Because they're not actually inherently pretentious, and effectively serve your purposes in the right context?
I hope they're effective in this context! I think the concepts are similar, but I feel weird because I don't want to connote the same importance about salads that artists do about artistic things.
I have a strategy for getting myself to eat vegetables. I've been using it for about six months now, and it works well:
Side effect: people who see my plate think I'm a very healthy eater. But sometimes they ask my "why is your salad steaming?"
I also posted this on my blog