Processed food

[Guest guest]

Here in Britain we really are a rather schizophrenic nation when it

comes to food. Some of the most popular programmes on TV are the

cookery/you are what you eat type of programme and yet people eat

vast quantities of processed food. Over the last few months there

has been an occasional series of programmes looking at what is

really in the typical processed meals that people eat. The most

recent of these looked at the kinds of things that are in a typical

Christmas dinner, showing the way that turkeys and pigs are raised,

the conditions of farmed salmon, the trans fats in the majority of

store-bought mince pies. The only things that came out as being in

any way edible and healthy were the Brussels sprouts. I found myself

wondering if the maker of the programme was a vegetarian and

thinking it was a shame that the programme wasn't aired a week or so

earlier – a few more people might have chosen nut roast over roast

turkey for their lunch on Sunday, but perhaps it might change their

attitudes in the longer term.

 

When I became vegetarian in the 60s (giving my age away, LOL) it was

still fairly unusual and often the only choice on a menu was cheese

omelette or cheese salad (ie a couple of limp lettuce leaves, a

quartered tomato and a couple of slices of cucumber). I worked in a

hotel as a waitress for a few months in the 70s and whenever a

vegetarian came to stay I was called in to cook their meal as the

hotel owner (now a famous cook) hadn't got a clue what vegetarians

ate. Over the last 30 years more and more people here are becoming

vegetarian. In recent years probably 95% of menus have at least one

vegetarian option, usually more. I suppose that some of the shift

away from meat eating has to do with BSE but I think that it is also

due to people being more aware of the health benefits of eating

vegetarian food, having a different moral and ethical viewpoint on

what they eat and also understanding more about nutrition. When I

became vegetarian my mother was convinced I would die of

malnutrition, it was deemed ok to feed vegetarians two fried eggs 3

times a day so that we got enough protein when I was at college and

in Canada I was told that I might be able to live as a vegetarian in

Britain but I'd never survive the winters in Canada without eating

meat. Nowadays it is far more acceptable to be a vegetarian and

whenever I go to conferences and meetings it is often expected now

that a significant proportion of people attencing will be

vegetarians. Reading some of Bron's posts have made me think that in

some parts of the US attitudes still have a long ways to go. I know

the beef lobby are very vocal over there and I'm also aware that

there is much more of a tradition of hunting for food over there.

There has been hunting in Britain, but mostly for " sport " and more

amongst the upper classes than the rest of us plebs. Perhaps also we

are more of an urban culture. Sadly there are now a lot of city kids

here who have no idea where their food comes from. I grew to hate

the idea as well as the taste of meat as a child because I knew

exactly what I was eating and knew also that I didn't want to.

Christie