I am many things. Some of the things people have told me I am are unrepeatable. One thing I am not is a clairvoyant, but I’m going to take a stab here at predicting the future.
No doubt you’ll have seen one of those science fiction films or TV programs where the people of the future get handed a little tablet by a machine, and the little tablet is a meal containing all the nutrients the person needs to sustain themselves for the next day? Well here’s my prediction – it’ll never happen. Why?
Food is important. That may seem like an obvious point to make, but it is so true I’ll say it again. Food is important. There’s the massively important role it plays in providing us with fuel, energy, nutrition and all we need to survive, but there’s also the role it plays in society. When we celebrate a family event we often go out for a meal, sharing food together features in probably all the religions of the world, when we find that special someone we cook for them, just about every momentous occurrence gets marked with special food. That’s too important to lose to ‘scientific progress’.
Food is one of those topics that everyone has an opinion on, because everyone eats. Or if they don’t eat they’ll have opinions on why not. So this is what I think. I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, I don’t try to eat particularly healthily and I’m not a big fan of vegetables. Some of what I say will contradict advice from those more in the know than I am, but this is what I think.
I can guarantee that some of what I say will contradict advice from health professionals because they are constantly contradicting each other, One week we’re told a particular food or food group is very healthy and will prolong our lives, the next we’re told the same foods will lead to health problems and an early grave and we’re told not to eat too much of it. It’s difficult enough – if not impossible - to stick completely to dietary guidelines offered by the medical profession, but factor all the different diet plans and it becomes a real minefield of disagreement and dissention.
The saying ‘You are what you eat’ is true, what we eat has an effect. Chefs know this - the way animals are reared affects the taste and quality of the meat. Next time you’re in the supermarket look at the colour of bog-standard factory-farmed chicken and compare it to a free-range corn-fed variety. They could almost be different birds. Production of Kobe beef, salt marsh lamb, fois gras, veal, wild mushrooms and free range diary products all depend on the food that goes into producing a particular quality in the end product that we in turn consume. In turn we have to consider that whatever we eat will have an effect on our bodies. At it’s simplest, if we eat too much we put on weight, if we eat too little we lose it. But there’s more than that. If we don’t eat a balanced diet we will become deficient in certain vitamins or minerals and health problems will occur. Scurvy, rickets and beriberi are diseases all caused by vitamin deficiencies which were fairly common before we figured out how vitamins worked and could provide nutritional advice on how to avoid them. But even now people suffer ill-health due to their diets. Processed foods contain too high levels of salts, sugars, trans-fatty acids, preservatives, colourings and other additives that damage us and we’re advised to eat them in moderation. We’re given guidelines about how much fruit, veg, meat, alcohol and so forth we should consume. We’re presented with target weights we should aim to be and we’re frowned upon if we stray from the letter of the law laid down before us. 5 –a-day of this, 2 units of that, Omega 3, high fibre, low cholesterol, pre-biotics, pro-biotics, superfoods, anti-oxidants, polyunsaturates, phytonutrients…What do I need to do round here to get a doughnut and a cup of coffee?
Here’s the thing. I enjoy food and I enjoy eating food I like. I don’t eat a bad diet – we don’t buy process ready meals or ready-made sauces in our house because we simply don’t like them and making meals from scratch is easy enough and much tastier – and as far as I know I am fit and healthy (I have asthma, but that’s nothing to do with diet). If I were to attempt to stick to the regimes set by nutritionists and government bodies food would become a chore. The pleasure of eating would diminish under a pile of paperwork as I try to work out how many grams of salt I’ve consumed today and how many more pretzels I can eat without raising my blood pressure. The social aspect of food would be crippled under everyone’s demands concerning what they could and couldn’t eat that day. We would be healthier, but I doubt we’d be happier. In fact I’m not sure we would be healthier. We’d all be suffering from heightened levels of stress caused by having to stick rigidly to a regime that forces us to eat lots of things we don’t necessarily enjoy.
That’s all alright in theory. I’m lucky, I don’t have any food allergies and I have a metabolism and lifestyle that – as far as I’m aware - can cope with the amount I eat, so I’m not noticeably overweight or underweight. But what about those who do need to take a notebook & pencil to the restaurant when they go out? For many, food is a major problem. I have a few friends who have food allergies – nut allergies, diabetes etc. – and it seems such hard work constantly checking what you eat and avoiding potentially life threatening foods. But not only do we have to consider these problems, but there’s a whole set of difficulties caused by eating disorders. I don’t want to get into these because of the seriousness of the conditions and my lack of knowledge, but not to mention them seems to not complete the picture.
It seems somehow odd that something so absolutely fundamental to our lives would be so fraught with difficulties, and yet food still remains for the majority a source of pleasure beyond simply re-fuelling. Like most things in life there’s a balance to be struck. We need food to be healthy and we need food for pleasure, the two don’t necessarily sit side by side. It’s up to each of us individually to strike a balance between the two where we’re happiest. If we can’t find that place we need to start trying to ask ourselves why or else hope scientists prove my lack of clairvoyant ability.
Posts
