Page 30 - Fourways Gardens May 2021

Lifestyle

the evoLution of heALthy food

B y m i C h E ll E l . r a ymond

hile rummaging through my vegetables other than the inclusion of a create compelling, but often misleading,
collection of old magazines salad as a lunch meal. Breakfast consisted of messages about what is healthy and what
(a genetic trait, I'm sure, cereal with milk or yoghurt with fruit; dinner diets to follow.
Wpassed down from my suggestions were as simple as a protein
grandmother who kept every tram ticket with cooked vegetables and a starch. That We are faced now with the dilemma
she ever used for reasons I'll never know), I was healthy eating in the nineties – how of deciphering what is 'opinion' versus
came across a magazine published in 1999. things have changed! medical fact and what is 'right' for our body
It was both nostalgic and hilarious to see versus the latest fad. And more often than
the adverts back then and what was trendy. Today, we have things called SuperFoods, not, we have to use our common sense.
I shudder at the thought of what I used to protein shakes, meal replacements and
wear. smoothies. It used to be a joke, back in the Food, at its most basic, is fuel for the body to
day, when people looked into the future function optimally. Instead, we indulge in it,
I had kept the article specifically because and saw flying cars and meals in the form we abuse it, we use it as a tool for discipline
it was about health, wellness and nutrition of pills. They were not too far wrong. I and control ("Finish your food because
– a topic I have always had, and still have, remember meeting a woman from Los there are starving kids out there."/"If you
a keen interest in. It described a meal plan Angeles who barely ate anything. Instead of clean your room, I'll give you a sweetie!"),
for maintaining good health and vitality. It food, she swallowed over 50 different types and it is often the very reason and focus of
suggested what foods to avoid and what of supplements a day. all our social gatherings.
foods to introduce or ramp up. Some of it is
still relevant today. Some of it – well, is not. Nowadays, deciding on what to eat seems Going back to the article I found – there,
much more complicated, especially having right on the opposite page, was a full page
Sugar, as everyone knows, was described as to consider various foods that arrived out advertisement that would draw anyone's
'bad' and in the red box of foods to avoid of nowhere. (I am still of the opinion that attention. A gorgeous woman, wearing a
at all costs. Processed foods like deli meats Kale comes from another planet and is rather small bikini, standing suggestively
and crisps were also a no-no. not suitable for human consumption). next to a hunky man, on a yacht
Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), chia surrounded by crystal clear water and blue
Here is where it got interesting. Avocados seeds, coconut water, gluten-free pasta sky, both looking so healthy, fit and tanned
and eggs were portrayed in a 'bad light' and wheatgrass shots came onto the scene – an almost perfect image portrayal of the
due to their high fat and high cholesterol around the introduction of social media. adjacent article about health. It was then
content and should be consumed on rare Anyone with an internet connection could that I had to giggle. The advert was for none
occasions. There was no mention of raw position themselves as 'an expert' and other than Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes!!

Fourways Gardens • 28 • May 2021