when less is more
It is a somewhat shocking fact that what we eat is now doing us more harm than smoking and boozing combined. In 2015 approximately seven million people died, worldwide, from the evil weed and just shy of three million from the demon drink, but as many as twelve million deaths were attributed to what we shoved in our cake ‘oles. Where our forebears once lived in fear of smallpox, plague or TB, now the leading cause of mortality is diet, and the bitter pill is that it’s both the quantity and quality that are the issue. Unhealthy food, eaten on the hoof, appears to be the price we pay for living in modern, liberated, networked and connected societies.
At no point in the developing world’s history has food been so readily available and this scenario isn’t just about one kind of food (junk/fast) or an individual slice of the population. Across the board, throughout all social classes and demographics, most of us eat more than our ancestors did, whether we are ‘doing a Jamie’ with fresh ingredients and an air of smug superiority, or feasting on a large doner with extra chilli sauce from the local kebab van. Plates have become platters, glasses have become goblets and portions have been supersized beyond our grandparents’ recognition.
Furthermore, the rise of obesity and diet-related disease has coincided with the development and marketing of fast-food, sugary drinks, processed meals and branded snacks. Which is the chicken, which is the egg? Walk down any high street at any time in any developed country and you’ll quickly realise that, within the space of a few short years, it has become the norm to punctuate the day with snacks to take the edge off our perceived hunger or a flaked-Frappuccino to slake a thirst. Catch a late train home for an even clearer example. The availability of energy-dense, sugar-high, nutrient-poor foods has gone through the roof and a new branch of Domino’s Pizza currently opens every seven hours. No, really.
Today’s relatively cash-rich/time-poor world provides choice and those we make are largely determined by what’s actually available to us. It might be possible to eat in a more healthy manner if only we didn’t have to go to work, or school, or save money, or use public transport, or live in a city, or dance to others’ tune, or spend all day sat at a screen, or if Ocado didn’t deliver 24/7, or suffer from IBS, or keep-up with the Jones’s on social media, or, or, or… The element we seem to have lost sight of wrt our eating habits is one of balance, whether it’s the balance of meals across the day or the balance of nutrients on our plate. The balance of quantity and quality, of healthy and unhealthy, of good and bad, of when and where.
Since before WWII rationing our agricultural systems have been focused on supplying ‘enough’ food, without necessarily considering what was, or now is, beneficial for human health. The undeniable impact these systems are now having on our environment, revealing irreversible changes on both land and body, are unsustainable for both the planet and human health. We clearly need to go-large with the decisions and choices we make for our future.
