The past few days, the British media have been having a feeding frenzy....
if you'll pardon the expression... over
Horse Gate.
Shock and horror! It's been revealed that certain processed meat products, mainly frozen burger patties and a particular cheap brand of ready-meal lasagna, are not in fact made from 100% pure ground beef.
Nay! These foods have been found to contain up to 100%... er.. horse meat!
Naturally, the jokes have been racing around the social networks all week
Now this may not seem such a big issue to some nations of the world, who would happily tuck into a lean
filet cheval ... a bite-sized digest of said nations is provided over
here. However, eating horse meat is unthinkable in a country largely obsessed with equine sports, where horses are akin to household pets or even family members. Indeed horses are heroes.... ever heard of
Black Beauty or
War Horse?
In a rather bad case of shutting the gates after the horse has bolted.... hence my nifty Horse Gate above.... all suspected 'contaminated' products have been withdrawn from supermarket shelves. But it is now thought that such shenanigans have been going on for years. It's obvious that the food industry needs a bit of reigning in...
At the risk of sounding like a smug, self-congratulating, health-obsessed food Nazi, I could say that this scenario presents reason # 3899 why it is always wisest to avoid processed and ready made food. Indeed, as I type this, I am indulging in some oh-so-wholesome, home-made sweet potato, bean and butter-nut soup. Nowadays, I prefer to make most of my meals from scratch, as I like to know exactly what I am putting into my body! However, back in the bad old days of Fat Nat, I was no stranger to the odd ready made meal... convenient, quick and often really quite tasty.
We are, to a large extent, a nation obsessed with food. It seems that every second TV programme is serving up culinary delights... flick through the remote buttons and you will find whole channels dedicated to the art of cooking and dining. There's 'Master Chef' (the home-grown variety and all the spin-offs from around the world), 'The Great British Bake-Off', 'Come Dine With Me', 'Dinner Date', 'Saturday Kitchen'... to name just a few. Not to mention the seemingly endless menu of Celeb Chefs.... the Jamies, the Nigellas, the Heston Blumenthals of this world, all showing us how to cook "pukka grub" a la Jamie (wicked!) while oozing sex appeal (in Nigella's case) or just appearing rather odd (enter Heston).
And the public lap it all up! Then go back to the buffet for seconds and thirds.... eat as much we like.
Perhaps that is our downfall. And perhaps that explains why a good portion of the remaining TV programmes involve either some sadistic sort of weight loss competition... or a particularly irritating Lifestyle Guru lecturing others about the perils of eating 25 Mars Bars a day washed down with a few dozen gallons of beer....'The Biggest Loser', 'Fat Families', 'Supersize Versus Superskinny', 'You Are What You Eat'.... all variations on a theme, each one less palatable than the first, although perhaps none so nauseating as the tasteless 'Man vs Food', a US TV import during which some horribly greedy bloke is challenged to consume disgustingly large quantities of typically unhealthy food, all in the name of Entertainment.
With over a quarter of the population of England considered obese (source
NHS National Obesity Observatory), the dieting industry is literally Big Business. And some of the biggest gainers from that business? Why, the advertising industry of course! Just like a good burger needs some tasty ketchup, or perhaps a bit of BBQ sauce between the patty and the bun, there must be something to fill the gaps in airtime between the daily servings of '101 Way With Mystery Meats' and 'Hey You... Put Down That Box of Do-nuts!'
Weight Watchers have been running an extensive ad campaign recently... enlisting a whole smorgasbord of Sort-of Celebs waxing lyrical about their marvellous weight loss plan. Ironically, their advert is sometimes juxtaposed with those for super calorific chocolate oozing puddings (a la
Marks and Sparks)... or... and this I find particularly hard to swallow.... charity appeals for donations to combat world hunger, complete with horrific images of skeletal, malnourished children in the Third World.
It kind of got me thinking...albeit
very naively... that,
.... in an ideal world in which everyone bought and consumed just what they needed (don't get me started on the amount of food wastage that goes on!),
....a world that was free from greed and bureaucracy,
.... a world that had no corrupt dictators that commandeer Food Aid supplies for their own political gains, or global markets that manipulate food prices meaning food is sometimes destroyed rather than sold at a loss to the producers,
....not to mention the logistical nightmares of actually transporting food across the globe to those areas that cannot produce enough.....
There would most probably be enough food to feed every single person on this planet. And then some!
And no one would have to embarrass themselves on national TV to learn how to eat themselves healthy.
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
Imagine - John Lennon
..................
Note From Nat
This rather heavy post is not intended to offend anyone or lecture them on their lifestyle choices - I am as guilty as the next woman of over consumerism . It is merely a collection of my thoughts on things I have observed recently....
