Food in a Canvas
(What I’ve been consuming lately and does it matter)
I’ve been experimenting with what and when I eat for a while now. This is where I’m at — shared for anyone that’s going through the same thoughts, or curious enough with a mellow, perhaps self-interested activist agenda:
It begins: Always — oddly, for convenience perhaps — with the same few vegetables: a cooked beetroot, a cucumber, a radish bulb, a cherry tomato. All of them. Some. Followed by a filling protein portion — Eggs, chicken, or beef —with dairy. Finished with fruit, nuts, and yoghurt. Sweet, and dense, to kick off the day and manage cravings at dinner!
Pausing midway: usually at the office, a small portion of a leafy salad. Followed by a modest portion of a grain + meat or legumes. About an hour later: two pieces of fruit. On some days, a herbal or green tea late in the afternoon.
Ends with: Cooked vegetables + a grain (savoury oats or pasta) - generally a vegan meal that feels right after a day of eating meat and dairy.
The occasional stimulant: Coffee and pastry. Reintroduced after pausing for a few months to see how my body and mind respond. A powerful stimulant, aids a interesting machine of thought. But careful dear cellular apathy, if interrupted whilst it hunts, with a graze that must be broken through bodily functions, it struggles.
Some History: I was vegetarian for three years. Vegan for a few months. Like many I suppose — I reached a weak point. Reintroducing meat came with its baggage, density, energy, and feel-good aggression. Conclusion: it’s probably a social thing. I didn’t have a vibrant vegetarian community around my weekly routine. More power to those who do and feel great! I might end up giving it another try at some point.
A Few Thoughts Along the Way: To experience food as reward can be hierarchical. It’s easy to forget the consumer’s choice and power to influence the food system. The need to limit one’s time with the other is a must. The social aroma around food is lovely — and, increasingly, questionable!
General References
Eating to extinction - Dan Saladino - A very enjoyable piece of journalism on why some form of action needs to happen to save endangered species. - Exaggerated in some areas, for sure - but surfaces some questions about the evolving food system and our strange, almost masochistic pleasure in it.
Physiology of Taste - Jean Brillat - the book sounds attractive, and full of intimate descriptions of the human body and its relation to what it consumes - but presents a hierarchical approach to food. Putting an emphasis on the performance of taste, culture and power that outweighs an ecological and ethical approach to consume.
This Is Your Mind on Plants - Michael Pollan - ‘.…..The very idea that these drinks (tea and coffee) each constitute a ‘delivery system’ for a psychoactive compound offends us a little’
