they do.

I don't feel bad for anyone's choices. Ever.

I do feel bad for children, who don't get a choice.

I also get frustrated with family members, who are struggling with health issues yet filling their bodies with garbage. Same idiots who smoke with COPD.

But I wouldn't say I feel bad for them. I really just don't want to hear about their problems when they're doing everything in their power to make them worse.

Yes, and I need to learn to shut up around those who havent seen the light yet, like my family. I work with my family and I fear I'm driving them to dislike their time with me because all I can talk about is the latest stuff I've read.

I'm a bit obsessed at this point. This is good because it keeps me on the path, but bad because research into nutrition and food is about all I do in my spare time and so its what I default talk about.

I think most of us here probably feel bad when we see others make poor choices, and hope they eventually figure it out, but unfortunately not everyone will figure it out.

I've learned that most people don't want to talk about diet or change their diet. If I can't convince friends and family to change their diet, I'm certainly not going to talk to strangers about improving their diet.

http://paleohacks.com/questions/83113/do-you-try-to-convince-people-to-go-paleo-or-find-yourself-justifying-it-to-othe

http://paleohacks.com/questions/82462/does-anyone-else-sneak-a-look-at-other-peoples-shopping

You have no idea how much it pains me to keep my mouth shut in line at Starbucks (to get my plain ol' coffee...with heavy cream, if it's available), and an overweight, run-down-looking woman with sallow skin orders some kind of skinny soy frappa-whatever...

Oh man have I been through it all...from restriction, to 80/10/10 (only 10% fat!) and to Primal I have come a long way...it has been a journey. When I see people like this at the store as well it is painful. I remember the diets, the struggle. My blog goes into more detail about my journey with that but to put it simply, I understand and sometimes you just can't say much but let them figure it out themselves. If anyone else had told me when I was learning more about nutrition/diet I would have refused and just gone on my own way.

www.runninginsilence.com

I certainly feel bad sometimes. When I see visibly overweight people with huge amounts of determination to change the way they are, but doing all the wrong things, like stock piling on fat free/low calorie foods, smashing themselves at bootcamp at 5:30am 3 days a week etc and not getting results. I also feel sad for a client of mine, who has a debilitating case of MS, she is bed ridden and the disease is progressing. She said a friend of hers who also has MS told her to avoid all saturated fats and eat as vegetarian as possible, cos red meat is terrible for MS. It would be unethical in my profession to tell her otherwise, I have dropped some indirect hints but she wont have a bar of it. Very sad.

I feel sorry for the people I see at the supermarket, but never preach to strangers. I have learned that the food choices someone makes is as touchy a subject as the religion that they practice or the politics they believe in. I am so tired of defending my way of eating that I just keep my head down and go about my life. It's sad but true. Even with friends, the instant that the subject comes up, I feel like I am attacked by the usual: "but whole grains are good for you!" I either shut up then and there, or attempt to summarize the toxicity of wheat and sugar for someone who simply cannot accept what I am saying as true. Funny thing is, the people who are the most defensive are usually the people who are the least healthy. I get it - when I start rattling off the facts that us paleo folks are so in tune with, it seems like an attack on the very person who I am preaching to. I have a friend who is overweight, has recently beat an aggressive type of cancer, is addicted to sugar and consumes ALL of his meals outside the home (yup, never uses his kitchen). Will he listen to me for even 5 minutes with an open mind? Nope. Because what I'm doing is extreme. What I'm doing is a "fad". What I'm doing goes against what his doctor says.

So yes, I feel sorry for people who don't know better and I get frustrated with people who question what I do but then don't care to listen to what I have to say. So I just keep my head down and keep on truckin. I have a feeling that this paleo "fad" will eventually become mainstream, at which time I will get up on my rooftop and shout "I told you so!!!!"

Yeah sometimes, but it ain't thier fault though, they have been severely misguided by conventional wisom. Dr. OZ, fad diets, doctors, useless supplements, agribusiness, big pharma. What are you gonna do? What can you do? If they ask, educate them on what real health is supposed to be. Avoiding grains, legumes, most conventional dairy, meds. Getting plenty of rest everynight. Dont stress out so much, think positively,eat fermented foods for gut health. Live a more natural lifestyle etc.

Yes, I feel sorry for them. where I live, most people know nothing about nutrition. Almost all of them eats mostly processed foods and grains. every time i go to the super, people buys mostly snacks, milks and candies.

The problem is that people go with the mainstream and not against the mainstream. only the minority knows the truth.

I dont try to explain to closed-minded people about paleo and healthy diet, and if I try they won't listen, so I dont care, it's not my problem. anyway, paleo diet is not popular here right now, but the vegan diet is.

Being that I was one of those who thought I was eating healthy before, I wish someone had told me about it. I ate just about nothing but low-fat whole grain everything and did nothing but put on the pounds over the years. People say I was never fat, but I was. I was just trying really hard not to be, and failing at it.

The hard thing is you want to tell people like me. People who are trying. When I see obese people jogging, I almost want to pull the car over and tell them there is an easier way. Because that was me before. I've gone from 235 to 195 in the last year, and have put so much less effort into losing weight then I used to put into it.

I just try to keep it real. When people tell me they're concerned with the amount of saturated fat they eat, I tell them they shouldn't be. When they say chicken is the best meat to eat, I tell them I disagree. When people ask me how I lost my weight, I tell them. If they listen, great! If not, oh well. At least they know. They may think I'm killing myself by clogging my arteries, but no one thinks it isn't working for weight loss and looking better!

Sadly, looking at what some people eat, I think my urine may be more nutritious than their food! I'm joking...sort of. But I just find openness is good. Persuasion is a different game altogether.

I feel bad because my family (and descendants) are forced at the point of a gun to "help" these people with their costly medical complications, reduced productivity, and finally enormous end-of-life costs. Their choices will force our socialized system to outlaw macadamia nuts someday.I love macadamia nuts!