YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

Most people would agree that what we eat is important.  But let’s take that a step further.  Remember back in junior high school biology when you first learned about ecosystems and food webs?  You know, grass grows from soil, small animals eat grass, large animals eat smaller animals?  Well, when you put those two things together, it becomes obvious that it’s not just what you eat that matters, it’s what you eat, eats.

What does this mean?  Basically, it means that the richer the soil that our produce grows in, the more nutritionally rich our food will be.  Similarly, the more nutritionally rich an animal’s food is, the fitter the animal will be, and the healthier for us it will be if we eat it.  In some ways, this is obvious, especially when we think of, say, providing an enriching environment for a child.  The more love, affection, touching, attention, talking, and perhaps even Baby Einstein products a baby is exposed to, the richer the child’s development will be.  This also raises the concept that the “food” that we are exposed to every day is not only our literal food, but also all of the experiences surrounding us.  A quiet forest feeds us something, whereas getting stuck in rush hour traffic feeds us something else.

Because of the rapid rise of industrial agriculture in the past 50 years, as well as the powerful ways that marketing shapes our consciousness, we have lost sight of some of these connections.  As one example, modern conventional agricultural organizations acknowledge that today’s carrot has only about half the nutrients that a carrot did twenty years ago.  Why?  Because year after year, soil becomes more and more depleted through modern farming practices.  There is a world of difference between seeing soil as a living, breathing system that needs to be tended, versus a dead matrix that holds individual nutrients and a certain ratio of carbon to nitrogen that we can add in and correct.

Indian farmers lived through the agricultural Green Revolution during the 1970’s. (The Green Revolution refers to the mechanization of agriculture, with the adding in of many other inputs from oil and fossil fuels, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides.)  At first, they noticed radically increased yields with the new technology.  But after a few years, the gains started to shrink and more and more of the synthetic fertilizers were needed to maintain yields or even prevent them from declining too quickly.  The soil had literally become addicted to oil, and like with all addictions, eventually there is less and less of a ‘hit’ from the same fix.

On the other hand, organic farmers who remember that soil is alive take care of it in a way that retains its richness, by tuning in to what it needs as soil in a holistic way. One simple example that many farmers, organic and non-, do is to let a field lay fallow to replenish itself, or to let it grow clover one year that is then ploughed under to give back some vitamins and nutrients to the soil.  On Plan B Organic Farm, they go several steps further – they follow a variety of practices including being attentive to the relationships between local plants and how they can help to grow the produce that we want to eat.  As a result, each year there is greater and greater biodiversity of plants, animals, insects, and birds that are part of the ecosystem of the farm.  This stands in stark contrast to the less ecologically rich, monoculture farms that surround Plan B.

The ultimate result is that food grown in such rich soil is richer in nutrients for those who eat it, as well as enhancing the health of the environment.

To pick another example, studies have recently shown that farmed salmon have only about 25% of the Vitamin D content of their wild salmon counterparts.  Why?  Because the food pellets that are fed to farmed salmon are deficient in Vitamin D compared to the diets of the wild fish.  And why is that?  Presumably because it is cheaper to feed the farmed fish cheap food.  It seems sadly fitting that our culture, so hooked into processed food to provide calories, will feed our food processed food and expect no serious consequence.

In each case, the profit motive enters into the equation to an extent that disrupts the natural balance of things.  The agricultural organizations now are trying to market the reality that people need to eat two carrots instead of one; more sales for them, poorer food for us.

So how do we get fooled?  To some extent, it is through our senses becoming deadened to delight.  The more processed food is, the farther it travels from where it is grown, the less organic and sustainably it is grown, the less vitality it has.  If we’ve not recently tasted fresh, local food, it may be tough to tell the difference between truly fresh food, and old, stale food dressed up with artificial or “natural” flavours added to it straight out of the chemical factories in New Jersey where such ingredients are made.

Two examples:  In my university organic chemistry lab, we learned about so-called aromatic hydrocarbons, molecules that often had a fruity or sweet smell, but in reality were poisonous and not something you would want to put in your body.  Many, if not most commercially available perfumes are highly synthetic, even neurotoxic (harmful to the nervous system) combinations of these types of chemicals.  Whereas something like essential oils are more closely related to an actual natural substance from which they are distilled and purified.  With practice, your nose can learn to distinguish these types of smells; to me, the synthetic one smells a little sharper, a little sickly, and slightly harsh; the more natural one usually has a rounder, more full scent.  See if you can start to tell the difference!

The other example is of the contrast between fresh and dead food.  The freshest food I have probably ever eaten was a zucchini I picked from the community garden I had helped to tend in Kingston near the end of summer a few years ago.  Within ten minutes or so, I had sliced it up and cooked it with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and eaten it.  The taste of it was vibrant and full of life.  On the other hand, last year myself and my fellow marital arts students went to a bar to celebrate our teacher’s birthday, and were served free pizza, cheese sticks, wings, and fries.  I had been eating very healthy for a few months at that point, so I had some.  It was the deadest food I can ever recall tasting.  Part of it was that with my diet having been so healthy around that time, I could really sense the difference.

Each month, we will send out a short e-mail on an issue.  Some future issues will look in more detail into things I have touched on, above.  As I mentioned, they will be problem and solution-focused, as well as having some background information, provided by myself and / or the other practitioners at the centre.  So for this month, here’s FACT/FIX #1!

FACT:  Much of our food is less nutritious than it could be, for a variety of reasons.

FIX:  In the next week or two, try and prepare a single, delicious meal, using as many local, seasonal, fresh, organic ingredients as possible.  Remember to smell your meal before you eat it.  Don’t be afraid – stick your nose right down into it before taking your first bite!  Then savour every mouthful.  And remember how tasty it is.