Real Food Is Ingredients
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So much of the food that we eat, whether for convenience or out of habit, is not really food; it is food-like substances packed with ingredients. But, according to Jamie Oliver, real food is different:
“Real food doesn’t have ingredients. Real food *is* ingredients.”
Processed food comes in packages with long lists of ingredients, many of which are difficult to pronounce. Real food doesn’t come with ingredients lists.
Processed food is made in a factory and typically has a branded story attached to it. Real food grows in the ground and looks like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and grasses (grains).
Processed food tells a story. Real food *is* the story.
I was inspired by a TED Talk that I watched some time ago with Jamie Oliver, which featured a clip of him in a West Virginia school, asking if the first graders in the class recognized specific fruits and vegetables. The kids knew tomato ketchup but not tomatoes. Although parts of this episode were almost certainly staged and edited for the cameras, it nevertheless highlights a very real lack of education and knowledge in our culture, both in the kosher world and mainstream society, when it comes to fresh food. Whether out of convenience, lack of time or lack of education, this is a problem.
When kids identify most strongly with food that comes out of a branded package, they are going to make whatever the food companies tell them to eat. They will never cook for themselves.
The next time you take your kids to the local market, have them read the ingredients of their favorite packaged foods. It’s an excellent habit to establish at a young age. See how many ingredients they can recognize or pronounce. Start a conversation around how and where that product is made and how those ingredients function in the food. I’ve done this with my kids.
Then take them to the produce and fruit aisle. Have them describe how their favorite fruit or vegetable comes into being, what “ingredients” go into “making” it and the color, taste and texture it has when it is ready to eat. My kids will grab the nearest carrot, pepper or apple.
And then those fresh foods become the “raw material” ingredients for an infinite variety of delicious, freshly-cooked dishes.
It’s almost as if making your own food has now become an act of subversion!
