Fattening up our future health problems

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio version of this blog story, click here.]

What exactly are we putting into our bodies?

Of all the subjects I may be deemed unqualified to comment on, parenting is surely one of them.

It's easy for me, a childless man, to be idealistic, to condemn what I believe to be poor parenting practices and be convinced that I would do things differently, for the better, if I were a father. Let's see how I'd fare if I were, quite literally, left holding my own baby (previous bouts of babysitting don't really count).

Intoxicating toddlers

Nonetheless, these days only the ignorant, indifferent or negligent would let their defenceless newborns regularly consume ultra-processed and/or sugar-laden, unnaturally sweetened foods. Numerous studies highlight the potential harm to our health in such eating.

If the parents want to indulge in unwholesome fare, that's their choice — I am, like many, far from squeaky clean when it comes to what is considered healthy eating. But actively encouraging toddlers to down soft drinks or some candy with an ingredient list the length of a children's book, is both sad and worrying to see.

Why not hand them a cigarette and a bottle of beer while at it? Both are generally less processed in any case.

In a Colombian context, it can be argued that, in some sectors of society, there is a lack of knowledge as to what makes up a good diet. 'Food is food, just get it into ya.'

What's more, even for a well-read individual, there isn't full consensus in the medical/scientific community as to what a healthy diet is. The information available can be quite confusing and, at times, contradictory.

Fake food

Where there is widespread consensus, though, is on the harms of ultra-processed foods. It's generally agreed that whatever we eat, try to eat it as close to its most natural form as possible.

The ideal would be to cultivate your own food, where you control how it's grown or reared. Modern life makes such a scenario next to impossible for most of us.

So we have to try to make the best of a far-from-optimal situation.

I've written before about the abundance of relatively cheap fresh fruit and veg in Colombia. For those of a more carnivorous persuasion, the country is not lacking in that department either. (How pumped full of potentially nasty chemicals all these are is another matter.)

'While fat-shaming is seen as a hate crime by many social justice warrior types, some obese folk, it seems, don't care about themselves.'

Thus, avoiding prettily packaged convenience food shouldn't be a difficult task here. Yet, from what I frequently see in the barrio, the opposite is the case. And if it's good for Mammy and Daddy (if he's present), then it's good for little Juan or Juanita.

One mother, who is surely in the morbid obesity category, seems keen on seeing her youngest become a sugar/sweet/candy addict before he can barely walk.

This is the same mother who I witnessed devouring an 80-gram packet of crisps (or chips, for our North American friends) by pouring — yes, pouring — them into her mouth. Gone, in about twenty seconds. This was within minutes of her having had a substantial meal.

While fat-shaming is seen as a hate crime by many social justice warrior types, some obese folk, it seems, don't care about themselves. OK, maybe there are mental issues at play and I can be accused of making light — or, um, not making light as the case is — of a disease but some people appear to be utterly lazy.

Self-control

Now, as referred to earlier, what adults decide to do or not to do is their business as far as I'm concerned. I'm certainly not advocating for a nanny state to control every aspect of our lives.

People should be responsible for their own actions. In a far-from-free world, eschewing responsibility tends to push one further under the control of other actors. For greater safety and security, misplaced as this often is, it's a case of, 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' 

For sure, if whatever one does is illegal, we have mechanisms — questionable or flawed as some are — in place to deal with transgressors.

In this regard, fattening up dependent, impressionable young children with food of little-to-no real nutritional value can be seen as a form of abuse.

It could set in motion dangerous addictions and associated health complications in the years to come. These are problems that will affect society as a whole in the form of additional healthcare costs and a reduction in overall productivity.

So a backseat, point-the-finger parent I maybe, but we all have skin in the game when it comes to humanity's future prosperity. One is simply showing concern and trying to help. Don't devour the messenger.
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The panadería's pudgy pauper

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio version of this blog story click here.]

A boy, about 12 years old, regularly comes into one of my panadería offices asking for food.

Unfortunately, such a scene is not unusual in these parts.

Rather than helping the bread-begging boy, are we killing him softly?

