Posts Tagged ‘fast food’

COOK AND GROW YOUR OWN GARDEN

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

The best way to get rid of the Fast Food culture and its values (that the food has to be fast, cheep and easy to cook; that food is a industry product, not a natural product; that food is a fuel, not a form of communication and bounding with other people or a bounding with the nature) is to participate to the complex but fascinate processes that involves the procure of food.

vegetables in garden

I feel better in the garden than in the kitchen, but I realize that our relationship between food and eating depends on the spent time for this. The garden offers us a lot of solutions, both practical and philosophical way, so that we can eat healthy. My vegetables garden is rather modest- 3/6 m strip of land, in the front of my house- that’s why in the summer, we give up the supermarket basket, and buy only fruits from the market.

And even if we live in the city and own just a strip of land we have plenty place for some trees with fruits. The garden is the perfect solution if you cannot afford expensive organic products: the own grown fruits and vegetables are fresher than any product on the market and will not cost more than one ore a couple hours per week and a couple of seeds.

The own garden has other benefits; it’s a beautiful way to involve your body. Most of the time, what we call recreation or a workout, means physical work, without any purpose, that’s way the satisfaction will be much higher when the physical activity has a specific purpose.

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Gardening means also intellectual activity. You have to know the different soils, to establish the one that fits better to the condition of your garden, to know subtle differences in terms of light, humidity and quality of the soil and the way to fight against pests without using chemicals.

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Eat slowly part II

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

The hamburger from Fast Foods was precisely made to offer a first juicy and delicious bite that would be impossible to enjoy if we could imagine the whole aspect of farms, butcheries and of all the workers or if we could know from the first bite that the hamburger is so delicious because of the “artificial barbeque flavors”.hamburger

The hamburger must be fast consumed; it would be a pleasure if we could imagine the green grass, the steak from an animal grown on a pasture, a pleasure based on knowledge and appreciation for the work and creatures not on ignorance and indifference.

To eat slowly means, to eat “in a free way” not because of an impulse. In many cultures, especially in those that didn’t lose the bond with the earth, there still are rituals that encouraged this was of eating, for example, there is a food blessing or an appreciation prayer before eating.

I believe that the goal of these rituals is to don’t eat in ignorance or in a hurry, and also to combine the pleasure of eating with the pleasure of thanksgiving and knowledge. I’m not used to express my appreciation before meals, but sometimes I remember Wendell Berry’s words that help me to eat free.

family-eating-dinner

Probably the way to fully enjoy the food- to feel a pleasure without ignorance- is the most profound form of the bonding with the world. Trough this pleasure we are aware of our dependency and we celebrate this, because we eat in mystery from creatures that we didn’t create and from forces that are beyond our understanding.

Such words can help you to be in control of your meals, but the best would be (as Wendell Berry said) that we, the consumers should involve ourselves more in the food production, even if this means just to plant some herbs in a pot, or just to go different plants or mushrooms picking in the park.

Because of the indifference of the consumer beside the food, we have to remember how the food from our plates is tilled, grown and prepared.

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Eat slowly part I

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Eat slowly, not just because in this way you will better know when to stop. When I say “slowly” I refer to the a quiet, cozy meal that is promoted by SLOW FOOD,  an Italian movement build up around the idea that the only way to fight against the madness of our fast life, is trough a stern defense for the pleasure of a cozy life. Created as a reaction of the American Fast-foods in Rome, in 1980, this organization tries to rediscover (or for some of us to discover) the joy of meals taken together and the pleasure for properly grown and cooked food.slow-eating

Sounds like an elite club for choosy people, but the SLOW FOOD movement is actually a coherent protest and  an alternative for nourishment, for the occidental way to eat and the whole occidental lifestyle, which is crazy more and more, day by day. Slow food aims to return the  supremacy of the quality over the quantity. For this it’s necessary to propagate a sense of taste and to recreate the relationship between  the producers and consumer, which is now destroyed because of the food industrialization. Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement, sustained “The food quality depends on the consumers which value the work of farmers and are willing to train their sense”. In this way “consumers become producer’s allies”.

There is also a consumer policy, which encourages us to value the work of those who produce food and discouraged the superficial pleasure of eating. This movement wasn’t born accidentally in Italy. That’s why we should ask our selves if the American way of eating can be changed whiteout changing the whole American lifestyle. The fast food is the way of eating for people that have the main value and the main goal, the success, for people which have just 2 weeks vacation per year and can not rely on a social protection for unexpected cases.Family Enjoying meal,mealtime Together

But the assurance of the Slow Food movement  is that this whole edifice of fast food will start to collapse as soon as we make time for  slowly silent lunches three times a day. To eat slowly, means to be fully aware of everything that involves the whole cycle, the food trail, from the ground to our plate. No doubt, some culinary pleasures are based exactly on the opposite- to know less

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Eat everything at the table. No, the office desk is not a table

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

You don’t eat where you refuel your car. Nowadays the American gas stations obtain o greater profit by selling grocery (or cigarettes) than by selling gas. But, about what food are we talking about?

Besides milk and water, there are highly processed and durables snacks and refreshing drinks, that are sweetened in excess, bottled in little pint bottles. The gas stations turned into corn stations with high content of fructose for you.

Try not to eat alone!

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Americans eat increasingly more often alone. Although some studies sustain that moderated persons will eat more if they dine in a group (perhaps they spend more time at the table). In the case of those exposed to excess, the meals taken together with other people are limited, because it’s less likely that we stuff ourselves under the eyes of others.

That’s why the advertising is encouraging us to eat in front of the TV or in the car. When we eat alone in a mechanic way, we eat more. The appetite control is one of the smallest advantages of a meal taken with others: this activity evolves eating from a mechanical process of feeding into a family and communication ritual, from a simple biological act into a cultural act.200361237-001

Psychologists proved, the most of us eat according to external signals, especially the visual ones. The bigger the portion of food, so much more we will eat; the bigger the plate, so much more we pour soup, the more we buy if the wending machine is nicely arranged and the more we will eat, if the bowl with M&M’s is closer to us

The best way to get rid of the Fast Food culture and its values (that the food has to be fast, cheep and easy to cook; that food is a industry product, not a natural product; that food is a fuel, not a form of communication and bounding with other people or a bounding with the nature) is to participate to the complex but fascinate processes that involves the procure of food.

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Posted in Heathy Eating | 1 Comment »