Writing about food is difficult, even dangerous, because most people hold extremely strong views on every aspect: What's good food? Where should we get it? How to prepare it? How to serve it? How much should we eat? Who to share it with? How to save it? And on. And on.
It may not be as inflammatory a topic as religion or politics - I think that it's a little easier to find some consensus - but the fact that it affects and is affected by just about every facet of human civilization makes it hard to even take on the topic. Especially when some many have done it so well (or at least entertainingly) for so long.
So let me start with a question: why does food that we know is bad for us - or at least bad unless eaten in fairly tiny amounts - taste so good? Wouldn't evolution have helped us develop cravings for healthy foods by now, and aversions to fat, salt, and sugar akin to our revulsion towards bitter or foul substances?
But I do realize that in evolutionary terms, we haven't had nearly enough time to deal with the results of our ability to cultivate, store, transport, and even outright manufacture food.
More's the pity.
So plainly, some other adaptive mechanism needs to be developed. But even this is beyond our ability, because even with all of the research and discussion on diet and nutrition that's taken place in the past decades, there's less agreement and more contention on these topics than on any supposedly objective discipline besides economics.
Yet even in regards to money, there are fundamentals that I don't think will lead to fistfights: Save at least a little as you go along. Spend at least a little less, especially on shit you don't need. That sort of thing.
In food terms, that might translate to: Prepare more meals from scratch, when you can. Use fresh ingredients, when you can. Eat a little less (and walk around a little more). And share your food, whenever you can. Let's start there, eh?
It may not be as inflammatory a topic as religion or politics - I think that it's a little easier to find some consensus - but the fact that it affects and is affected by just about every facet of human civilization makes it hard to even take on the topic. Especially when some many have done it so well (or at least entertainingly) for so long.
So let me start with a question: why does food that we know is bad for us - or at least bad unless eaten in fairly tiny amounts - taste so good? Wouldn't evolution have helped us develop cravings for healthy foods by now, and aversions to fat, salt, and sugar akin to our revulsion towards bitter or foul substances?
But I do realize that in evolutionary terms, we haven't had nearly enough time to deal with the results of our ability to cultivate, store, transport, and even outright manufacture food.
More's the pity.
Yet even in regards to money, there are fundamentals that I don't think will lead to fistfights: Save at least a little as you go along. Spend at least a little less, especially on shit you don't need. That sort of thing.
In food terms, that might translate to: Prepare more meals from scratch, when you can. Use fresh ingredients, when you can. Eat a little less (and walk around a little more). And share your food, whenever you can. Let's start there, eh?
1 comment:
And don't eat buy/eat any foods your grandmother wouldn't have recognized.
Terry McKenna
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