Ultra-processed foods are packaged ready-to-eat foods made mostly from just a few high-yielding plant species (GMO maize, wheat, soy and oil-seed crops such as palm oil). These fake foods are also full of sugar, salt, fat, artificial colours, flavouring additives and preservatives.
Because they are highly processed, these fake food products are devoid of the nutrients that are found in whole foods, making them highly unhealthy for us and damaging to our already polluted world because of packaging waste, industrial pollution and the damage caused by monoculture agriculture — contributing to biodiversity loss and loss of wildlife habitat.
This "globalised diet" represents a well-oiled business plan, using marketing tactics to tempt us while damaging our health.
Cheap convenience food also strips away food-culture by undermining the mindful eating and sharing of food, the process of cooking and preparing a meal, the ceremony of setting a table to have a meal with family and community.
We must go back to the kitchen and re-learn our traditional foods, to cook simple seasonal meals that are nourishing. The simple act of cooking real food can help us restore our own health and that of the planet.
To regain connection to our food we can join a community garden, grow our own seasonal veges and fruit, shop local for our bread and artisan products, such as spreads, dips, chutneys and jams. Pick up simple recipes from neighbours and family and enjoy spending time in the kitchen experimenting and learning.
Food writer Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Cooked, says:
"Cheap food has become an indispensable pillar of the modern economy. But it is no longer an invisible or uncontested one. One of the most interesting social movements to emerge in the last few years is the ‘food movement’, or perhaps I should say ‘movements’, since it is unified as yet by little more than the recognition that industrial food production is in need of reform because its social/environmental/public health/animal welfare/gastronomic costs are too high ... The food movement has set out to foster new forms of civil society ... the food movement opposes the dominance of corporations and their tendency to insinuate themselves into any aspect of our lives from which they can profit ... The corporatisation of something as basic and intimate as eating is, for many of us today, a good place to draw the line."
Links and information for local food in Dunedin:
Dunedin Bakeries:
Side-On 326 Moray Place
Spelt Bakery 481 Highgate, Maori Hill
Danish Delights 604 Hillside Road, South Dunedin
Body of the Year Bakery https://bodyoftheyearbakery.nz/ (available from Taste Nature 131 High Street)
Pane Ora (gluten free bakery) https://paneora.company.site/
Good Food Dunedin: a resource for gardening guide and local food https://www.dunedinnz.com/live-and-work/good-food-dunedin
Community gardens in Dunedin:
Green Island Community Garden, Shand Street, Green Island, Dunedin 9018 https://www.facebook.com/GreenIslandCommunityGarden/
Shetland Street Community Garden, Shetland Street Reserve, Kaikorai Valley, Dunedin https://dunedinenvironmentcentre.nz/shetland-street-community-gardens/
NEV Community Garden NEV School upper field, North Rd https://www.northeastvalley.org/directory/12/north-east-valley-community...
SEA Community Garden, University of Otago 139 Dundas St https://www.facebook.com/StudentsforEnvironmentalActionOtago
Resources
https://www.dunedinnz.com/live-and-work/good-food-dunedin/good-food-for-...
A pot of seasonal veges
This is a one-pot dish, a great way to make a hearty and succulent batch of roast veges. I use a ceramic casserole with a lid.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Seasonal vegetables:
2 large tomatoes
2 small beetroots, cut into quarters
2 medium-sized courgettes, cut into 2cm rounds
2 carrots cut into 1cm thick rounds
4 small new potatoes cut in half
2 small onions cut into quarters
8 cloves of garlic peeled
¼ cup olive oil, plus a little extra
½tsp good quality mineral rich salt
Black pepper to taste
Sprig of fresh thyme
Sprig of fresh rosemary
Method
Preheat oven to 190degC
Place the olive oil in the ceramic pot and spread to coat the bottom and sides of the pot.
To prepare the vegetables, chop and place them, all except the tomatoes, in a large bowl and toss with the extra olive oil and salt.Tip into the casserole dish, add the tomatoes and mix them around, sprinkle a little more salt (to replace some of the salt that is left behind in the mixing bowl) and the black pepper, place rosemary and thyme. Cover and bake for 45 min at 190-200degC until cooked, prick a carrot with a tip of a knife to check.
Optional: take the lid off for an extra 5 minutes of baking to crisp up the veges.
Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Give thanks and enjoy!
Everyday garden salad
This is a fresh vitality-filled salad, adjust the ingredients seasonally.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 head of lettuce, any type of lettuce is good — wash and shake and let dry out, tear into bite-sized pieces
2 small slim carrots — cut in half then into thin sticks
½ red onion — thinly sliced and separated into thin strips
2 large tomatoes — chop into quarters
2 medium-sized Lebanese cucumbers — washed, unpeeled, cut in half lengthwise and sliced thin, diagonally
4 radishes — top and tail, chop in half and slice thinly
A small bunch of Italian parsley — leaves not stems, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
3 Tbsp good olive oil
½ tsp of good salt
Black pepper to taste
Method
Place all the prepared salad vegetables in a medium bowl and toss to mix.
Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, drizzle lemon juice and olive oil.
Toss gently again.
Give thanks and enjoy.
Low footprint breakfast
This is a light wheat-free breakfast; add any seasonal fruit or home stewed fruit, or thawed frozen berries.
Makes 1 bowl
Ingredients
½ cup toasted muesli
2 Tbsp chia seeds
½ cup of organic whole cow or oat milk
1 apple, grated
1 Tbsp molasses
Method
Place muesli and chia seeds in your breakfast bowl, add milk and let sit for half an hour.
Grate apple and mix.
Drizzle molasses over and serve.
Learn more
- The sustainable kitchen — a plant-based cooking class.
Tuesday, March 14, 6.30pm-8pm at the Valley Project community rooms, 262 North Rd.
Tickets from hagarozri.co.nz.
