you are what you eat

We generally have an unhealthy relationship with food. Many of us, especially children, eat very unhealthily; despite us being better informed about nutrition than ever before. I guess we can conclude that food has always been a core concern for humans. Over the centuries philosophers have studied our eating habits: when Hippocrates wrote: “You are what you eat”, he wasn’t far off the fundamental truth. Back in the old days one often had to fight for food, today it is really more a fight against food.

In a society where many live to eat rather than eat to live, it is easy to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. I have been a passionate follower of research that suggests that food be of prime importance to our general physical and mental well being. We will simply live longer if we live healthily and eat a more varied diet. But even though the subject is continually being researched in even greater depth, I am convinced that we still need more time to understand this “new” knowledge in order to be able to build it into our lives. We all know that bad habits are easy to pick up, but extremely difficult to shake off.

The food of the future
One thing that really made me think about food again, was when I recently organised an expert panel where the discussion topic was: “How big a part does ‘nature’ play in the food of the future?” This expert discussion panel was a preliminary research session for an international food giant that was developing a new product. The panel, made up of people from all over the world, had very strong opinions and feelings on being healthy. Everybody agreed that more education and resources are needed to make human beings realise just how important ‘natural’ food is. What do we really know about our bad habits and what can those habits do to us in twenty years? A research report proved that eating habits were especially pronounced in the working class who found that healthy food was too expensive for them to buy. The research also showed that a lot of nuclear families eat TV dinners and snacks such as crisps and french fries. White bread with added vitamins, are totally fattening and dangerous for our health. Crisps are one of the reasons why so many 3-5 years olds have holes in their teeth. Another study about different soft drinks that consist of water, sugar, additives and colourings showed that children became hyperactive, suffered from learning disabilities and became addicted to the products. These soft drinks are often pitched at and specially designed to appeal to children, who still haven’t developed their taste buds. Luckily, new market research report shows that the new trendy drink is water.

Fast-food Nation
Most of us know all too well the extremely appetising smell of take-away bags, glass or foil containers, bought easily on our way home from work when we have an empty stomach. I remember when the favourite dish in Denmark was oven bake ‘foil’ chicken with ‘boil-in-the-back’ rice and exotic mixed vegetables in a bag from the freezer to cook. Recently I heard that the oven baked ‘foil’ chicken has suffered a quiet death, but I am sure that it has already been replaced by something else you can cook just as rapidly.

If we take a look at some of the cultural macro trends today, they show that we want to have more time to ourselves. Women are going out to work and time for cooking has not been prioritised. Quick dinners have become an accepted part of our everyday lives. The fast-food culture has sprung up in Europe over the last twenty years. All over the world there are more than 60,000 fast-food outlets and every hour a new one opens.

Some claim that the fast-food culture is class-conscious, but I do not agree. Often children run the show - free toys with a meal are tempting, and the parents gladly part with the cash instead of having to struggle educate their children to eat healthier. A newspaper article ‘The bitter truth about fast-food’ in the UK newspaper The Guardian 7th April this year, described the dangerous, yet often very tasty, cocktail of additives which suck out the body and the brain’s energy. I am no angel myself but many years of experience have given me better knowledge about nutrition which I try to put into practice. My five year old son has very good eating habits, although school food with battered fish, french fries, pizza and packaged desserts doesn’t help.

The Slow food movement
In my case with a lot of travelling and a bad choice of fast healthy food it is often difficult to maintain a truly healthy lifestyle. I was a vegetarian in the beginning of the 1980’s and was a member of a vegetarian dining club that served delicious food. Unfortunately the club closed and I became a part of the ‘cheese sandwich vegetarian’ culture where I lived on cheese sandwiches and other easy options because it was too much trouble and too time consuming to cook a real vegetarian meal. Today I eat a lot of fish, chicken, vegetables and salad. When I eat freshly cooked food twice a day I feel better than ever.

Slowfood is a movement that started in Italy many years ago. It slowly finds its way and, in principal, Slowfood is about freshly cooked food produced locally. The core concept was originally socialist: healthy food for everyone, including the working class. Good food takes time to prepare, you use seasonal products, organic ingredients and never use additives. Today we know Slowfood best from our weekends where we have more time to reflect and feed our lifestyle.

It always makes me happy when I hear that families generally spend more and more time cooking and it gives us hope that the future will offer us a better and improved lifestyle. Cooking a nice and healthy meal needn’t cost a lot of money. It is all about taking your time to choose – this choice will certainly reflect on your health, when it really boils down to it, you are what you eat. Enjoy your meal.

Anne Lise Kjaer
July 1, 2001