Why we need to get over seasonal guilt?
Whether we’re overtly religious or not, binging and dieting is a poisonous tributary of the religious mindset, a carryon of the silly thought that we have to make good for our sins (stuffing our faces with food) by suffering (taking on increasingly ridiculous diets that don’t really work, but do make you miserable). It’s the great push/pull con of modern day consumerism, the idea that thou shalt suffer for one’s wanton indulgence!
But what never gets any press is the idea of simply eating well and enjoying yourself, and not suffering the consequences of over-indulgence. I guess it’s not a story, because if it really caught on, the diet industry would be dead in the water, and we’d have to find something else to feel the guilt over. Too much shopping? Tell an addiction counsellor. Too much television? Run a marathon! Too much sex? Tell a priest!
Walk down Ponsonby Road - or indeed anywhere in the area covered by this esteemed publication - and you’ll quickly notice that people look pretty good. By and large, they’re not morbidly obese. But walk down the streets of Otahuhu, or any small town, and it’s impossible not to notice the difference. We’re lucky enough to live in an area where there’s real consciousness about food. That means we know about the art of making and buying delicious and exquisite food, and there’s hardly a fried chicken outlet to be seen. We also know that bodies need some exercise, and that cultivation of deliciousness ultimately leads to better health, not more calories.
Sadly, that’s not the case in the regions. Walk down the main street in a rural township like Helensville or Dargaville, and you’ll see what I mean. Isn’t it odd that while so much of the produce that feeds the main urban centres comes from the country, those country folk themselves don’t appear to be looking after their health, or developing any real perspective on consumption of food?
Interestingly, the continued evolution of ideas about what we eat needs to be a two-way street between rural producers and 'townies'. While an exceptional Ponsonby restaurant might create a spike in demand for (for instance) some herb or spice that’s never been grown in quantities in New Zealand, growers themselves sometimes have to take the bull by the horns (so to speak) and help to create demand for good ideas.
While farmers are regularly portrayed as retrograde rednecks, I was gratified the other day to read of a Northland fruit and nut farmer who bucks the stereotype. Perry Allen is - of all things - a former butcher who keeps kunekune pigs to keep the areas around the trees clear of weeds. He’s fallen in love with the wee porcines to the extent that it’s made him reassess his relationship to the animal world, and is considering becoming vegan.
Now that’s what I call a positive outcome. (GARY STEEL)
Gary Steel is an Auckland-based journalist who runs online vegetarian resource
www.doctorfeelgood.co.nz He can be contacted via beautmusic@gmail.com