Food is good

Food - it keeps us alive, it gives us pleasure, it brings us closer. It can connect us to our ancestors, it can transport us to another part of the world, it can surprise us and make us learn something new about ourselves.

My whole life I have been nurtured and nourished by food prepared by those who love me, and now that I am grown I too can send and share love this way. I have just started to learn to cook (rather than heat) food and I want to spend the rest of my life developing that skill.

When you prepare food for someone, you send so many positive messages; "I care about you", "I want you to be healthy", "you are worth my time and energy", "remember when....." or "remember this day", "I pay attention to what you like" , "thinking of you" and "let's pay attention to the fleeting pleasure of life".

The pleasures of food are not simply sentimental ones, however. Food is incredibly sensual - involving all five of our senses; sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. We start to experience our food the moment we see it, then we smell it, taste it, hear it crunching or sloshing, we feel its texture in our mouths.

Obviously I have spent a lot of time ruminating on the benefits and delights of home made food, but it is only recently that I realize that our food choices can have an even broader benefit. Each day we must eat, and each choice we make in what we eat gives us an opportunity to do good. With each meal we can, at the very least, make ourselves feel good, thus benefiting the world in that we are one less hungry grump walking around. We often have the opportunity to share food with those we care about, furthering our feelings of connection and tradition. We can choose foods that are high in nutrition, another benefit to ourselves, but also eventually reducing the burden of our poor health on our families. We can choose foods grown locally and sustainably, reducing our carbon footprint as well as supporting our local economies. We can also choose to consume fair trade foods that have an impact on our global community and economy....in short, the extent to which we can do good through food is endless, and easy.

This blog will be a small place where I share simple ways that I have found to make the world a slightly better place, while simultaneously making myself and my dear ones feel good. Dinner plate activism, if you will, with a generous side order of hedonism.


(My reaction to seeing the wedding cake made by hand for me by my dear friend of over 20 years, Anitra.)