Controlling the power of Food

Eating in the 21st century has become as easy as sitting on your sofa and ordering take-away from your phone. Food is found practically everywhere! You find it in markets, restaurants, cinemas, food trucks, and stored safely at your home. With modern technology, farmers have drastically increased their harvest when compared to 100 years ago. With all this food available, many people are spoilt for choice, making it harder to pick up the right food. To make it even worse, junk food is also cheap! You can buy a cheeseburger full of unhealthy fats for just 2 €, and a high-sugary chocolate bar for 50 c. These junk foods are also prepared to taste good! This has led to obesity rates being higher than ever, and more people are dying due to obesity-related effects such as diabetes.

In pre-historic times, people did not have all this food available. They had to hunt and gather food for days, often in cold, freezing winters, or hot-dry days. They also did not have fridges to store food in, so they had to eat it before it goes bad. So humans, just like animals, have programmed themselves to eat everything they see. If there is food on the plate, they will continue eating until they really cannot take one more bite without vomiting (buffet anyone?). The moment we smell food, our stomach takes control from the brain, and any restraint flies off the window. This mindless eating is causing humans to gain weight, whilst still suffering from nutritional deficiencies! We are eating around 500-1000 more calories than we did 50 years ago.

The only thing that can help us control all this power we gained over food is knowledge. This food intake has increased so dramatically and quickly that very few people were prepared for it. Many organizations such as the World Health Organization have provided various guidelines for eating the right foods with the right amounts. There is also more awareness from health professionals as doctors, trainers, and nutritionists, who appear in various forms of media such as tv, radio stations, social media, and by writing books and articles in magazines. The internet is also a huge source of information. Is all this information correct? Absolutely not! Many people, unfortunately, provide biased information intended only to sell their products or services which are based on the latest fads that do more harm than good. When researching information, always check that the articles are backed up by scientific data and health professionals. With the right knowledge, you will learn to eat healthier, whilst also enjoying delicious foods.

Thanks for reading, and as always stay fit!

Coach Darren

Research?

Fogel, R. W. (2004). The escape from hunger and premature death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World (Vol. 38). Cambridge University Press.

Roser, M. and Ritchie, H. (2021, October 11). Food Supply.https://ourworldindata.org/food-supply