Food History

Today I have a special guest blogger. I’ve been getting in touch with other Australian bloggers – finding out what they do and where they blog it. Even blogs about health and wellbeing, and I thought his take on food history might be interesting. Enjoy!!

It is easy to forget that food is about our life. The foodie magazines usually write about food as if it was a fashion accessory, or as a kind of entertainment. The other extreme is reducing food to a collection of nutrients - the ultimate destination of this approach would be one food, easily digested, supplemented with every possible nutrient. Hardly an attractive prospect.

Both of these approaches lose the visceral and emotional connection that we have with our food. Just thinking about our favourite foods can be enough to alter our mood. And think of how strong our reaction is to foods that we really dislike. Food is a very emotional reality (which leads to a different approach to dieting than the simple ‘calories in, exercise out’ approach; but that would be the subject of another post).

Our childhood experiences are a particularly potent source of our feelings about food. One Dutch friend can’t stand the smell of fresh bread. (During World War II his mother would smuggle fresh bread to those hiding from the military. He associates the smell of fresh bread with anxiety for his mother’s life. Whenever he smells fresh bread he feels, once again, sick with anxiety). Then there are the positive experiences from our childhood. The foods that remind us of times of delight. For instance, there are the ‘magic foods’ that I had when getting over sickness. (In years 1 and 2 I was often sick with a “viral infection of the upper respiratory tract”. I learnt to know this phrase even though I didn’t have a clue what it meant.) For me vegemite on toast and lemonade are magic foods (though calling them food may be stretching the point a bit). These were the foods I had when I was getting better from my bouts of sickness. They are forever associated for me with getting well again. They are to this day associated with indulgence for me.

Re-establishing our emotional connection with food can open up a world of delight and indulgence. A world of pleasure not contemplated by either the food magazines or the nutrition gurus. Food can become a human experience for us once again.

Evan Hadkins
www.wellbeingandhealth.net