Lifestyle Choices

It may seem unusual to start a section on good nutrition with a plea for delicious food on your table. But it’s far too easy to fall into the trap of talking about nutrition as if it were only quantities of proteins, milligrams of numbered vitamins, units of minerals, and altogether a dry table of contents for the human body, used to correct deficiencies, control diseases and cure weight problems.

Nutrition is much more — at its best, it’s the study of human beings in their environment, and how they are sustained and supported all through their lives by a healthy, functioning body.

Of course, for those who have to keep to a strict diet or a very restricted menu, there aren’t many alternatives, and food becomes something to eat merely to stay alive and relatively well.

But for most of us, good food and good eating is a gift to ourselves three times a day, and enjoying what we eat is nutrition’s gift to us. The relaxation and pleasure we feel during a good dinner actually helps the body to digest and assimilate food as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Remember the smell of fragrant soup bubbling with herbs and vegetables on a cold night? The aroma of freshly baked bread? The crunchy bite of crisp salad, the tang of oil and vinegar? Every time we respond to food in this way, our body has begun to manufacture the necessary enzymes, and the whole system gets ready to do its job in the best possible way.

There are other benefits from learning to enjoy food, too. Cooking is a time consuming part of every day, so it seems sensible to try and make it as easy and pleasant as possible. The easy part is learning the best way to prepare good food and our Cook’s Guide should help you with that.

The pleasant aspects of cooking are the joys it can bring as a skill and a craft, and as something to share with the rest of the family, and with friends, too.

New recipes and unusual dishes make dinner time seem more of an adventure, and with a whole world of recipes to choose from, you could probably cook for a year without ever repeating the same dish. Equally, simple natural foods taste good; no matter how many times there are crisp apples and cheese on the table, they will always be welcome, and always taste slightly different.

Children should enjoy cooking and preparing food, too. They love to bake gingerbread men and carefully swirl meringue kisses onto the rice paper. Most children are so delighted with the fun of creating delicious things that they will be willing and useful helpers for many of the duller chores.

Finally, an extra bonus — cooking can be a therapy, a way of pausing for a moment or two in the day’s frantic rush to shell or cut and arrange in lovely patterns. Food should be a pleasure for the eye as well as the palate, and the act of making a dish look fresh and appetizing is often a good way of relaxing. If you are really upset, then baking bread can be the answer — kneading dough hard and punching it down over and over again may make the bread take a little longer to rise than usual, but it will lighten your heart wonderfully.

All of this doesn’t mean that food should become the be-all and end-all of our day. A gourmet who appreciates fine food is not a glutton who gobbles down endless platters. We must not confuse quality with quantity, encouraging reluctant guests to eat more than they would like, as if we are going to be judged by how much food is actually on the table when we get up after dinner.

Eating can be a real delight, but it must never be a substitute for living or loving. We should regard it as a way of sustaining life and a part of life, a nourishing ingredient for ourselves and our families/which we can serve every day with pride, and with pleasure. The joy of food, certainly, and food for joy, always.

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