Pan out

However, what makes this particular pauper stand out from the stream of other mendicants is that he seems well, nay overly, fed and is rather neat in appearance. Also, he doesn't appear — thankfully enough, especially considering his youth — to have a drug problem.

He might, though, have a sweet-bread addiction. This would help to explain both his pudginess and penchant for the panadería.

Now, before I am accused of being both cruel and a hypocrite — I've previously documented my predilection for certain panadería delights — I'm not completely begrudging the boy of this farinaceous favour.

An occasional — occasional that is — bit of bread isn't the worst thing he could consume. And because he's plump doesn't mean he's sufficiently satiated.

One concern, however, is that if his diet consists chiefly of highly processed bread, then he's most likely facing into an adulthood of health problems.

Were I to offer him a serving of one of my vegetable stew specials, I wager he'd turn it down. (He never actually approaches me, though. I must have a mean look to me.)

So, there's a chance that he's a foti — fat on the outside, thin on the inside — but in a negative way (the standard view is that a foti is healthier than a tofi, thin on the outside, fat on the inside). This is to say, he's not getting the right nutrition. He's got plenty of company on that front.

'It's a sign that I've been in Colombia too long that I have doubts about the bona fides of the boy's begging.'

Indeed, most of the fare on offer in Colombia's ten-a-peso panaderías should come with a health warning. In addition to high quantities of salt and/or sugar glued together with poor-quality flour, the majority of bakeries use what are in essence poisonous margarines and preservatives.

The giveaway is in the shelf-life. I don't think I've ever seen panadería products go mouldy. One can only wonder what these powerful preservatives do to one's microbiome.

Beg to differ

As for eating wholesomely, some argue that pursuing a healthy diet is far more difficult for society's less well-off. Unhealthier foods are cheaper and more convenient.

That doesn't fully hold true in Colombia. Here, when it comes to diet, it's not always money that does the talking. Convenience often does the "conversing", coupled with, I guess, cravings.

This is because one can buy fresh fruit and vegetables at competitive prices all year round.

Colombia's fruit & veg: Cheap-ish and cheerful (if they're not overly laden with chemicals).

In my part of Bogotá, it's common to see a range of such foodstuffs retailing at around 1,000 pesos per pound — bananas, butternut squash, carrots, green beans, papaya, peppers, potatoes, pumpkin, tomatoes and much more besides.

Throw in the amazing avocado, regularly on offer for five for 2,000 pesos, and we've got the makings of a fairly cheap salubrious snack. (One only hopes, naively perhaps, that these natural goodies aren't laden with harmful pesticides.)

OK, fish, meat and poultry aren't quite as economical but they're not off the charts either, not when compared to what one might fork out for a nutritionally poor panadería treat.

This is why I say convenience and cravings do the conversing, not monetary concerns.

Fair enough, not everyone has access to kitchen facilities to cook food from scratch. And Colombia's worst-paid urban workers often have little free time on a typical day. Between the commute and work itself, 14-hour shifts are common.

As for my panadería's pudgy pauper, I'd have to engage in some espionage to find out his exact circumstances.

A sign, perhaps, that I've been in Colombia for too long that I have doubts, owing to his overall demeanour, about the bona fides of his begging.

Would he take a banana as readily as he takes a bit of bread? Maybe if it was deep-fried he would.
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Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here.

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'Horse it into ya'

For Westerners travelling in what you might call developing countries, one of the many pieces of advice they’ll get from home is to be careful about what they eat. ‘You can never be too sure that what’s on your plate is what the locals might say it is’ is a common refrain – particularly so when it comes to meat. 

Well, in a ‘shocking’ reversal of fortunes, it seems a large portion of developed Europe has been, not quite ‘taken for a ride’ on a horse, but actually eating one – or more than one, it would seem.

Holy horses.

For instead of the meat content of some packaged products consisting of only beef as they were meant to, it turns out a little bit of horse meat was thrown in, too, to give it a bit of a ‘kick’, we can only guess. 

Now, for some people, depending perhaps on their country of origin, this isn’t that big of a deal. But for others, especially those in Ireland and Britain, not only is the thought of eating a horse a little unsettling, it’s actually illegal. 

