WHY ARE ALL THE YUMMY FOODS BAD FOR YOU?

We all get to choose what we put in our mouths, right? We all ‘know’ that the plate of veges is a better option than the battered scallops and chips, but we also know that ‘bad’ food tastes soooo good! Why why WHY can’t we meet our health needs with juicy burgers, crumbed and deep-fried everything and a nice slice of sugary goodness? It really does seem unfair on a universal scale.

Your body and your brain are to blame (traitors!). For starters, your body is subject to something known in research as the ‘Caveman’s Curse’, -our bodies and brains are wired to store fat and gorge on available nutrients. Even the tip of your tongue is in cohoots, loaded with receptors for ‘sweet’ foods. This would have served us well in the savannah, but less so in suburbia. Your body doesn’t realize it’s 2017. It wants to store fat ‘just in case’. Your brain’s circuitry sparks like a Katherine wheel when given sugar, but then adapts and requires more sugar for the same dopamine rush.

Our poor food choices are very rarely due to a lack of knowledge, and ‘hunger’ and ‘appetite’ are related, but very different. Appetite trumps hunger every time. Your ‘need’ for a brownie after dinner has nothing to do with hunger, and everything to do with appetite. We form our appetite associations around food from a very young age. That sponge cake at Grandma’s was less about the cake, and more about how safe and loved you felt (+ dopamine drug rush), hot chips in paper may take you back to carefree childhood beach holidays. Your brain is a mess of quivering excitement before your taste buds even get a look-in. 

These brain patterns regarding foods are deeply entrenched and extremely hard, even upsetting to modify. Going on a ‘diet’ can involve a genuine grief in many people, going against the tides of your childhood and messing with soporific memories. There’s a reason they’re called “comfort foods”…

Being aware of your complex relationship with food can go a long way to helping you enjoy “comfort foods” on fewer occasions, while your knowledge of nutrition will help you to better food choices on a regular basis. Stress, exhaustion, and heightened emotional states will make the choice harder, and your inner caveman will likely come to the rescue. Honestly, just being aware of your emotional food triggers is a great place to start, as is stocking your ‘cave’ with fewer comforting options, -if it isn’t available quickly, at the whim of your appetite, it doesn’t get eaten. Having said all that, my inner 3-year-old is still screeching “It’s not faaaaiir!!!”. No, it’s not J

AN APPLE A DAY…

What could be humbler and simpler than the apple? The sweetness and juicy crunch of a fresh Gala, the silky spiced smush of a Granny Smith in shortcrust pastry, the jaw-breaking delight of the childhood toffee apple, not to mention the beauty and sensual nature of an apple tree loaded with scarlet orbs in the early mists of autumn.

The apple as we know it originated in the Tien Shan mountains of Kazakhstan and was ‘discovered’ there by Alexander the Great in 328 BC. Throughout human history apples have had nutritional, religious and mythological significance in every culture that utilised them. Apples began the Trojan war, were lauded by the great poets, and everyone from Caravaggio to Magritte painted them. Heracles picked golden apples from the Tree of Life, and we all know what happened to Eve…If you bury treasure under an apple tree it will never be found, and bobbing for apples at Halloween puts you in touch with the fairy kingdom. Cutting an apple sagitally reveals the 5 pointed star that alchemists used to represent the conjunction of heaven and earth. Did you know that the laryngeal protrusion in the make throat is called the ‘Adam’s apple’ because of a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit remaining in the throat of Adam? Or that wages were often paid in Cider until as late as 1917?

In the scientific world, apples more than live up to their ‘magical’ historical hype. Their polyphenol content stops blood sugar spikes and decreases glucose absorption, their soluble fibre (pectin) lowers blood fats and alters intestinal metabolism by impacting bad bacteria, their regular consumption lowers the risk of asthma, lung cancer, macular degeneration and alzheimer’s. and lowers total and LDL cholesterol levels.

Why do we need to know all this? We need to change the way we think about food. The cure for unconsciousness is consciousness. In order to adjust our mindless consumption of the ‘permanent global summertime’ perpetuated by the food industry, and to fight the predictable blandness of reduced variety, we should strive to learn more about what we’re eating; where it comes from, how it’s grown, and its role in the story of humanity. All over the world people still celebrate harvest and maintain a ‘reverence’ for food; a visceral understanding of our absolute reliance on the earth and its fruits. Next time you bite into an apple, I hope you experience it a little differently. In a very real sense, you’re consuming history J

“GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD…”

Eating and food choice has become a secular religion, with all the benefits and downfalls that go with it. If you utilize social media, you’d be hard pressed to go a single day without one of your friends or acquaintances posting an attractively designed meme relating to food. People, having been ‘illuminated’ into a particular ‘food-religion’ feel compelled to proselytize, to help others that have not yet been enlightened.

