A Different Approach

So I should start the day with an apology - I seem to recall having promised more frequent posts. Obviously, that hasn't been happening. If you saw the kind of hours we're putting in at Vault 29, you'd know why.

So, if history has shown us anything, it's that I usually come here to talk about what I'm working on. When I was running the show over at the pet store, I posted a lot about fish. When I was selling tea, I talked a lot about tea.

I've also talked a lot about different ways of taking the concept of diet. It shouldn't surprise anyone that humanity as a whole or western culture specifically is consumed in the analysis of what we're eating. I just got done with the posts on nutrition which were a little heavy with references to the human biological machine.

The thing is, humans in general, and my generation pretty specifically, eat a whole lot of junk food. We know it's junk, and its inequities compared to "real" food (however we define that) are beyond dispute, but we eat it anyway. The last month or so has been fuelled by cans of sugary caffine tinged with flavours that are supposed to remind me of fruits, bags of sugary confetti, and greasy, quickly-scarfed meals from the local burger-slinger. That I work in the higher end of the Bar spectrum of cuisines seems not to be a factor - I need to eat quickly, and I need energy density.

Thing is, when you eat like that you find yourself rather rapidly deteriorating in health, if you can be bothered to pay attention to your own health. You might not have time to map out specific nutritional requirements - requirements I happen to know I am meeting regardless, thanks to a steady stream of multi-vitamins.

The obvious fact in all of this is that there's more to food than merely hitting your chemical requirements. Food has a role in mental health, at the very least.

So what I'm thinking of doing is just cutting out the nonsense completely. I mean, obviously that's not perfectly possible - or even very feasible, considering just how often it's the case that I really do only have 15 minutes to cook and eat a meal. But I can certainly do a lot better than I have been.

So what's real food look like? I don't know, but we'll see.