Don't Let Anyone Change Who You Are - By Telling You What to Eat! (rant)

Today I was leafing through the local adverts from a supermarket - it's getting close to Christmas and I would expect it to be full of items people might think they need for these holiday dinners...such as the veg, some kind of meat, flour and fixings for desserts and so forth.

However I was quite surprised at how far away the marketing has come from reality and perhaps how far away I am now from the rubbish they are expecting people to buy and eat (and I have an Honours degree in Food Marketing, so I studied this stuff). The thing that got me going was that there was not one single raw ingredient advertised in over 10 pages of pictures and prices.

Each and every single item was of something prepared, either cooked or ready to put in the oven and cook. So, it seems you are expected to purchase your 'holiday' meals ready to pop in the oven (or microwave?) and just press a button.

Then presto - it's like some sort of magic - you have a ready made already assembled Christmas dinner - all you have to do is fork this into your mouth.

This is not the kind of magic I am interested in at all. Who wants someone else's energy (hung over employee unhappy with wages, co-workers, self and life) spread all over their food? It's more then enough to deal with our own stuff, but at least that's familiar to us!

Oh, but my rant continues! You are not only expected to buy and eat this prepared food (it's cheap), the ingredients are already selected for you. You can have carrots, potatoes, parsnips or 2 other vegetables combinations. With tiny bits of parsley as a garnish.

What happened to the other 90 vegetables in the kingdom? Where are the real herbs? Does everything have to be slathered in butter? Not to mention cooked and then packed in plastic trays (were they cooked in plastic too?).

Probably tastes like garbage bags....

I mean why would they even bother with the plastic trays of 'food' - why not condense it down further and just put each dinner into pill form and we can all pop those. So convenient - we wouldn't even have to taste anything...

Indeed, it seems as if they are busy creating their own reality...with the consumer in mind.

Do yourself a favour this year - find some different vegetables at a Farmers market (organic if you can) look for celeriac, purple carrots, rare varieties of apples, heaps of fresh herbs - and then look up recipes online or make up your own.

Have some fun with your food - but whatever you do, handle and prepare it yourself. Don't let anyone dictate to you what your meals should consist of by cooking them for you....don't let anyone change who you are.

April

Now, we need to get our green branches and it will take shape... table centre piece 

I Deserve Better Food

Well today was just a catching up day for me - I did not really cook anything much because I spent part of my day walking around Fota Wildlife Park with the children. It was a lovely day and the place was really pleasant and busy.

However, being ever vigilant and by now used to reading all the adverts I was quite surprised by the pushiness of it all... I mean outside the toilets there were strategically placed ads for ice cream. Just in case you missed them on the way past the little shop or the restaurant. 

Oh well. It all seems to be a bit too much in your face at times - these fast food, junk and sweet makers are a lot like drug pushers. I remember walking in big cities such as Toronto or Rome many years ago and passing someone who would mention under their breath the name of some drug they were selling...

An advert placed outside a toilet is a bit like that memory for me. The sign sort of yells 'Hey buddy, want to eat some sugary high fat chemically processed junk before your dinner?' And of course it is aimed at the little ones.

So, back to my day - I thought it was time I had a re-evaluation day because I think I have reached yet another milestone here. Without even realizing it I am no longer even carefully considering what to make, how to make it or dragging my feet in any way - I am just jumping in and making something on the run so to speak.

Yesterday we wanted to go to the cinema (this is still a big deal here as we only go about 3 or 4 times in a year) and needed something to bring in the car for a treat. With only an hour to get everyone ready and out the door - I dropped everything and whipped up a batch of flapjacks.

Then today, I did it again - someone said treat and I jumped into action and within a few minutes I had a pan of cashew cookie bars chilling in the fridge. It is that easy! And I was very pleased to find I had crossed over yet another form of reluctance.

You must know what I am talking about, the sense that you want to make something, but have a hard time either getting started or you end up giving in to the thinking it is too much trouble. Then time will go by and the task never gets done. 

It must be a form of procrastination tinged with self sabotage. 

