One of the reasons I have always loved food is how it connects people. At any point in time, food is part of an experience. Whether it be a graduation, birthday, happy hour, house party, a quiet night at home with your loved ones, or even a funeral, food is usually present if not the centerpiece.
The beauty of the versatility of food is that it can match any occasion and bring people together. Research even shows that families that eat together, instead of in front of a TV, have a reduced risk of nutrition-related chronic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Attending an event, such as a drag brunch, is a perfect occasion to enjoy food with others while not worrying so much about what is being served.
When people eat together, the entire environment around eating changes. Naturally, people are more distracted when others are around. Talking and engaging with those around you means you spend less time mindlessly chewing bite after bite. This delay allows for the body to digest and for you to feel full, resulting in less food consumed overall. The hormone leptin is the one responsible for making you feel satisfied after eating. But if we eat when we are alone, watching TV, or working, we sort of forget that we are eating and keep going until the plate is empty.
Then comes the feeling of extreme fullness because we ate more than we needed to. Leptin doesn’t really activate as soon as we start eating—Otherwise we would never get the nutrients we need. Because leptin takes some time to kick in and tell us to stop eating, we can easily eat more than we need to if we aren’t paying attention. So, we can sort of lean into the idea that it matters more what we are doing while we’re eating rather than the actual foods we are eating. Spending time with others while we are enjoying food is a great way of slowing down and only eating as much as we need to feel satisfied.
Overeating can trigger the pancreas to work much harder than it needs to break down the carbohydrates that we eat. The pancreas is responsible for making insulin, the hormone that helps your body to break down the glucose (the type of energy your body needs that comes from carbohydrates) from foods we eat. If we eat too much, the pancreas has to overwork to break the glucose down, which can eventually cause type 2 diabetes.
Overeating can also mean that we take in more fat and salt that we need, eventually leading to heart disease. Additionally, a type 2 diabetes diagnosis alone increases the risk of heart disease, since the body works in a way that every system works together to maintain overall health. Again, regardless of what the food is, eating too much of anything is never a good thing. This is one of the reasons why you should never feel guilty about what you eat when attending a local drag brunch.
Whether you are hosting friends or family from out of town, trying to cure a hangover, or just want to do something fun to shake up the traditional breakfast, drag brunches bring fabulousness and delicious food for a sickening good time. Though the typical drag brunch menu might not be the epitome of nutrition, the food is meant to bring people together to share in the experience and art of drag.
That is truly one of the best things about food—socializing and fun memories. Food is not always meant to serve only our physical health, it is also meant to serve our mental and emotional health. For me, there is absolutely nothing better than chicken and waffles covered in syrup to go alongside my bloody mary while I watch death drops and dancing from Denver’s best drag artists.
Be sure to strap on your mask; bring a copy of your vaccination card; gather up a pile of singles, and gather your friends for a brunch that you’ll never forget.
