22 May 2014

Healthy Living - A right or luxury?




I was reading an article a few days back on Jamie Oliver's war against a fast food giant's use of pink slime beef filler in their burger patties and it got me thinking. I mean, seriously, if you understand how this utterly unhealthy substance is made, you would not even want to be within 10 feet of it let alone cram your body with it. Obviously the company did (apparently they stopped using the pink slime and that makes me wonder what on earth are they substituting it with) so to make profit. Sure, I can understand about wanting to make profit but how much is enough?  Ok, a hamburger with the nasty unhealthy filler cost about $0.90, I am sure a giant company like this would still make profit, in-fact lots of profit if they were to omit the unnecessary and charge slightly more and enough so that a family of 5 with single mom working 3 jobs could afford to feed her children.

Pink slime is not the only scary food story we hear today. There was also the story of the meat glue. Apparently some nasty butchers decided to glue together some chunks of meat, compressed them to make them look like the the premium fillet and sell them to the top restaurants. What?? What happened to this world? Greed has obviously becomes the king of some conscience making this world an unsafe place to live. In this time, the only way to make sure that we eat clean is to eat 100% organic, maybe raise our own chicken and cows (in New York City?) and tell me, how many of us could afford to do that? Lets face it organic food cost and for a single mother with 4 kids they are way out of her mean, therefore she would settle for the fast food hamburgers filled with the worst of everything for her and her children. Even if some of us could afford the real deal in some 5 stars restaurants, how sure are we that our meat was not laden with some glue? This is a sad scenario but that is the fact. It is scary sometimes knowing that no matter how careful we are in feeding ourselves and the family, we can never be sure if we had done enough.

Is it right that the world today has labelled the right to live healthy as a luxury? It is something to ponder on and the same question has been bugging me for a while and I had to share my 10 cents with you and pick your thoughts on this subject. 

Enjoy the rest of the week and eat safe.






                     
Jamie Oliver on the pink slime





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27 comments:

  1. It is really scary these days you just never know what you could be eating and I believe we need to do something so our children can eat healthy pure foods just as nature intended!
    http://starvogue84.blogspot.com

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    1. That's the thing.. in today's world eating pure food can be quite hard to realise

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  2. I really admire you for writing this...There is cause for serious concern in so many areas of food production and consumption.

    The more developed a country, the worse the food is, some say...I heard this said more than once and I must say I believe there is truth to it. On the other hand, statistic say that the majority of world's population is starving...and what about all those eating unhealthy food? How many people do have the privilege to eat well? Is it something as small as just a 5 percent or something like that? This really makes one wonder.

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    1. I just have to vent.. I went to the market trying to look for something decent to feed my family with and I can't help wonder am I doing enough? yes, I don't feed my kids fast food and junks but sometimes I feel like it makes no different after all..

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  3. The trouble is that while people find it cheaper to eat rubbish food (especially in the US, when I visited I could get a poor quality burger for 99 cents, yet if you wanted salad, or vegetables, it was stupid expensive!!), the other additives in the rubbish food, like extra salt, added sugar, preservatives etc., make you HUNGRIER and less satisfied and crave yet more rubbish food. It's such a vicious cycle! A very important post. x

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    1. I agree. The healtier the food, the more the price tag is. Over here where I live for an example, a bag of salad could go all the way to $7.00 and it's not even organic!

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  4. I honestly love eat healthy. But at the same time I have to be honest again saying that it's so hard to stay healthy in doha! it's not because of fast food, but because fruits and vegetables are terribly expensive and it's hard to find some foods that I used to eat in Milan. Hope that things will change soon but I'm not sure about that!
    www.bonjourchiara.com
    Bonjourchiara Facebook Page

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    1. I feel you.. I get really tired to the same cabbage, cauliflower and carrots! Once in a while I can find kale (I love kale!) and a bunch of kale (about 1 serving) here cost about AED22! I too miss vegetables from home.. so many varieties and so so fresh!

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  5. I share your concern. It is increasingly difficult to eat healthy these days. Im always reading the ingredients, and we rarely eat out anymore since I dont know what they put in the food. Ive been trying hard to fix food at home w fresh ingredients, but youre right, fresh food is expensive. It shouldnt be a luxury, but unfortunately it seems to be the case in this age.

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    1. Same case with us here but once in a while we would love to go out with the family and have a bite to eat and enjoy life without being doubtful about what we eat. I pity the kids, they don't get to be as free as we were.. at least back then we never heard appalling things like this. Seriously, I don't remember how a tomato suppose to taste anymore.. they all taste like carrot nowadays :(

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  6. I am lucky that where I live we always have plenty of fresh vegetables in shops, and a good selection of organic food to choose from, even in winter. Yes, it's expensive, but everything is expensive in Finland, way more expensive than in a lot of other places. Yet people here are willing to pay for good quality food (oh, they do complain, but give them a choice between foreign produce and domestic, and they will pay extra to buy locally produced food...). All in all the selection is excellent, and there are strict standards for food industry. Travelling in the U.S. for instance taught me how difficult it was to eat healthy food if you eat out... and I still struggle to find lactose-free products in the U.K, too...