When I came home this afternoon we wanted bean burgers and onion rings - both of which are easily enough made. The catch was, these taste loads better with mayonnaise - so I did it once again. In no time flat I had a bowl of fresh mayo on the table - and it was the nicest one I have made so far.

If I was to bring these two experiences together at the end of the day I would say to the junk food pushers - I am way ahead of you, I can do far better. And you know what? I deserve better too.

April

Black Swan at Fota in Cobh Cork 

The Scary Part of Halloween, the Sweets

I remember a few years ago when I was completing a diploma course in Nutrition, one of the many things we learned during those years was some of the specifics about Halloween candy. Yes, apparently there are brands of sweets that you might only see around this time of year and they are nasty...

Actually I think I can remember some of them... not that there were many sweets in the house where I grew up. However, at Halloween it was expected, right? I mean children come around to your door and you provide them with the material to degrade their gut bacteria, rot their teeth and otherwise cause harmful effects on their health. 

It's a great time of year all around. 

Of course, if we really stop and think about it - no one wants to be party to any of these negatives listed above. We would all like to think that we know better, so we can do better. But how many of us really do - or do we still choose to take the 'easy' way out?

And for the life of me, I am not certain why caving in to the marketing campaign, then handing out sweets to unsuspecting little children is an easy way out... who wins in the end? Parents putting hyper strung out sugar drunk children to bed or the children themselves with sore tummies and worse?

The interesting thing is it doesn't have to be this way. We all know by now you can have your cake (sugar free) and eat it too....What better message to send to children then to be, act, live and do - in as responsible manner as possible. 

Perhaps here is as good a time as any to remind you of some basic energy laws - it's never about them, it's always about us. So, if we feel the need to cave in and fill up our families with sugar or any manner of rubbish - what need in us are we filling? 

And who is really in charge here, of you and the foods you choose to eat? 

April 

Pumpkin vines in the garden...

Creating Regular Customers

I have been wanting to address this issue - because it is something that we as a family have noticed quite strongly since we stopped eating processed foods - and I am fairly certain this must be related because they would go hand in hand with each other.

What I am talking about is the phenomena of overeating, or you know how what happens when you buy a bag of salted nuts - you would find yourself eating the entire bag. Or crisps, chocolate bars, sugary treats, you name it - we might be able to lump these all together. 

For us as a family the only snacky food left in our diets which needed to be removed and replaced with a homemade version was the salted nuts. We have long since given up sugar, chocolate and potato crisps. 

When a bag (or a few) of salted nuts would come into the house, it was as if something else took over our brains. We could not help ourselves and could never get enough of these nuts. They tasted great, and were highly addictive!

Once they were left to the wayside with all of the other processed factory made foods, I started to make my own. And the response is entirely different. The roasted salted nuts I make are delicious, very tasty and we love them.

I can honestly say I like them far better then the shop bought nuts because they taste like 'nuts'. However, the one thing we all have noticed is how we are not 'craving' them, we are not desperate to shovel another handful into our mouths...yet they don't last long and everyone enjoys them.

So what is the difference here? Could these processed foods be linking into some addiction centre inside of our brains or bodies (gut?) and placing us on the losing end of a food battle?

This will take some investigation, but at this point I certainly think a couple of things here - one is that there must be other ingredients in the package which are not listed (5% rule) and secondly we are being controlled by other factors. Especially when it comes to our tastes, cravings and diets.

The 5% rule means something along the lines of when a product contains less then 5% of an ingredient at it's final stage, it may not have to be listed on the ingredients. This might mean anything such as MSG...but who really knows anymore!

As for the other factors controlling our tastes and cravings - well this is widely known to be all the non-beneficial organisms living in our guts such as molds, yeasts and nasty bacteria. If there are enough of them in the wrong areas, we can have some gut mutiny taking place. 

Lots to think about here when it comes to processed foods. I mean they are designed to be delicious and consumed in an addictive way - it's called creating 'regular customers'. 

Take matters into your own hands and make something homemade today - something you've never tried before - treat yourself, you are worth it!

April

Path to the top at Lough Hyne West Cork