By Maria Millers
Food is a basic need essential to our survival and wellbeing and as American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed in 1943 in his pyramid of human needs survival needs must be in place before we can achieve our more creative self-actualisation goals.
Today food is everywhere, at least in developed rich countries like Australia.
From wall to wall cooking shows to food courts, take away franchises, local fish and chip and pizza shops, the choices are staggering.
Then there is also the growing number of specialized options available either for health reasons or merely as lifestyle choices.
But even though there is this abundance of food, paradoxically there are in our community people who are finding it hard to feed families.
We are told that food banks are seeing a new demographic of the struggling employed.
And we are also told that growing number of our population is malnourished, deficient in nutrients, necessary for good health and well-being.
This is likely the overdependence on that unholy trinity of sugar, salt and fat, present in so much of the over processed food consumed Australia is not a country with a strong food culture like France or Italy.
As food historian Michael Symonds wrote:
Unlike other societies with a dominant agrarian history, we have inherited no cuisine in the traditional sense. Australia’s food history has instead been dynamic, urban, industrial, science-based and capitalist-driven.
It was the post WWII migrants that slowly but surely began to change our taste buds: from Mediterranean to Eastern European and then to Asian and Middle Eastern food.
Garlic became acceptable, olive oil moved from pharmacies to supermarkets, sour cream was no longer seen as cream gone bad and hummus has become a favourite go to dip.
And suddenly bread choices multiplied: sourdough, wholegrain, rye, ancient grains, hemp, the list is endless.
Henry Leigh Hunt’s A Loaf of Bread celebrates the simple pleasure of bread, a staple, nutritious food that should sustain and nourishes us, A loaf of bread,/said Pythagoras,/is the most/perfect of all things;/for it is/made of air,/and light,/and water,/and flour,/and salt,/ and yeast,/and love,/and time.
This week Maggie Beer long known for her TV shows, like the Chef and the Cook and her gourmet products, but also for her passionate advocacy for fresh nutritious food, uninhibited by fads and trends, has turned her gaze to the quality of food found in our Aged Care homes.
She found that there was something soulless in the whole eating experience for those living in Aged Care.
Of particular concern was that there was heavy reliance on processed ingredients from stock cubes to instant potatoes.
Older people not only need fresh, nutritious food but also tasty, flavoursome food to compensate for any loss in taste.
The program was motivated by the high levels of neglect, malnutrition and social isolation identified by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
It is estimated that 68 per cent of Australians in residential aged care are malnourished or at risk of becoming so.
But it’s not only those in residential care that are not getting a good diet.
Those existing on weekly deliveries of frozen food and also those in the general community whose diet for various reasons is contributing to the many chronic and other health conditions we are seeing, even among children.
Many an unruly child is a hungry child.
With the many stresses facing families today, nutrition is often sub optimal.
Who can blame the parent (still most likely the mother) tired from work leaning towards shortcuts offered by processed food rather than cooking from scratch.
There is also the undeniable fact that today many have fewer skills of how to prepare a fresh nutritious meal in less time than buying something processed.
Food has become a minefield as we are constantly told what to avoid what to eat and what not to eat.
Some belief that totally plant based diets will save the planet, others disagree.
Maya Angelou in her gently humorous dig at vegans in The Health-Food Diner writes:
No sprouted wheat and soya shoots And Brussels in a cake, Carrot straw and spinach raw, (Today, I need a steak). Not thick brown rice and rice pilaw Or mushrooms creamed on toast, Turnips mashed and parsnips hashed, (I’m dreaming of a roast). Health-food folks around the world Are thinned by anxious zeal, They look for help in seafood kelp (I count on breaded veal).
Similarly, Billy Collins is outright in the pleasure that a hearty osso buco can induce:
I love the sound of the bone against the plate/and the fortress-like look of it lying before me in a moat of risotto/,the meat soft as the leg of an angel who has lived a purely airborne existence/.and best of all, the secret marrow the invaded privacy of the animal/prised out with a knife and swallowed down/with cold, exhilarating wine.
Maggie Beer’s attempts to bring awareness of nutritious food should resonate beyond her primary concern of feeding those in Aged Care Feeding the next generation and teaching them good eating habits and the skills to cook a healthy meal is vital.
And as Maslow pointed out until that basic need of food is met, our higher achievements are compromised.
Woorilla Poetry Prize 2024 is now receiving submissions. Visit the following website, woorilla.org.au