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    1. I think lifestyle and awareness in Europe is a lot better than the rest of the world. In Dubai it is still not a culture to eat healthy. Cupcake stores and coffee shops are popular here.. too popular for that matter

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  7. It is very scary. My parents have their own farm and they made a decision to raise their chicken and pork and grow vegetables while working two jobs for the reason you described above. Since I moved away from home, I "taste" the difference. Milk is like white water and when bite into a strawberry or a tomato, all I taste is water. Scary and so sad…
    http://redreticule.com

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    1. How lucky to have the 'luxury' to raise own lifestock and grow own vegetable. But for us living in huge city like Dubai, New York this is a bit impossible. My neighbour once tried to raise their own chicken but the folks in the neighborhood made a complain as the chicken woke them up in the middle of the night. After a while they gave up and no more chicken

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  8. I'm so passionate about healthy eating. Love this article!
    <3
    katsfashionfix.blogspot.com

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  9. I have been pondering this for a long time now. My travels has made me think that healthy eating ought to be a right. Yet in London, it is a privilege because the healthy, organic stuff is so expensive that many just cannot afford it. Zoom to Tanzania, where organic is the norm in so many rural places and no one makes a fuss about it. Zoom to Italy where eating good, healthy organic food has been a tradition for years....and then to Tokyo where people have got crazy about organic food....the joke is......people in rural Japan do this everyday and do not pay a premium for it. The world is messed up! People are making a lot of money by playing with our minds with food.....DONT PLAY WITH MY FOOD! :)

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    1. You are right.. countries like Italy, they are stress the importance of fresh healthy produce.. their tomatoes have fragrance and taste like no other and that is important to them hence the tradition

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  10. You've raised some really good points here, the one that stands out the most is you can't know/trust large chains because they seem to do very thing they can to cut corners and put disgusting things in their food.

    More and more eating healthy does seem to be a luxury not everyone can afford which is horrible. Now, people need both knowledge about healthy food and access to it because almost everything is marketed as healthy, hen most of it really isn't.

    I don't know what the solution is though...

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    1. The solution lies within the hands of those who rules.. only they can make and implement the change. Rules can be made and it would take a long time to get results but at least our children and their children have a shot at living a healthier life.

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  11. Omg that is so horrifying to read! I have never heard of a story like that before, I am definitely scared to buy meat anywhere else than at my local butcher!

    www.callmemaddie.com

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  12. What a post Mrs. C! I can imagine a few ladies (including me) get emotional and hot on this topic! To answer your question, I think both. We have the right to eat healthy but unfortunately it is a luxury.

    We avoid fast food but avoid is the operative word. I admire those who are committed to eating healthy 100%. We try to cook our food instead of eat out and plant tomatoes, some herbs, some fruits.

    But eating healthy is hard on the wallet. Meat and any kind of produce are expensive. You get tempted to buy processed and canned foods especially if you don't have an unlimited budget. I agree on your example above, what about the single mom who can barely make ends meet?

    The question now is if someone can't afford to eat healthy all the time, do we have to right to judge their choices? And this is only a segment of the whole population. Those who work and have money for food. World hunger and global poverty is more than 10% of the population, could be more, and they too deserve to eat and live but that's a bigger battle I suppose.

    - Karen
    www.MrsLookingGood.com

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  13. This is eye-opening! Thank you so much for sharing, Mrs C!

    xo Jo

    http://www.whiterosesandcoffee.com

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  14. What Jaime Oliver is discovering with the fast food chains is definitely eye-opening and shocking to me. But better to know (though disgusting) than not.

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  15. I think way of life and attention in European countries is a lot better than the world. In Dubai it is still not a way of life to eat healthier.

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    1. Agree 100%. Dubai is still way behind when it comes to healthy living/lifestyle in general

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  16. I don't think that eating healthy is a luxury at all, for me it's actually the opposite. Buying your meal instead of just preparing them is what think is luxury whether it be from a restaurant or a fast food. I always believe that preparing your own meal is best especially if you are health conscious that way you have the control of the nutritional content of your food. I know that it might be quite a stretch especially to those busy people but if you are really dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle you will find a way to make it happen.

    Regards,
    Olivia Clark

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    1. I eat healthy and as you mentioned, I prepare my own meal for myself and the family at home. The point is even to start with the ingredients are on the expensive side especially if organic. For a stay at home mom, preparing food at home is not hard but trying to give a better food choice i.e organic is still quite a stretch.

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