Over the last few weeks I have found myself in a number of conversations, reading articles and watching videos that have common themes, and themes important to me. It is all about food! Another food blog I hear you think to yourself. Food is fashionable and everyone has a food blog, follows one, watches cooking programs, collects recipe books, knows the coolest places to eat, is up on the latest super foods, is low carb, vegan, paleo, primal …
Despite all this hype and interest our health as a state in Tasmania, where I live, is woeful! We are blessed with clean air and water, good rainfall, and a temperate climate and we produce some of the greatest food in the world; recently we entertained the world’s leading chefs and foodies to dinner at MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art) to showcase Australian food. Yet most Tasmanians eat far less than the recommended minimum of two serves of fruit and five of vegetables a day and we have alarming rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other diet related health issues. And we are not alone in this. Much of the western world has similar issues and the same trends are emerging in other nations as they industrialise their food.
None of this is new and it hasn’t happened overnight although, in terms of our ‘bigger picture’ life on earth, many of the issues we face are relatively recent, escalating over the last fifty years. There are plenty of switched on people who are trying to make a difference and ‘banging on’ about the need for more fresh fruit and vegetables and less processed food in our diets but we do not appear to be having the desired effect! Why not?
That is what I want to think about and explore in this blog. I am not arrogant enough to expect to change the world but my hope is that I can inspire a few other people, fellow Tasmanians and some of you from farther afield to consider how we, as individuals, can make a difference and turn the tide here in Tasmania and elsewhere.
My first assertion, and derived from it the name of this blog, is that we need to put food back on the table! Preferably on plates not out of boxes, polystyrene cups, paper bags or the like. Real food that my great grandmother would recognise as food. And that we sit down and eat it together.
The photo is of a meal that I sat down to recently with a group of my extended family. We talked, laughed and ate together; we ate food that my daughter had prepared that included a big variety of vegetables, some cooked and some raw, together with meat, cheese, egg, bread and fruit. This is something that I believe we do not do enough of – eat together, eat well and eat real food!
I hope you will join me in in my challenge – to explore how we can make a difference. What are the obstacles, what are the issues, how can we help each other?
foodonthetabletasmania 