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Food
We all need to eat food - food and water keep us alive. Many of are turning to food to satisfy more than just our hunger, we eat when we are bored, lonely, depressed or miserable. We’ve had a taste of the good stuff and we want more! Problem is, the good tasting stuff is the bad stuff (as usual): bad for our health and bad for our planet!
How did this happen? Well, our bodies are very good at storing fat in the good times to get us through the lean times. We love the taste of anything with fat and sugar in it. It is our body’s way of getting all the energy it needs. The problem is that lean times no longer exist. The clever people who mass-produce food know this and have unlocked the secret to our taste buds – they put fat and sugar in pretty much everything they manufacture. We are slowly eating ourselves to early deaths.
'Food glorious food, hot sausage and mustard, while we're in the mood, cold jelly and custard.' - Lionel Bart, Oliver
MYTH
Food is better for you when it is processed and comes in a colourful wrapper. Having more food than we need is our right: more is good, heaps is best.
FACT
Food is better for you when you know the ingredients
It may sound strange but eat what you recognise. Most processed food (stuff that comes in a wrapper, package or box) contains things that no one can pronounce let alone knows the origins of. Have you tried to read the ingredients lately? If you haven’t heard of it or can’t say it don’t buy it. Why are the makers trying to confuse us? Do they have something to hide? Fresh meats, fish, fruit and vegetables are definitely best. You know what you are eating.
Eating seasonally saves you and reduces pollution
We’ve become so accustomed to having the foods we want when we want them that we’re completely out of wack with what nature’s seasons. Strawberries in winter, pumpkins in summer: it’s all topsy-turvy. The problem is that to have all this food when we want it we often have to ship it long distances, costing us energy and emissions. Tune in to the seasons and stay local.
Having more food than we need is our right: more is good, heaps is best.
The obesity epidemic that has invaded most western countries is slowly killing us early. For the first time in human history our life expectancy is getting lower. The impact on our environment of all this overeating is huge. Of course they have already come up with a name for this - globesity (global obesity). It’s the link between obesity and climate change. We are literally eating ourselves out of good health and out of a planet. Check out the articles below to find out more.
ARTICLES
Kangatarians jump the divide
February 9th, 2010
There's a new semi-vegetarian wave emerging in Australia: people who exclude all meat except kangaroo on environmental, ecological and humanitarian grounds. They call themselves kangatarians and are slowly growing in numbers.
Tofu-Gate
February 22nd, 2010
Last week's headlines about vegetarians being bad for the planet turn out to be completely distorted. Anna Greer looks at how hard the media had to work to get it so deliberately wrong
Slow down!
October 20th, 2009
Slow Food is an international not-for-profit organisation founded in 1986 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions, people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
In-vitro meat: Would lab-burgers be better for us and the planet?
August 17th, 2009
A pioneering group of scientists are working to grow real animal protein in the laboratory, which they not only claim is better for animal welfare, but actually healthier, both for people and the planet. It may sound like science fiction, but this technology to create in-vitro meat could be changing global diets within ten years.
Food and climate change - eat your way green
July 7th, 2009
If you really want to go green, the most immediate thought many of us have is to buy a hybrid. Can’t afford it? There is a faster and cheaper option: shift to a low-carbon diet.
Food and Water
July 7th, 2009
International water experts have made some interesting discoveries about how much water goes into making produce and products that we know and love. They calculate this by accounting for the surface, ground, soil water and rainfall it takes to produce all that we consume.
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