Food v "Food", Part 1

One of the major themes in my teaching to our young folks is that I constantly challenge their idea as to what is food and what is "food". I began this after watching them eat all sorts of garbage, listening to them talk about what they like to eat, and then seeing the deficits of understanding about nutrition. When you talk to kids that cannot identify that margarine is not butter, don't eat vegetables, drown their food in hot sauce, and never ever ask what is in this food... there is trouble brewing. A very large portion of the population that I teach just eat what they like and they never give a second thought to what they are consuming, while childhood obesity rates raise.

 

I teach them how to read a nutrition label, show them that vegetables aren't scary and can be very tasty depending on how it is prepared. I challenge their tastes by making them at minimum sample the dishes we prepare, make them look at what they are eating and why. It isn't easy work especially since the come to my class believing all that we are going to do is cook. If it were up to them, they would work in my class as if it was a cooking club, but its not, it's a culinary class. If it were up to them, we would only cook those things in which they are already eating regularly. The difference between a cooking class and a culinary class is very similar to the difference between food and "food".

 

I am fully aware that lots of food choices that are made in the households, in which my kids live, are done so with economy and convenience in mind. We Americans have totally bought into the idea that food must be cooked quickly and if you are in a lower economic rung the cheaper products tend to win the race to the shopping cart. Lots of our citizens are quick to spend a lot of money on clothes but not a lot on food. This is backward thinking, as clothes wear out quickly and go out of style, but your health is critical. I too have to consider my economy when purchasing, I buy some convenience foods, very few, mainly because I am not home for dinner 3 to 4 nights a week so the cooking duties fall upon my kids at least a couple nights a week. However, understanding what you are exposing your health to buy the constant consumption of these are risks most of us cannot afford. All of my children cook, nothing too fancy, for my middle school and high school kids, but my college kid does quite well, as she has had much more training.

 

Kids don't think about health and nutrition often as they have those perfect metabolisms and digestion that keeps up with the junk they consume. I often ask them what if the aging process begins to break down your body at a young age because of what they eat?

 

The populations that I teach are made up of inner city minority kids who's families are dealing with members that are impacted by cancer, hypertension, diabetes, glaucoma, drug abuse,  immobility, and early death. What they are more concerned with are the drug overdoses and deaths from gun violence that they face daily. I have talked to my kids and heard about the reasons they skipped attending class due to being in the hospital visiting their siblings and loved ones. They tell me of how many funerals they have had to attend and when asked questions about life longevity they tell me that they are not concerned with living to 100 because they are expecting to die before they are 30. It's easy to not think about your  health when you don't think you will survive very long, so why not eat and do whatever you enjoy today because tomorrow may never come.

 

So, there I go into the breach attempting to change their view of not only what is food and what really isn't food but also trying to change their world view through cooking and teaching. I speak to them about their life goals and dreams as well as their diet. I convey to them the impacts of poor diet don't just show up on the inside, but these things affect their appearance and their future. Basic nutritional information and health are done every week along with recipe comprehension. I am a firm believer that it isn't their fault that they don't know these things. I am a firm believer that you cannot give someone else something that you don't have. A great number of their parents either don't have time to teach them these things or don't know enough about the subject to teach them to their children. The notion of eating whatever is cheap and accessible is costly to your health. Anytime that you can go to the store and buy a 2-liter of soda pop for 99 cents but the same amount of juice or water is 4 to 5 times the price.... something is off.

 

I tell everyone if you cannot read all of the ingredients on the label then you might not want to eat that product. Whenever you leave control of your health and nutrition up to a corporation, you are already in trouble. The one and only purpose of a corporation is to make money. They make decisions not based upon what is best for the consumer, they make decisions based upon profit. If a natural item cost five cents per unit and a artificial substitute costs 3 cents per unit, the corporation will used the chemical substitute to gain a bigger profit margin.

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These artificial things do not create the same reactions in the body as real food does, and if you are around enough, you will see how the FDA and researchers will prove them to be harmful in the long run and it's use will then be stopped. But what about all the people that consumed these chemicals for years and are possibly suffering the after effects? Wouldn't be easier to select the natural food options and not suffer any side effects? I want to see my kids live long long lives full of joy and not short lives filled with discomfort and disease.

 

Any food that has multiple multi-syllables  chemical names and are high-up on the ingredient list should make you take pause. If you don't know what it is, then maybe you shouldn't be eating it. Can you find those items in your kitchen? Why are they in your food? Corporations make it difficult to make good choices. Their marketing campaigns, packaging, confusing labeling, hidden sugars, cheap ingredients, market saturation, are pervasive and target your kids.

 

A large percentage of your average citizens do not fully understand how to read nutrition labels.  The first thing that everyone should know is that the list of ingredients is listed in order of amount from the highest quantity to the least. In other words, if you are reading the label and the first ingredient listed is sugar then you know right away that is isn't a healthy item to eat. Secondly, look at the serving size on the package. This is one way the corporation tries to fool the consumer into believing that the item isn't too bad for you. A small package of potato chips is commonly consumed by one person, but the manufacturer may use the serving size as 4, for example, that way, if you aren't paying close attention you can believe that the bag is only 100 calories when it actually is 400 calories, deceiving. I also encourage folks to Google the chemical names listed to see their purpose, possible health issues, and perhaps why they are used. Knowledge is power.

 

Last year was the first year in American history that consumers spent more money in restaurants than in grocery stores. That is huge news to both the culinary industry, retail food store, and the medical community. Our families are not growing, harvesting, cooking, hunting, or controlling the most important aspect of their health, food!