Food Defined

In this excerpt, Pollan makes an interesting point that food is a fairly flexible term these days. And I realized that by his definition, I don’t eat real food. Sure, I love my vegetables, but how many of these dishes that contain my favorite veggies, are food products, instead of food? For example, we have some “Sweet and Sour Chicken over Rice Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers” in the kitchen. You’d think the ingredients would be something like: water, carrots, peppers, organic white meat chicken, and rice. But there are over 30 ingredients, including modified corn starch and high fructose corn syrup. Therefore, this item crosses into the food products category. I don’t necessarily agree with Pollan however, and I wonder if some of what he says may not be fully true, given how things have changed in just the last year.
Upon discussing the excerpt with my father, we both realized that Pollan was largely referring to how the food is packaged. The food itself hasn’t really changed since the time when my father was a child, just how they market it, how they package it has changed.
Another interesting point is that back when my parents were kids, there a lot more stay at home moms, whereas nowadays, it quite common for both parents to work, cutting down on the amount of meals actually cooked my the mom or dad. So they resort to buying pre-packaged items, therefore relinquishing their power over the ingredients. Also, back in the 70’s families only went out to eat about once a month, give or take, and in this modern age, easy fast food restaurants combined with overworked parents equates to families eating out 3 times or more a week. Which despite the claims of many people doesn’t really create a bit impact on your health; it’s the amount you eat, that affects your body weight and energy levels. Americans today are, unfortunately, gluttons. They often overindulge in food, as a coping mechanism for the inherent stress of everyday life. My mom always says “everything in moderation”. And in this case, I take that to mean too much of a single food, can seriously affect you, but if you were to eat in variety, and in smaller portions, you’d be a much healthier human being. People today eat larger portions of food than they did, let’s say 30 year ago. And 30 years ago, people got a lot more exercise, using up all the energy from their last meal.
These days, people look for “value” as in the quantity of food they can get for a smaller amount of money. Snack product companies have found that less nutritional foods are cheaper for them to make, so they can sell these products at a cheaper price than their competitors, making people think that they are getting more value for their money.
To make better choices at home, you need to start somewhere, like actually being aware that you have a problem with the food you consume. Then you can start taking back your control over the ingredients in your food. Keep it simple, start with snack foods for example, replace them with a healthier alternative, then wait for that to just become the standard, then move on to a different type of food to replace, and you just keep doing this until you’re eating the way you want to eat. But keep in mind; you don’t have to phase the old food completely.
                                  As mom always says, “All Things in Moderation”