So, I’ve just returned from a weeks holiday with my parents in South-West France, and a couple of things I saw whilst there worried me about how little, as consumers we actually know about our food sources.
If you think about it, we eat for energy, vitamins and minerals to keep our bodies functioning, growing and repairing well. We are literally what we eat…….despite disliking that woman, she’s right in this instance!!
Examples being, a lot of vitmains and minerals we need are obtained from brightly colour fruit and vegetables. Hence the phrase “Eat a rainbow” – keep your intake varied to ensure lots of sources are covered.
We eat meats, fish and eggs for protein, which helps to rebuild/build our muscles, skin, nails, hair, and helps to regulate hormones levels.
So this is a perfect world, what we eat goes in, and supplies us our needed nutrients and calories ? This is knows as a “balanced diet” to many people.
I don’t think there is such a thing as a “balanced diet”, unless you truly know where the food source has come from and how it’s been cared/grown for.
Let me explain a few things I saw whilst in “rural France”……….
The kids were taken by my mum to the local Farmer for a look round his “animal” one day. On return and being told about the lovely rabbits and chickens, I went with them the next day.
Holy crap!
The rabbits were in cages about 3ft long, and were BIG, wild rabbits. If I just say they weren’t in the best of conditions, problem couldn’t see me, and weren’t up for moving too much….well you get the picture. I asked my mum what they did with these multiple rabbits?
“Eat them” was the answer……….
Onto the lovely chickens…….
They “ran” around an area not too big, not too clean and certainly didn’t have a bright set of fluffy feathers…
“Let me guess…..that’s food too?”
“Sometimes, but mostly for egg production, we get ours there”
At this point my eyes nearly popped out my head as I’d been using these eggs for a few days to make Protein pancakes!!
After quickly checking out the budgies in a sh!t speckled cage we walked back as I talked to my mother about the benefits of health nutrition!!!
You see, those animals as well as not being very well, are obviously pretty stressed. When this happens to us, our bodies break down, don’t work well and internally, we are a bit of a mess. Multiply this with a good few days/weeks of this treatment, and well, you get the picture, not pretty, and whatever is produced (eggs, meat) is not going to be very healthy/nutrient rich! But to look at a nice box of eggs…..well you don’t know any different do you?!
We went to a local market and saw the same there, about 6 chickens in a 1 foot high by 3 foot long cage, the guy there selling them for whatever you wanted to use them for!
Vegetables and fruits, cant be treated in such poor ways, but they do obtain THEIR nutrients from the quality of soil they are grown in, and then can have it altered/reduced by any pesticides sprayed on them to keep the bugs away. Not washed properly and you’ll be ingesting even MORE hormone changing pesticides than those already absorbed by the product.
No I know this is rural France, and different countries have different cultures, but do you REALLY know where your food comes from or how it’s looked after?
The above is all in relation to standard foods in their “natural” state, but if you start talking about fast food restaurants and processed meats, well, use Youtube and search “Mcdonalds Burger making” and the alike then you’ll find some shocking stuff.
So, you can probably forget the phrase “balanced diet”
You can probably forget the phrase “You are what you eat”
Probably more apt is “You are what you ate, last ate, and lived like!”
Think smart, and eat healthy!