Tuesday 10 August 2010

Food does not have a moral value

I wish I could remember where I first saw that quote.  Googling it doesn't help at all.  But I was reminded of it by a post by the lovely Alison today.  Society is in a total mess about food.  Half the world eats too much, half doesn't get enough.  And the half that eats too much obsesses and puts labels and guilt on food.  STOPPIT!  FOOD DOES NOT HAVE A MORAL VALUE, IT'S JUST FOOD.  Yes, so deep-fried mini-kievs with chips every day for a growing child, or drinking 8 pints of strong beer a day 5 times a week every week probably isn't the best idea in the world, but you know what I mean.  If I want to have some cake, that's not naughty.  The cake isn't naughty (how can an inanimate object with no sentience have a moral compass and knowingly do something bad?).  I'm not naughty for wanting the cake (it's eating a cake, not committing adultery).  I'm not naughty for eating the cake (unless I nicked it, of course).  Putting moral value on food just makes the whole modern nutrition issue so much worse for people who are finding it difficult to make informed choices and/or get themselves into a healthier, lighter or even heavier state.

OK, I've run out of steam now and, actually, it's time to cook dinner...

In other news, I cycled in to work this morning, leaving the house at at 07:02 and got so soaked within the first 2 minutes that my feet felt like they were stuck in a boggy marsh for the following 40 minutes of the ride and I could barely see through the rain in my steamed up glasses at least 3/4 of the time.  I had to throw away my socks when I got into the office because they were saturated with water, full of grit and grease and starting to come apart a bit.  My cycling shoes were so wet that by the time it was time to get ready to cycle home, if I pressed a finger into the toe section, water oozed out.  Thankfully I had my gym trainers at work to wear instead.  At lunch-time today I bought overshoes, a front light, a fluorescent waterproof jacket and some socks to get me home.

The overshoes are great.  The orange bit has a flexible, rubber light in it too!  Which can flash :o)  And they're really comfy and warm.  Bit hard to get over shoes, but I guess that's part of how they work and I can use them with proper cycling shoes when I finally graduate to those.

So, next time it wazzes it down, I can cycle without getting quite so pathetically wet and maybe my shoes won't get so drenched that they take days to dry out.

B - MP Total Breakfast with frozen blueberries and skimmed milk
*cycle*
S - greek yogurt, strawberries and Dorset Cereals muesli
S - banana
L - salad; lettuce, tomatoes, celery, Omega Seed Sprinkle, salmon fillet
S - MP beef jerky
S - carrot and houmous
*cycle*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
D - chicken breast, apricots, toasted almonds, couscous and lettuce with olive oil and lemon juice

Calories (kcal)
[kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)
2071
2528]
Protein (g) 177.0 (35.2%)
Carbohydrate (g) 197.4 (36.8%)
Fat (g) 62.6 (28%)
Fibre (g) 23.8
Fruit & Veg 11.2

3 comments:

  1. Haha, I remember those happy days of bike-commuting when it rained! There's no really pleasant way of doing it - waterproofs and you sweat from the inside, no waterproofs, well.. The overshoes sound good though. I think feet are most important :)

    And thanks for the shout out! :) I agree that as a society, our attitude to food is somewhat whacked. I think the panic about obesity has had the unfortunate consequence of making people feel guilty for ever enjoying "nutritionally unsound" foods, even in moderation. I mean let's face it, the reason people get overweight from eating too much cake is because cake is damn good - there's no need to demonize it! :D

    If we need to stop rewarding ourselves with food, then we need to stop beating ourselves over the head with it too. There has to be some neutral ground out there somewhere. Ground with cake on it.. !

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  2. Thanks for introducing me to Alisons blog, what a great post indeed! I was just having a little twinge of guilt after what I ate yesterday but reading that post and your comments has just reminded me to get a grip! x

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  3. Also, there's the awful resurgence of "diet food"s with all sorts of awful crap in them to make them taste better now that all the natural things that made them nice in the first place has been removed. That and stuff like Asda's "buy a pack of findus crispy pancakes and get chips, frozen non-dairy fat dessert free!" type stuff. You just can't beat the price on that kind of stuff when going for cooked-from-scratch, wholesome foods. *sigh*

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