The alarm goes off at 5am. A couple of snoozes and up
by 5:30am. Get the body moving, grab a 20 min workout
and then rush to office to avoid the rush hour. Go
through the daily ritual of the meetings, phone calls
and emails then run back home to spend some family
time. In this frenzy, we are also expected to eat
right. We all know this, but is this even an
achievable goal?
In this ever changing world, even the foods that were
good yesterday turn to not-so-good food today and I
won’t be shocked if they end up in the bad foods list
tomorrow. Whole wheat bread was an excellent food some
time back, but not anymore. Do you even know about the
HFCS (High fructose corn syrup)? This teeny-weeny
ingredient was not there some time back and has made
its way to most of the healthy foods, making them
not-so-good foods today. It won’t be long before
another new invention in food making, would be added
to this whole wheat bread to ensure it is in the bad
food list.
One has to invest time in this food industry (as much
as you would in the stock market) to keep up with the
changing times. One has to know if the salmon (is the
‘l’ still silent?) is from fresh water or sea water.
Is it from Atlantic Ocean or farm-raised or is it
organic? Is it eco-friendly? Will the mercury kill me?
Should I skip the fat content, or should I only skip
the trans fat? Do I really need the saturated fats?
Will this help my cholesterol?
There is no end to the agony of the average house hold
shopper.
Looking at nutrient labels can be suicidal. And
reading those fine footprints below is an art. I would
say, it would take an average human being about 10 min
to review all products and choose one simple loaf of
bread. One has to make a smart choice. A fine balance
of fat, trans fat, sodium, HFCS, gluten, calories per
servings and fiber. All this in 1 loaf of bread. And
I walk back home proud, to have made the perfect
choice and smile. It’s only the next day morning when
I taste my toast, I realize I forgot to ask myself, if
it would taste good?
There was a time we just had to follow the food
pyramid. The simple sweet food pyramid. Are we really
advancing with all these new inventions? Are all these
complications worth my time and health? May be I could
do without those few extra years in my life.
Can I just go back in time, and eat what my ancestors
ate?
