Addicted To Junk

                                                    'If it came from a plant, eat it.
                                                     If it was manufactured in a plant, don't.'
                                                     -Michael Pollan

You'll have got the gist of how I feel about food by now! I know I tend to reiterate the same things, eg my concerns about processed food, food waste, the way we feed our children, our hectic lifestyles and the impact this has on the way we eat, animal welfare and the immorality of the food industry.

Food isn't just fuel, we aren't neanderthals eating purely to survive. Food is at the heart of society, we are universally connected to each other through food and it brings people together on many different levels.

However, food and our relationship with it has changed drastically in recent years. A report published last week stated that almost 30 per cent of British girls and 26 per cent of boys are overweight. Children and young adults who should be at their peak of fitness are obese, and there has been a marked increase in obesity rates over the past eight years.

If we had a national crisis that were anything other than obesity, drastic measures would have been taken long ago. If a third of our children had been struck down with a virus for example, the Government would have declared a national emergency!

But the food industry is a huge money making corporation which has had successive Governments in their pockets. The Government won't take on the people responsible for this catastrophe: the food industry and by not doing so are equally culpable.

We blame children for over eating and being less active yet we willingly feed our children food that is adulterated, modified and stuffed with chemicals that mess up their body chemistry. Intensively farmed animals full of antibiotics, growth hormones and steroids to keep costs down and profits up! Cheap grains and starches, full of sugar and scant on nutrition are pumped into everyday foods, kids really don't stand a chance.

Unfortunately as parents we too are culpable, we have eschewed cooking from scratch for convenience food, half of six to eight year olds polled recently said their parents fed them take away or microwave meals at least three times a week.

Children don't seem to be fed simple, nutritious meals anymore, beans on wholemeal toast, jacket potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn, free range eggs, scrambled or made into a vegetable omelette, grilled tomatoes on toast, simple homemade pasta dishes......these were all staples in my childhood diet with fish fingers as a rare treat.
We ply our children with burgers, pizzas, chicken nuggets, oven chips and other processed food and then wonder about the obesity epidemic and the increase in behavioural problems.

In the 70s vegetable curry was a common meal, my mother made it and it also featured on the school dinner menu, this dish was a basic combination of vegetables with curry powder and stock to which sultanas and apple were added. It wasn't spicy, in fact due to the fruit it was quite sweet. This next dish is a 'curry' but it isn't spicy, it is however, nutritious, healthy and very simple to make.

Lentil and okra dhal with paneer cheese

Recipe
1 onion, peeled and chopped
4 ladies fingers/okra, sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
200g lentils, cooked according to packet instructions-alternatively use tinned lentils
2 tablespoons medium curry powder
Paneer cheese
1 bunch fresh coriander

Heat a little oil in a pan, add onion and sauté for 3 minutes
Add okra, curry powder and garlic, sauté for a further 5 minutes
Transfer to an ovenproof dish, add lentils and 750ml water
Place in a moderate oven for 20 minutes

Remove from oven and scatter fresh, chopped coriander on top
Add diced paneer immediately before serving

'The public health of five million children should not be left to luck or chance.'
-Jamie Oliver

Love Donna xxxxxx