So why are we turning food into our new Church?

Limitless choice and apparently conflicting ‘evidence’ is an ever shifting sea with no horizon, it is unsettling. Religion helps people make sense of a chaotic world: Suddenly, there is order and there are instructions. All you have to do is follow them. No wonder media nutritionists are routinely described as “gurus”, a word meant to denote a spiritual leader.

It’s understandable, inevitable even, that amidst this sea of shifting dietary recommendations, people will pick a pre-defined way of eating and stick to their guns, -it gives them the feeling of ‘solid ground’. Interestingly, there seems to be no need for the aforementioned dietary ‘religion’ to have a positive message. Why would you follow a dietary message from someone telling you that the world is full of evil toxins, chem-trails and ‘deathly’ industrial additives? But then, why would you want to believe in a world where humans (even newborns) are inherently sinful and must be ‘saved’? It sounds like an upsetting notion, but it’s not: It’s comforting. The only thing scarier than a world full of toxins is a world in which you don’t know what the toxins are. Clear-cut certainty is far more attractive and comforting than a world of shifting understanding, nuance and complication.

The “Past as Paradise” paradigm is another idea that seems almost woven into our DNA. We ate the “wrong” or “forbidden” food in paradise and subsequently fell from Grace. The notion that everything ‘past’ (and therefore ‘purer’) is best can be seen in the fear and anger displayed at the marriage of technology and food (‘Organic’, ‘Non-GMO’): Anger that comes from primarily from fear, and fear is usually associated with a lack of understanding.

Aligning yourself with a particular ‘food religion’ also confers a sense of belonging, -a community of people just like you, and we humans have an innate need to feel that we belong. The trick is not allow this investment in personal identity get in the way of critically processing information.

It has been said by many that sugar is addictive. Health information, it seems is also addictive. The only ‘detox’ I would ever recommend is this: Try a week without reading the blogs, clicking on the headlines, and absorbing the memes. Instead, focus on preparing meals that you enjoy, and that provide your body with the nutrients it needs. You don’t need to be in fear of food.

VIBRANT WINTER HEALTH…it’s easier than you think!

Ah winter! As temperatures plummet it’s tempting to indulge your inner bear, - crawl into your cave, stock up some fat layers and sleep. In order to avoid meeting spring as grumpy and out-of-condition as the proverbial though, here are some human winter-survival essentials:

Get outside every day

Winter sunshine doesn’t just feel great, it tunes up your brain. When the brain detects natural light, melatonin is inhibited, making you more energetic during the day, and enabling a better night’s sleep, -re-setting the body’s natural circadian rhythms. Fresh air and mild exercise will also boost endorphins (the body’s natural pain-killers) and serotonin (feel-good neurotransmitters). Even 10 minutes will substantially boost your mood! All that sun and exercise will also allow your body to produce more Vitamin D, which helps your body absorb calcium, and reduces your likelihood of developing the dreaded flu.

Don’t Hibernate

Being socially isolated puts you at far greater risk for depression. Recent research suggests that loneliness can be as great a health risk as smoking and obesity. We humans have an intrinsic need to connect with others. Rather than stay home tonight because it’s freezing cold, pop around to a friend’s for a cuppa, or head into town and hear some live music, or accept that social invitation. As my Grandma said: ‘No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up’.

Fit your diet to the season

Don’t feel like salad? It’s OK. Food is far more than a plate of nutrients, and winter may not be the best time to start a raw food/juice regime. Comfort food needn’t be unhealthy, and eating seasonally encourages us to tune into Nature’s cycles and those of our own body. Winter is the realm of the nutty, earthy root vegetable. Love potatoes? –eat them! Roast them, mash them, bake them!. Who could say no to maple and walnut roasted pumpkin? Fill up on stews, casseroles and hearty soups. Think back to ‘root cellar’ days. Dried beans and legumes in the pot for protein and fiber, sweet potato, parsnip, turnip, potato, pumpkin and carrot for vitamins, a ham bone or beef shin for minerals and flavour, winter herbs for that extra zest. Thicken things up with starches like rice, barley, buckwheat and oats. Serve sautéed silverbeet or brussels sprouts with garlic and a knob of butter as a side. Try your hand at making crusty sourdough to mop up the flavourful gravy.

 Real people need real food, avoid the processed stuff. And don’t forget that how we eat is as important as what we eat. Eat with family or friends at a dining table, rather than in front of the TV. Light a candle and put on a nice tablecloth, enjoy flavours and textures and good company!

Catherine Lockley is an associate member of the NAA & a student of Food & Nutrition at Charles Sturt University.