You are what you eat

Another weekend passes and more leftover newspapers with endless misguided advice about how to live our lives. It took only to page 5 of the Sunday Age to tell us that a burger meal at a well known fast food joint contains less kilojoules than a beef sandwich with potatoes, some fresh fruit, yoghurt and orange juice. Whilst saturated fats win the prize for most likely to make you look like saturated fat, I dare to ask the question of what about the other unknowns that are placed into the food production process that don't fall into these categories? You know the stuff? Looks like food, tastes like food but somehow there's something not quite right. I don't mind buying a product if I know what it is but sometimes when I look at the list of ingredients, well gosh I'm real confused. If I don't know what the hell preservatives 282, 200, raising agents 500 and 450 are then how the hell does my digestive system know what they are? And as far as I know it can't read. And I'm not real sure I want my vegetables put through ionising electromagnetic radiation therapy before they hit my shopping basket because that sounds like something you have to do when you are sick and who wants sick veggies. When you take the time to read the list of ingredients in the supermarket you can begin to think living an Amish life might not be such a bad thing. Some product ingredients look as palatable as eating the radiator from your car. I suspect there are some snack foods out there that would contain equal the nutritional value of eating your couch. My advice is read the labels and if the ingredients look anything like someone's mobile telephone number, step away from the shelf immediately or risk a major service at your next GP visit.