You are what you eat

In light of recent events, most prominently the horse meat scandal, people have been forced to think more about what they are eating. Are there many times a week that you can say you are eating a meal where you know exactly where all the ingredients came from, let alone know what they are? The truth is that hardly any of us can.

                Events such as finding out that your lasagne may or may not have horse meat in it, shocked the nation and caused a huge uproar for a short period of time, yet in 6 months I think it would be reasonable to guess that it will no longer be in the forefronts of people’s minds. A minority of people will have stopped buying supermarket meat and will be experiencing the benefits of buying directly from their butchers, but most people won’t.

 I believe that it is so important for people to understand there is some truth in the saying ‘you are what you eat’. It is common to see images of disadvantaged children drinking dirty water and the thought that always runs through my head is that they must be so desperate to drink something like that when they have no idea what could be in it. Most of the things which are in dirty drinking water harm them severely, but they have no other choice as they are so thirsty. So why do we eat so many foods where we have no idea what is in them? The majority of us are not desperate and in fact we are spoilt for choice when faced with choosing what to eat. So I think there is no excuse for our lazy attitude towards food. Of course money is a factor but it only narrows the choices available, it does not eliminate choice.   

As a culprit myself, there are many times that it does not even cross your mind to consider what else is in your food other than the core ingredients you recognise. But this is the mindset which needs changing. If you were buying a house for example I believe you would check what was inside every room and would check that it was all up to standard before buying it. So why when choosing what to put inside our bodies, something much more important and irreplaceable, do we take no care in checking what is inside our food?

I understand that it is extremely hard to know exactly to the last detail what is in your food when you are buying it in, but my view is that a little more consideration will go a long way. As I have said before I believe eating well is not only good for you biologically but it can enhance happiness and well being. I can say it is truly satisfying to know what you are eating is not full of lots of chemicals and additives. To the taste buds it may be a more subtle difference between it and the food you were eating before but when you have the knowledge on top to know you are eating something wholesome it will enhance the flavour and enjoyment dramatically.