Choices are great, right? They give us a feeling of expansion, of being able to have exactly what we want. When it comes to food we can go around the world—twice!—in seven days. Italian and other Mediterranean influences, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, French, Japanese … the list is as endless as the countries from which the dishes come.
We live in an era where the world is accessible—in real life or through the internet. We can be adventurous and experiment with the tastes of the planet. Heck, we can do it every day if we want. How good is that? Well, excuse me for putting a dampener on all this largesse, but I wonder if perhaps that’s part of our problem. We just have so much choice and our tastebuds now crave all those different experiences. We want sweet, sour, bitter, hot. Don’t get me wrong; I love many international dishes to the extent of being a little piggy for them.
I’m thinking, though, that our more sophisticated (well, not necessarily sophisticated, but more choice-orientated) tastes are now a big part of our obesity problem. We don’t seem to really ‘do’ bland any more. Could our almost inexhaustible desire for different foods and new flavours be pivotal to our rising obesity? If we limited ourselves to just one cuisine and concentrated on preparing delicious and nutritious food within the traditional parameters of that cuisine, would we be better off?
Not that long ago, we westerners thought Chinese fare was a special treat and that spaghetti bolognaise was quite exotic. It wasn’t that our diet was so great—white bread and white sugar were to be found as part of the daily staple for the vast majority—but we ate simpler food. The Scots had their oats for breakfast. It was meat and three veg at dinner most nights for those with an English background. They managed to thrive on it, too, even without the simmer sauces and flavour sachets that we seem to need nowadays.
So my thoughts on choice are beginning to change. We are eating more and more. The variety of foods and flavours we can access on a daily basis is nothing short of astounding. And what’s happening? We are getting fatter and unhealthier.
A better choice—a more considered decision—would be to eat less and to donate the money we save from doing so to people who don’t have a choice, and who are starving because of it.