Back in the old country, we do just about everything else with horses except eat them. In one sense this might be seen as a little unfair: Why single out the horse for special treatment? But that’s just the way it is.

Whatever your own thoughts on eating horse meat – we’re not fussy in this regard as any meat is a rare ‘treat’ these days – the bigger issue here, of course, is the breakdown in trust between the consumer and the supplier. 

When people buy packaged meat, they expect it to be what it says on the packet – regardless if the actual true meat content is minuscule. 

There is also the problem of quality assurance and standards. As most horses are not raised for human consumption, they and their meat are not treated as a foodstuff in the same way that cattle, pigs and sheep are (or at least should be) and therefore generally not subject to the same standards. This is especially so in terms of what injections and medication they receive throughout their life.

The fact, however, that this ‘scandal’ has been limited, so far at least, to relatively cheap packaged meals – ready-made lasagne, meat pies and suchlike – has seen the debate also centre on the people who buy them and why. 

Regardless of whatever kind of meat is in these meal-in-a-minute style products, many of them firmly fall into the junk-food category, despite what the manufacturers might say; high in fat, salt, carbohydrates, sugar even and loaded with other ‘enhancers’ while the protein levels are pretty low.

Healthy, home-made grub.

People who buy them – and from what we’ve witnessed in the past it’s not just those from the poorest backgrounds – point to the fact that they are cheap and extremely convenient. No labouring in the kitchen required. 

Both aspects are true, but you can get many different types of fresh fruit and vegetables (both root and over-ground) for similar, if not cheaper prices. 

As for the convenience, it doesn’t take that long to put together a tasty vegetable stir-fry where you control what kind of flavours are added. Heck, chop up a few spuds and put them on the boil and they’re ready in less than 30 minutes. OK, it’s not as quick as five minutes in the microwave but when your health and well-being are at stake, what’s half an hour? We tend to find, too, that if you wash the pots and pans you used in cooking before you sit down to eat, it makes the meal all the tastier.

‘Ah, but what about the meat?’, you ask. Well, for one, as pointed out earlier, there’s not much of that in the majority of those all-in-one meals – at best the scratchings from a butcher. Plus, do we really need to eat meat every day of the week or even at least twice a day as it is for some? No, is the simple answer, we don’t.

Many of us have become so accustomed to having some sort of meat with most of our snacks that anything we eat without it just doesn’t seem right. It’s a safe bet, though, that if we all had to personally kill our own animals there’d be plenty more vegetarians about – and no one would be any the worse off. 

Indeed, there might be a reduction in obesity because of it, considering the quality of meat, or lack thereof as the case is, that many consume these days.

There’s a lot of satisfying, healthy fun you can have with cooking an array of different vegetables that can be ready to eat in minutes. Yet, even in times when in many parts of the world the abundance of a variety of ‘green’ foods has never been greater, our willingness to experiment with them is quite low in general.

HorseRADISH (pic from theherbcottage.com).

Our native land often comes in for criticism on this front. Climatically and historically, though, we Irish have an excuse – the land naturally isn’t brimming full of different types of fruit and veg all year round. 

This is far less the case, however, here in our adopted country of Colombia. Most of the locals, though, seem unwilling to embrace a varied vegetable diet, even though plenty of them are available and at very cheap prices. 

In fact, the standard plate here generally comes with three starchy carbohydrates – rice, potatoes and pasta – mushy beans or peas, a token piece of meat or fish and a bit of a salad that a snail would devour in seconds. You’d find more colour and variety at a Ku Klux Klan meeting compared to the offerings on a standard Colombian dish.

That’s not to say we don’t like what they eat here, but they could be a little more ‘adventurous’ in the kitchen at times*. 

For example, a little more horseradish and less, erm, horse. Are you listening, Europe?

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*For our like of the 'famed' arepas in particular, check out 'Six of the best in 2012 (well kind of)' http://bit.ly/VQGxxo

+In case you're wondering, the 'inspiration' for the title of this post came from this particular 'gem' of a song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhILr70yKQU