A Common Wo(Man)’s Guide to FOOD

We tricked you!

It doesn’t exist. We could pander and tell you to eat more fruits and veggies, but you already know that. We could (and selfishly should) bombard you with food porn so that you make us into a social media darling. But let’s face it, you don’t really care about what’s in your food as long as it looks good and tastes good. You will, with great braggadocio, beat your chest and declare with clarion call that you can eat what you want because you’ll burn it off.

Wait a minute you’re thinking right now. What impertinence is this? Of course there is a food guide for the common wo(man). Is there ? There are of course the RDA’s and ideal macro-nutrient proportion ranges, as well as, a large amount of information on the health benefits of individual nutrients. There is a push towards filling 50% of your plate with fruits and veggies but at the same time this regulatory body considers ketchup to be a vegetable or fruit … We’re not sure. We always forget that one. So much information … so little time.

Let’s get real. If there was a guide to food, you wouldn’t put boxes in microwaves and zap some poor reconstituted chemical into believing it was food. Nor would you be choosing between cheese pizza or macaroni and cheese every time you go to a restaurant with your kids. In fact, we bet you pay more attention to the quality of gasoline that goes into your car than the quality of food that goes into your mouth.

Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t blaming you entirely for being apathetic. There is after all a delicate balance of information required to make the perfect choice at the pump. You consider the anti knocking effect and …  errr sorry what was that? There are usually three common octane levels? Oh that makes sense. And they have prices associated with octane levels ? Oh, so that makes choosing easier. Yeah that does make sense. All right, all right … sarcasm aside, consider how you make food choices. What information do you use to make the food choices you make?

Ah ha! You’re triumphantly thinking now. There is a common guide. Calorie counting has come to save the day.

We differ.

Calorie counting is not a good guide to food. The human body doesn’t metabolize food by counting calories. And for all of you wannabe calorie burners, think of the GIGO analogy. If you put rubbish fuel into your body, you’re only hastening the demise, through oxidative stress, of the cellular machinery that is your body.

So what it the point of this post (apart from selfishly promoting ourselves because we have a solution to your problem)?

The point is that we want you to re-think and re-imagine what food is.

Food is nourishment, it supplies the fuel you need to energize your day, but also to repair your body. Food is the elixir filled with the nutrients you need to prevent ill health from creeping in, and ruining your quality of life. More importantly food is something that spans geography, socio-economic strata and is literally, the source of life for everyone (and for many, income too).

Let’s start a conversation around the quality of food you want to eat. Which health benefits do you want your food to imbibe? How do you imagine what food should be?

So tell us again why don’t you care about the quality of food you eat ?