forbidden fruit

Hi everyone, this is Erikka's friend Christine. When given the task of guest-blogging on a subject that is taboo or forbidden a bunch of things came to mind - sex, religion, race, menstrual cycles. *

*photo links courtesy of Google's images search engine

However, all juicy topics aside, and with the help of Jeremy, I realized that I'd actually like to talk about the food industry and what we eat. I've recently read a bunch of books on said topic including Fast Food Nation , Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , Slow Food Nation and most recently (and probably most influential, In Defense of Food .

After all these reads, I started finding myself more aware of the food choices out there and what we are actually feeding ourselves. Then, I started talking about it. This is where I realized how taboo this subject really is. (I would also like to interject that I have also had many good conversations with people who are genuinely interested as well, but they are the minority here). Basically people don't want to hear about how bad the food industry is. They listen politely when you state that the livestock industry creates far more greenhouse gases then the entire transportation industry. They shrug when you explain the connection between healthy earth to create healthy plants that feed us, nevermind what cows and chickens ingest before we ingest them. It all counts. People seem interested in the fact that organic produce has higher, naturally occurring antioxidants then conventional produce because they have to fight harder to survive, but that still doesn't mean that they'll spend the extra money upfront. The fact that buying locally and organically actually doesn't add up to much more money, if any at all, then buying conventional produce brought in from all areas of the globe still doesn't seem to register either.

Another thing that I have been enlightened on are health claims (or nutritionisms as Michael Pollan puts it). The food industry is a business, they want to make money. They hype up the next biggest this or that all the time. What is it now? Omega-3s?? Great, take a vitamin, we'll pump that shit in eggs and chicken and even those crackers you like! Weee! However, they still have inconclusive evidence on whether or not its really effective, since, it's usually found in conjunction with Omega-6s...but too many Omega-6s are bad bad bad. Uh oh. Now what? People are still drawn to the shiny packages, promising healthy vitamins and antioxidants, fortified with this or that.

I think the reason it ends up being taboo is that talking about the food industry and what we eat brings up the pink elephant in the room. Eating is a huge part of our daily lives and stopping to think about what we actually put in our mouths takes a lot of thought and consideration. It would require educating yourself on the processes of what went into the food you are about to eat and how it got to be in front of you. It would require a significant change in habit.

So now I choose my battles wisely. I don't want to be shoving information down anyone's throat. I talk to people who share similar interests when it comes to food and eating. I hit up farmer's markets, buy organically and locally when I can, I try to cook for myself, using as many vegetables I can, I stay away from the refined sugars that is rampant in the 'Western Diet', I recommend these books to anyone that likes to read. For example, I bought my mom Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and asked her to read In Defense of Food for me. I don't expect to revolutionize my parents way of eating, since my dad has always, and always will be, a meat and potatoes guy, but I do hope that I have planted some seeds of thought, even if its subtly through these books, to encourage a healthy response to choosing what we eat.