Recently, my friend and colleague, Winnie Abramson of Healthy Green Kitchen, wrote a post about why the Paleo diet didn’t work for her. You can read her article here.

I’m sharing this with you all today not because I want to debate why Paleo wasn’t right for her, but because I think that the experiences surrounding her piece and the negative feedback she’s gotten really deserve some attention. Some POSITIVE attention.

You see, some people took Winnie’s opinions to heart; in fact, many of them took it as a personal affront that the Paleo diet didn’t work for her. In the comments section of the original post and in other places where it’s been reposted since, people have been down right NASTY. So nasty, in fact, that I won’t repeat the comments here, for fear of spreading any more hate.

Most of the people making these comments don’t know Winnie, or the fact that she’s a Naturopathic Doctor, or that she’s a pretty fantastic person. What they do know is that she stirred the Paleo pot, so to speak, and that made them angry.

So, instead of stepping back and looking at the situation rationally, they attacked her, personally and professionally. In their haste to make their point in the name of all things sacred and Paleo, they forgot that she is a human being.

What people say over the internet can be extremely damaging and hurtful. Just because we are separated by space doesn’t mean that we are separate as human beings.

I’m hopeful that if we all sat down in the same room, the conversation would be open, inquisitive, and respectful. I’m hopeful that the things that people said to and about Winnie, they wouldn’t dream of saying to her face.

Let’s all try to remember that, in everything we say and do, someone is taking it in. For good or bad.

Let’s choose the good.

Be respectful. Be loving. Pass it on.