A Common Sense Approach to Food

I read this article and kept thinking, "Why doesn't someone point this out to the American public?" Well, truth is, they have, but no one is listening. We are more than what we eat

The food fads and health neuroses of modern parents have come to be something like a national obsession. Only the other day, I saw a stick-thin mother, white of face, drab of hair, holding up a lolly in front of her little boy. "I said two licks, then it's going in the bin," she said. "He shouldn't have bought it for you. These things are bad. Full of E-numbers."

Ok, I'm ignorant. What are "E-numbers"?

Carcinogenic, I'd say. Every day there are new scares. Tomatoes are good for you; tomatoes are bad for you. Cow's milk is healthy; cow's milk is evil. It seems that the longer we live, the more we fear illness and death: our grandparents ate what was available and what was affordable, and it wasn't all perfect (did anyone ever put Spam under the microscope?), but they invented the motor car, beat Hitler and ran the four-minute mile. They certainly didn't spend their waking hours worrying about probiotics, or whatever they're called, and I think people such as the lollipop-lady need to get a grip.

Our parents and parent's parents managed to do quite a bit without the "food police" looking over their shoulders. Yes, they died and/or will die. This is a fact of life. We are all going to die too. GASP! Reality tends to slap us upside the head every now and then.

What does the middle-class obsession with their children's food actually mask? To my mind, it expresses a fear that we aren't spending enough time with our children. We direct so many of our anxieties into food. Am I a nourishing enough parent? Am I giving them what they need? Do I need my children's appetites to be purer than mine? Am I angry at other parents for being more natural than me?

I think this guy is onto something here. We have become so obsessed with what goes into the body, that we have completely lost sight of what is the most important. Our children are growing neurotic, allergies and asthma are rampant, phobias about germs, and every little thing are commonplace. This obsession of the food police has gone so far, we see ridiculous lawsuits against places like McDonald's. They use to have the best French Fries, now, they just plain suck because some vegetarian didn't like they idea of soaking them in beef broth, or whatever.

Nobody will admit it, but these questions will often stand behind the highly demonstrative acts of "good parenting". When I see those skinny mothers and fathers in Regent's Park, I fear that many of them are acting out, begging for approval or trying to silence their imagined critics. See! I am a good parent! My child isn't allowed to drink Sunny Delight! they seem to say.

Depriving a child of a treat now and then is NOT "good parenting", it's a compulsion to make themselves feel better. Sure, there's nothing wrong with watching what your kids eat, but let's not carry it so far as to cut out all fats and sugar. These are growing kids, and their bodies actually NEED these things to grow. Starving a child is NOT good parenting. Obviously, a diet of nothing but Oreos and milk is not a good idea either. Think balance! A couple of cookies for a snack, with an apple is a much better idea than a "microbiotic" meal plan. Just what is microbiotic anyway? Better yet, who cares!

Evidence out this week suggests that fashionable drinks aimed at placing good bacteria in the stomach are actually pretty bogus. They're expensive and they do more harm than good, except in the case of some elderly people, who might need a little help with digestion.

How 'bout we let our bodies do their job? Stop trying to "fix" something that doesn't need to be fixed.

Who would have thought, a hundred years ago, that improved mortality rates would bring so little gratitude, and that we'd end up with a generation of Britons who thought they should live for ever? Maybe the next government should seek to drop Home Economics from the national curriculum, and replace it with Death Studies, a lovely new subject that might look at the history and the manners of death, to say nothing of its inevitability, with a view to tempering the pupils' egos and giving them a sense of life's shape.

We're all going to die! This is not going to change! We all age and get wrinkles, gravity starts taking over, therefore, no amount of obsessing is going to change this either. Get over it!