Hey there!
Today I’d like to talk about Food!!
Food is essential to life as all living beings need nutrition
in some form or another. I’d like to focus on humans and on our interesting
ways of feeding ourselves.
I am an adopted child of the USA, and having made the US my
home only for the past 14 years, I have noticed some very interesting differences
between my new home and my birth country, Portugal.
I remember very clearly the first few times I watched the
6:30 news in the US, and noticing that every single day the topic of food was
discussed: “how to fight overweight and obesity; caffeine is good (other times
bad) for you; broccoli is great for you;” and the list goes on.
It struck me back then that people were obsessed with the topic
of food, and more importantly, obesity. I did not really know what to think of
it, and that during the next decade or so I would learn a great deal about it.
I went on to study food science and then work for parties
that are key players in the food system in the US and in the world, both in academia,
researching ways of enhancing food products with key ingredients that are
important for human health, and in the industries that make those and other kinds
of food products and eagerly try to sell them to us.
In both instances, the issue of food and feeding ourselves
was approached differently than in my birth country. In Portugal, I was taught
that eating in moderation, and cooking food from scratch with raw ingredients were
the best - better said, the only - approaches to follow. And the reasons were
not only related to health, but also - and more importantly - related to economics
and culture.
Interestingly enough, 14 years later I am sitting here
realizing that the US has caught up with that notion - that eating in moderation
and with fresh and unprocessed ingredients makes the most sense for human beings
and for the environment around them.
The US is just reverting back to the uncomplicated days where
processed foods did not exist and we humans, lived in harmony with our world
and environment. It looks like Portugal had it right all along!
Healthy eating!
