It’s fast but is it food?

As we manage to fit more into our busy lives we realise something has to give. That’s where clever marketers provide us with convenience food options. Convenient because we don’t have to spend time creating a dish from scratch to nourish ourselves. All it takes is a quick dash into the supermarket then an unpack and into the microwave for a few minutes and it’s all done and dusted. A high salt, high fat meal, ready in minutes. Health authorities announced this week that we are eating far too much salt in our diets. Most of us have 7 times the recommended daily allowance. This spells dynamite for heart problems. Much of this salt is from convenience or instant foods. Salt is a great flavour additive and in some cases preserver.

However, I digress. The thing I am thinking about is the ‘realness’ in food. Is the convenient package of food real food? Check the label on your package and find out what proportion of it has been grown by a farmer. You may be surprised to find that it’s actually very little.

Researcher and food writer Michael Pollan author of ‘In defense of food’ discovered that the more numbers on the pack meant fewer real ingredients. Food has been replaced by a concoction of nutrients. Take a moment to think about what you are eating. Is it real or is it a food scientists’ fantasy? If we are what we eat, then what are we becoming?

Growing some of your own and purchasing fresh foods that you have to make from scratch do in fact provide you with many more fresh natural nutrients and a much lower salt level in many cases. Plus, no numbers!

How about some trends and options? There’s a growing trend in Australia for people to grow some of their own herbs, vegies or fruit. This trend is led by the 50yr + demographic. Forty-two percent of people growing food plants do so for healthy food options and forty-six percent of those grow herbs.

Do you need a garden to grow some real food options? A pot on your balcony will grow Asian vegetables in winter, a box of mushrooms will produce under your laundry trough. A tub of parsley, oregano and basil will create an instant living food addition to any meal, from sandwiches to salads and pastas. These are some ‘real’ foods that contribute to health and vitality. They help keep our brains functioning well and our bowels squeaky clean. Why opt for an instant packaged meal when you can grow and eat a real, living food?

To read more about Michael Pollan’s work on the food issue you can also check out his interesting and eye-opening books ‘Second Nature - A gardeners Education’, about his own gardening adventures; and ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’. The latter is a close look at the food industry and how we are moulded by marketers. Rather than being a sensationalist book, it is quietly reasonable yet enough to make you change your mind on everything from eating organic beef to consumption of a humble lettuce mix from the supermarket.