The Fairy Tale of Food
| Editorial |
By Suzanne Whittingham
We are coming to the end of Nutrition Month, yet I hope this subject that is so crucial to our health and well-being never leaves our awareness. There is a call arising to educate ourselves on the most salient aspects of daily nutrition. I know we are bombarded constantly with so many differing viewpoints on the subject. The key here is to step back and observe and take notes, then to simplify that information into something that works for you. All you need ask yourself is this important question: “Is this food that I am eating and/or feeding my family supporting good health?”
I am impressed with the legion of people who are championing this cause of improving nutrition, and hence health, in people's lives. Recently, Jamie Oliver appeared on Oprah to discuss his work that is attempting to tackle the obesity epidemic in America by changing the way people eat. The show was very powerful in many of its demonstrations of the devastating impact to health and longevity in not only adults but the next generation of young people. He aptly portrayed how it is, indeed, a matter of life and death that can no longer be ignored. For me, the most shocking image was that of the giant-sized coffins that were being built to accommodate the 600 – 700 pound corpses. Jamie Oliver explained in great detail how undignified it was to have a send-off under these circumstances. These coffins cannot be transported in hearses. They must be lifted with forklifts, and carried in large trucks. They also must be buried in a double-sized grave. His tactics appear to be working, for people in the communities that he is working in are beginning to make the necessary change to implement healthier food choices on a daily basis.
Jamie Oliver's approach to healthy eating is not new. He simply states the obvious about eating fresh unadulterated food and demonstrates how simple and economical it is to do so. Gradually the brainwashing that has occurred in convincing many people that fast food is indeed fast and will sustain health is breaking down. I remember my oldest brother, who is a very good cook, saying how dismayed he was with fast foods such as powdered eggs for making scrambled eggs. He said that to break open an egg and add some milk and salt and pepper in a bowl and pour into a pan to scramble took no more time than the powdered substitute. He also told me the story of one of his parishioners whom he had visited in hospital. The young man was admitted suffering from severe malnutrition from eating only fast food for a couple of months. There had not been enough nutrition in his convenient diet to sustain his life.
Perhaps we just need a clearer definition of what nourishment is. Nourishment should not simply be about not starving from malnutrition. I believe we understand the co-relation between starvation and death and malnutrition and disease. The shades of understanding become muddied and gray in controversies such as organic vs. pesticides, local vs. imported from afar, vegetarianism vs. carnivorous diets, high fat vs. low fat, free-range meat vs. factory farmed. Perhaps what is crucial for each and every community is to recognize that we can ill afford a system who's failure to provide food could lead to our untimely demise. Case in point is the current drought in California. The world is feeling the effects of lack of foresight with its dependance upon California for the production of vegetables and fruit. This crisis is here now and is not a far and future possibility.
Personally I ascribe to the 3-C litmus test. Am I taking in- clean air, clean water and clean food? If we are not taking in clean air, water and food, then we are vulnerable to what can only be ascribed as slow and insidious poisoning. That is the problem. Because this falls within the category of slow and insidious and not obvious in terms of cause and effect, it is off of our radar. That people die slowly from these insidious effects does not eliminate this sickening reality. It is a reality that is so pervasive and far-reaching that we believe throwing money at these problems will perform a miraculous turn-around.
There is a saying that “you can't eat your money or your gold.” It would seem to be a given in terms of logical understanding, but for a very long time, this truth has been buried in the realms of folklore. Instead, we have fallen for the fairy tale that has us convinced that if we make mountains of money, all will be ours at our beck and call. As one very wise naturalist friend once said to me, “You can have a million dollars in the bank, but if you are only able to grow a total of $1,000 worth of carrots, your million dollars is only worth that amount.” We have created an artificial economy that relates to nothing more than imaginary carrots that are going to be grown. It is a house of cards that is falling very quickly and we are all scrambling to make sense of it, for our very survival depends upon how we react.
Gladly, there is a movement in Williams Lake towards creating sustainable local food production through partnerships such as the upcoming Food Grower's Cooperative that opens on April 11th, 2010. I would call every person to act in some way towards involvement that will improve our local agricultural economy in the Cariboo Region. The image of growing as much of our food as possible and being able to feed and nourish the community in this way is burned into my psyche. If our community can sustain itself, then we will no longer fall prey to being at the mercy of outside forces for our very survival.
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