I grew up in the 80s and 90s.
That was a time when a lot of exploitation was happening right in front of us — even if we didn’t always have the language for it yet. The crack era. Guns showing up in neighborhoods that didn’t have them before. Drugs moving faster than adults could protect us from. Young people given freedoms they didn’t know how to navigate, and sometimes taking advantage of each other in ways that left real damage behind.
For those of us who thought we were “middle class” and insulated from certain racial struggles, the battles just shifted. We weren’t always fighting the system head-on — we were fighting what crept into our neighborhoods, our schools, our bodies, and our social lives.
A lot of unsavory things happened during that time. And many of us learned to normalize them.
That same era is also when processed food really took over. School lunches changed. Real food disappeared. Dairy became unavoidable. Weight gain, chronic illness, and obesity didn’t just happen — they were cultivated. Marketed. Targeted. We’ll talk more about dairy damage later, but make no mistake: food systems are part of exploitation too.
Alcohol fits into that same pattern.
Drinking often gets framed as fun, bonding, celebration. But for many of us, it was also pressure. Expectation. Conditioning. Not just what we drank — but how and why we were encouraged to drink.
That’s why I’m very clear about what real drinking responsibility actually looks like:
Never leave your drink unattended
Never come back to a drink you walked away from
Never accept a drink someone else brought to you
Always get your own drink
Trust your instincts — every time
Those rules didn’t come from a pamphlet. They came from watching people get hurt.
And honestly? The safest option has always been choosing my FAVES — fruits and vegetables every spread. Whole foods. Whole fruit. Fresh juices. Foods that grow from the ground and naturally carry water, fiber, and clarity with them. When your body is supported, your intuition gets louder.
For those moments when you’re coming back from nights that didn’t feel entirely your own, some people choose gentle, whole-food support like EnergyBits — simple algae that support natural detoxing and recovery without harsh cleanses or stimulants. Nothing extreme. Just support.
The Nutriville Chronicles are going to explore all of these layers — not just alcohol, but food systems, health narratives, money, policies, and how entire groups of people were targeted during certain eras and told it was normal.
Stories help us see what we survived.
If this reflection resonates with you, and you want to support the work, you’re welcome to buy me a coffee here. That support helps me keep telling these stories, asking better questions, and creating space for conversations we didn’t always get to have growing up.