It's not clean, it's not dirty, it's food - enjoy it

Let me preface this article by stating candidly that I have NO qualifications whatsoever related to nutrition and diet.  I know and respect some qualified dieticians, who talk a lot of (common) sense and I now know that if I parted with less than £30 I could be issued with a certificate proclaiming to the world that I am a trained nutritionist.  So much twaddle.
Check that out folks, there are no regulations governing people who call themselves nutritionists.

However, I have been around for more years than I am now prepared to admit on a regular basis, have cooked for myself, my family, our Scout group and many more besides.
I am fit, healthy and a sensible weight.  My children are (touch wood) rarely ill, extremely fit and active and enjoy a wide ranging diet.

We eat what we believe to be a balanced, but thoroughly enjoyable diet which can range from bowls of raw vegetables, salad and nuts to a plate full of tartiflette.
We have never denied the children the opportunity to try things or imposed arbitrary rules.
When they were younger, they had free access to the sweetie and biscuit tins and consequently never regarded them as guilty pleasures and never over indulged. When they were gone, they were gone and there were simply no more until I topped up the tins again.

But this all started running around in my head when I recently met a young man, in less than ideal circumstances, (for me, not him) and what truly depressed me was the diet he told me he was following: no sugar, no carbs just protein and leafy green vegetables

This excluded not only bread, cakes, rice, potatoes and the like but also a great deal of fruit and vegetables too.

He claimed it made him feel healthier and fitter, but refused to elucidate on how he feels when everyone is enjoying a slice of birthday cake or a celebratory drink?

What about a meal out with friends? Apparently there is only one item on an Indian restaurant menu that he can choose and he has that without any accompaniments.

Smug or envious, superior or left out?

This strikes me as food purely consumed as fuel.

Okay, so he claims to like steak, peanut butter and cheese, but surely there is more to life?

We hear so much about balanced diets and about our work life balance, and surely this can includes the balance between fuel and flavour, enjoyment and abstinence

We are beset as a nation with eating disorders and obesity issues, one the one hand we have the problems of body image and the associated horrors, yes horrors, let's not mince words of amnesia and bulimia

On the other hand we have a growing tide of obese people, suffering from a myriad of weight related health problems from heart disease, diabetes, joint pain, and the psychological impacts.

This doesn't even begin to take into account the restrictions being overweight can place on every day life; consider the school children unable to take part in PE lessons without fear of ridicule or self hatred.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own food choices, vegetarians, vegans, religious constraints, the Atkins diet or simply refusing, as President Bush did, to eat broccoli.

What that young man consumed was really none of my business, Beyond the fact that he chose to share it with me.
This week I was enthralled by Grace Victory's BBC programme and have to applaud her research and fantastic presentation skills as she exposed some of the myths being peddled to vulnerable, body conscious individuals - and we are not just talking neurotic, middle class teenage girls. This is an issue that crosses all divides.
In particular I was struck by her interview with the charming Eve Simmons

It is a sad testament to our woeful lack of education and fundamental understanding of food and its place in our lives that allows these charlatans to prey on the vulnerable and get rich in the process.

In my view, we should be celebrating the breadth of choice of food available to us, never before have we had such a wide variety to select, to try, to experiment with.

And yes, the growth of food banks is alarming, but the cost of food represents a far smaller percentage of our average income than it ever has......  and that's another debate entirely.... a rant for another day.

So I come back to one of my soapbox topics......let's connect people with food again, get rid of the notions of good and bad, clean or dirty food, guilty secrets and wicked indulgences and  teach not only school kids, but through them, their parents how to shop, how to cook, how to eat, how to fall in love with food, how to treat food and their bodies and their minds with respect.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk