Although I am no nutritionist, I will respectfully disagree. “Food is life,” I say. Literally and figuratively. Obviously we need calories from a variety of sources for physical survival and good health, but the traditions, mores, and rituals that surround food go worlds beyond simply filling an empty belly.
Food can fill hearts, minds, and souls. Good food. Real food. Not processed, packaged, preserved things that our grandmothers wouldn’t even recognize as edible. Things with ingredients that come from nature and can be easily pronounced by any third-grader. Things that come from healthy land and healthy animals. Things that do not come through a window into your car. We as a society have lost sight of the adage that “You are what you eat.” If that’s the case, we’re worse off than we realize.
Being from New Orleans means that I’ve grown up in a food-centric culture. During a meal, if we aren’t talking about that current meal, we’re talking about previous meals we’ve eaten or meals we want to eat in the future. Not only is it significant in that sentence that food is the main topic of conversation, it’s significant that there is, in fact, conversation. Gathering around a table as a family or group has been tradition since humans were squatting around cave fires. Somewhere along the way, a drive-thru burger eaten alone has become the norm, and society has lost that human connection that happens so easily and naturally while communing around a meal.
Some of my fondest memories revolve around the dining table. Flaky, crispy Thanksgiving turkey pastries at my grandmother’s house with the whole family…an icy sweet tea and crawfish poboy in the French Quarter with an old friend…chocolate-chip Mickey Mouse pancakes with my husband and daughter on a quiet Sunday morning…fruits and brownies dipped into molten chocolate with friends on Girls’ Night Out…it’s an endless list that could continue for pages. The point is that food has become an afterthought in our worlds, and as a result, we no longer have the respect for food we once did, and in turn, have lost respect for ourselves in the process. Parents stand by idly while their children gorge themselves on sugar and junk at school and don’t think twice about pizza or Chinese take-out three nights a week. More care is spent choosing a cell-phone plan than is spent choosing what we put into our bodies. Just last night on TV, I saw a restaurant owner admit that he wouldn’t feed his children what he serves his customers. When we watch the news at night and see the atrocious behavior of some individuals, or when the “old folks” start to get misty about “the good ol’ days,” maybe we should start looking for solutions in our kitchens and dining rooms. If people have time to shop and play Facebook games and do all the other wasteful things people do, then there’s definitely time to prepare a real meal with love and share it with those we care for.
