The food we eat

The food we eat

Have you ever given thought to what you eat and drink?  If not, maybe you should.

At every stage in our life what we consume has an effect on our body.  During childhood we need food to give us stamina and help us grow.  As a teenager we just need food.  Teenagers are always hungry.  But the most important one, is when we get past the age of 50 or 60. 

As we get older, we need more protein, and calcium.  The protein keeps the strength in our muscles and the calcium, helps our bones.  Yes, we do need to exercise, and that also helps, but if we eat poorly, the body can waste away.

When I was a child, during World War II, there was rationing in the United Kingdom.  What food was available was all we could eat.  I think my mother tried to learn many new recipes with what could be purchased at the grocer and green grocery stores. 

One never said NO to anything on one’s plate, because there was nothing else to eat.  If you were hungry you ate up what was in front of you.  A lot of bread was eaten, and it wasn’t always with butter, that was scarce as well.  This was probably good for me as a child; I ate everything and gained a taste for most foods.

I look around me now when I go past cafes and am amazed at the kind of food on the plates or wrapped in paper or cardboard.  Now I am not saying what people are eating is bad, what I am saying; it is a lot different to what I ate as a child.

A lot of this is due to fruit and vegetables, that were once only available during certain seasons of the year, are now brought in from other countries all year round.  This means I can purchase an avocado from Mexico when the avocadoes are unavailable from the Northern Territory in Australia.  So, seeing a person have toast with smashed avocado for breakfast at a local café with their coffee, is quite normal.

It’s the mix of foods we consume that keep us healthy.  Lots of fried food, or ones with too much salt or sugar, in the long run has a bad impact on us.  Sugar particularly has been added to most prepared foods.  The substance is corn syrup and is added to breads, cereals and even coatings for fried foods. 

The only problem with sugar is it gives you an energy hit just after it has been digested, but then quickly leaves your body feeling flat. 

I think I have mentioned this before.  There is a saying, and I cannot find the source, but it states: ‘Life is to be enjoyed but not to be over indulged’.  What does the statement tell us?  There is nothing wrong with doing things you enjoy, but to overdo that enjoyment isn’t necessary.  And that could be said with eating and drinking.

When I say drinking, I am not only referring to alcohol.  Too much alcohol not only can have a bad effect on you, but over the years as you age, you will not be able to drink like the youngsters do, and it will have a really bad effect on one’s liver.  But there can also be bad effects from drinking too much water. 

I believe we are advised we should drink 2 to 3 litres of water per day.  When it is very hot, maybe more.  But there has been a case where a well know British Actor drank 8 litres of water one day during a heat wave and was rushed to hospital with water intoxication.  He was in a coma for a few days.

This cautionary tales proves that everything should be done in moderation.  Enjoy eating what you like, but maybe not every day of the week.  I set myself a weekly calendar of different meals per day.  I purchase the food required for those recipes during my weekly shopping.  I am proud to say, my daughter has followed in my footsteps and does exactly the same thing. 

The benefit of this is one, it helps with the food shopping.  It also helps with nutrition as each day the meal is built around a different product.  Some people do not like red meat, some religions forbid certain meats.  There are also people who will only eat food made from fruit or vegetables.  If you can work out more than 5 different meal products in your weekly menus and work out what different recipes can be concocted with those products, you will have an interesting daily diet which will not only allow your body to gain the nutrition it requires, but also find eating at home more interesting.

With my weekly calendar the menus consist of meals made with beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish and a vegetarian meal.  Ah, BUT, I can hear you saying.  There are only 6 products on that list!  And you’d be right.  But there is a reason.  As I rotate those products each week, it means there being only 6, the same products are not eaten on the same day each week. 

Over the years I found this process to work well.  I cook all the products in different ways.  There are many ways to cook food in the oven, on top of a stove, on a BBQ or fire, and many forms of cooking with those implements. 

Eating keeps us alive, but it isn’t much use if the food doesn’t provide all the nutrition our body requires.  Vitamins are useful, but don’t really replace the vitamins in meat and vegetables.

So, if you have started using take away and delivered food, I suggest you think about your body for the future.  How long do you want to live?  If you’re aiming for 80+ you will need a strong, healthy body to get you there.  Good nutritious food is the answer, and that comes with eating regular, freshly cooked food, which you can do.  We now have the internet.  Find all those quick easy cooked meals and make up your own menus for the next month.  After that repeat it all again.  You will quickly notice the improvement in your body.

Julie Finch-Scally ©