Wednesday 16 June 2021

Thoughts on Our Food Culture

Patrick and Catherine attending a wedding in the 1930s


The debate about good food usually begins with a grouse about social ills and ends with a lament for home cooking, but it goes much deeper than this, as it starts with the nutrient quality of our soils and our animals being able to graze on pasture instead of grain and soy..

'I’ve supported Pasture for Life ever since reading ‘Grass-Fed Nation’ a while ago, but few still realise the value of making sure that what we eat has a decent amount if omega-3 in it. Anything one can do to improve children’s nutrition is worth it - but Jamie Oliver didn't last long with his brave and sensible school food initiatives. And that Panorama programme a couple of week’s ago about the chap who ate UPF (Ultra Processed Food) every day for a month was an eye-opener - not least because living off that stuff saves both time and a lot of money! But his brain scan before and after showed that he’d actually become addicted to it. What price good fresh children’s food? The problem is that the link between UPF and health hasn’t really been made explicit enough for hard-pressed families and, schools and hospitals to change and spend more on fresh food. I really don’t know how to do this with UPFoods being advertised as heavily as they are and anyone in authority speaking about a return to healthy eating being derided as elitist. Our whole food culture has gone wrong. I’m afraid we don’t even do cafe culture properly; the availability of sweet or carb-heavy foods is so great and our knowledge so poor that practically everyone you see now is carrying too much weight. Kei has recently realised this and has taken herself in hand and lost 7kg by eating more carefully and running. Have a look at this photo of my father and his first wife going to a wedding in the 1930s. Look how slim all of them are (and he never carried any extra weight). A photo of wedding guests today would look very different, as I know from the weddings that are held here at the Grosvenor. 

This was a piece I wrote some time ago about Winchester’s food shopping which contrasts badly with Stockbridge, which fortunately is pretty good!'

From a note to Genevieve Riviere in June 2021