The
leading trend of the modern society coincides with one of what people
came to know over the centuries as the seven deadly sins. Creeping at
the end of the chart in that matter, gluttony is far worse than it
seems,and it contains at least two of the other “sins”: greed and
lust. Eating is a part of our daily lives. Following the basic law of
physics that energy is never wasted, it is only transformed, we
transform the caloric energy in our food into energy our body can use
for it's daily routines. But along the way we stopped looking at food
as a tool, a means to achieve a purpose, and we transformed it into
purpose itself. As a saying goes,we no longer eat to live,but live to
eat. Of course, you can have a craving, a rare indulgence when it
comes to food, spending a bit more, and travelling far to a place
that can be considered a food heaven...a restaurant or place that
serves something you always wanted to try. And in the aspects of the
fact we only live once and who knows how long, I'd say go ahead. But
this is where my tolerance for the pursuit of food ends.
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If
we go to a shop today, you'll find maybe amazed that if you want
fresh, healthy, straight from nature food you'll have to pay the big
bucks. A kg of apples might be very well over the price of a full 3
course ready-meal. The reason behind this is that we pride ourselves
with the ability to modify food. We have plently of plants that can
be processed for sugar directly, same as we have sugars in milk,
fruits and the delicious honey. Yet the most common sweeteners we find
shoved in our mouths are engineered. High fructose corn syrup and
others like aspartame are leading the market by far. Helped by fake
claims and governments around the world backing this practice through
subsidies for corn crops, these junk products became too big to fail.
Meanwhile governments complain and pull alarms that the food we
produce as a planet is not sufficient to sustain the population. That
cannot be farther away from the truth. The truth is we only plants
corn, day in day out,we drain the soil since there is no crop
rotation and most important, we over-eat.
I
am not a fan of the “well,in other places of the world people are
starving so eat your vegetables” speech, mainly because me eating
my vegetables won't mean that people that were starving before
stopped doing so. But as a world that is supposed to have at least
some bright people around, I expect us to be more aware. I find it
unacceptable that in 2014 people still die of hunger. And this while
in other parts of the world, obesity, especially infant obesity is on
a rise at a steady pace. And that is not the only issue. To make you
see how bad our food has become, look at the ever-shrinking
expiration dates on packages. Look at all the food allergies and
intolerances the humanity is plagued with. Do you think centuries ago
people had peanut allergies or gluten intolerance? The reality is
that we bomb our bodies with crappy food everyday, some because we
don't care or want to know what we eat, and some because it's more
affordable to buy a fast-food deathburger than a tie of asparagus.
And it is because we keep our eyes closed, while food companies look
for an ever growing profit. Have you ever heard someone saying that a
company that stopped growing is a good one? I didn't. And so they
push and push, shovelling crap in our direction, always complaining
that they need more government help. I am not saying go on a
vegan/vegetarian/someothercrapdiet routine. I think adopting one of
those routes is as damaging as eating only junk food, and will
certainly not take care of the hidden food engineering (seedless
grapes anyone?).
I
cannot wait for the day when the food industry will get the same
treatment as tobacco did. I am a smoker but I'd still want to see big
bold letters on food packages warning you of all the crap that “food”
contains. Sounds like a fair measure, one that the food industry
lobbyists managed to choke by lining the politicians' pockets with
cash.
As
a departure note, if by some chance you haven't seen the documentary
“Food Inc.”, have a look at it. And remember, don't be a pawn of
gluttony. Eat smart and with measure; you'll see you'll feel better
and won't develop who knows what kind of old or new food related
disease.
Photo: gdefon.com
