A word – or Two – About Food

I know, I know, this is a blog about aging. But food, as an essential part of so much of our life, fits right in, I believe.

I’m engaged in a book now by Michael Pollan whose title is IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. I highly recommend it. His advice is this: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

A quote from page 8 of his book articulates well the long-held place of food in our individual, social and communal life:

"We forget that, historically, people have eaten for a great many reasons other than biological necessity. Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity. As long as humans have been taking meals together, eating has been as much about culture as it has been about biology."

In many public retirement communities, an emphasis is placed on enhanced dining from a simple marketing perspective. The large dining rooms are often elegant in style with tablecloths and “real” napkins at every setting. Staff serve residents restaurant-style from a menu that contains choices. Nice! Regardless of the motive. Call it paying attention to consumer interests. Not a bad idea either.

I’ve been thinking much about food, health, quality of life, and the dining experience, particularly for people living in retirement settings in the context Pollan states on page 8 of his latest book.
Pleasure
Community
Family
Spirituality
Our relationship to the earth
Expressing our identity (cultural and ethnic food habits)

How can we enhance the expression of each of these deep human values in the retirement setting? It will vary by community, by location, by local circumstances. It’s worth looking into with serious intentionality.

I believe the most important ingredient in this holistic approach toward food and sharing meals together is cooking REAL FOOD from SCRATCH. The trucks that pull up to institutional kitchens carry processed food or food-like substances as Pollan calls them. The fuel connsumed in transporting foods in our industrial food culture (an average of 1500 miles) is ten times the energy of the food transported. As we call for care of the earth, can we stop the over-consumption of fuel, the overuse of the chemicals used in growing and processing these foods, which subsequently end up in our waterways, and buy locally? Buy REAL FOOD, fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, eggs from our local farmers and beef, pork and poultry from local ranchers? Imagine the gastronomical delight in once again having home-cooked food, of savoring the marvelous sweet juiciness of fruits and melons grown nearby and served promptly after being harvested.

For those who tend to look at the pragmatic first --- Food budgets based on cooking ‘from scratch’ are a mere 1/3 of the budgets based on trucked-in, processed and frozen foods. And look at how we honor Mother Earth in the process! It’s also a win for the lucky people who are served this food, for the small local family farmer and rancher, as well as the kitchen staff who get to do something more creative than open boxes and heat up the oven!