by Sifu
Markus Kahila

"Let medicine be thy food, and food be thy medicine."

– Hippocrates

The father of the above quotation might be proud of the diligence with which modern societies have put this guideline to practice. On the other hand, I'm not too sure he would be so enthusiastic about our recent applications for it.

Walking into your neighbourhood food store, you are guaranteed to find more than groceries – you'll be offered a overwhelming helping of nutritional science for the everyman, served with all the seriousness of a doctor and the gusto of a salesman.

"No cholesterol!"

"Sugar free!"

"No artificial ingredients!"

"25% fewer calories!"

Finding myself facing complicated choices by just trying to pick a can of yoghurt from the dairy section, I have to pause for awhile. What are these newsflashes trying to tell me?

Simply put: Food that contributes to good health is good food.

This is a valuable message that deserves to be heard. However, I do need to question how, for example, low-fat cheese that looks like rubber, smells like rubber, tastes like rubber, and richochets off surfaces like rubber, contributes to my good health.

Not a great deal, actually. Furthermore, having it on my table makes breakfast quite an ordeal.

Your local supermarket is much like a living museum of modern nutritional science. There you can find trends and approaches to eating that can be factually valid, questionable or outright wrong, co-existing side by side, maintained by our habits and beliefs.

Therefore, in the end it is always up to the consumer to decide whether or not aspartame sweetened sodas, low or no fat foods, or iodised salts are good or bad for health.

This dilemma can be tackled in three different ways:

1. By becoming an everyman nutritional scientist, deconstructing the barrage of information on healthy eating found in books, magazines and the internet, and picking for yourself the most appealing approach
2. By not caring, and eating whatever you feel like
3. By consulting your taste buds.

I myself am a staunch advocate of the third option. The majority of fashionable modern diets tend to have an attribute I find very off-putting: The pleasure of eating is made into a secondary consideration.

As I see it, the taste of food is a huge part of its nutritional value. I have no wish to eat bad tasting food because I should supposedly be afraid of the ill health effects of tasty food. I want to eat tasty meals because it enriches my life.

"This will also enrich your maximum body weight", might the everyman nutritionist exclaim. Perhaps, perhaps not; there are always many ways of doing things. You can overdo pretty much anything, and it's usually not the best way of maintaining good health. But what if we just enjoy our good food using sensible moderation and common sense?

In my opinion, the heart of the issue is that modern people tend not to listen to their bodies, but rather listen to what they're being told – especially if the message is presented even with the faintest lustre of science.

How about we try the opposite approach?

Here is a nutritional manifesto for your own body. It can be summed up in one sentence:

"Food, that you want to eat, that tastes good, and that makes you feel good after eating, is good food."

Please note that all three points are essential: You can't just cram in potato chips, fast food and chocolate if it makes you feel heavy, tired or uncomfortable. On the other hand, if you enjoy a hamburger every now and then and feel good afterwards, is your health really going down the drain?

Of course, if you want the best results, you always have to put in a little effort – and this applies to taste as well. If your tastebuds guide you away from convenience foods to cook your own delicacies from fresh vegetables, fish, or meat, you're doing a big service to yourself: This way, you get exactly what you order, and you can really say you know what you are eating.

Ultimately the biggest contribution to our eating comes not from the side of a grocery wrapper, but from our personal habits. We all tend to order the same dishes at the same restaurants during lunch, cook certain foods on certain days, and have identical breakfasts for each morning.

Instead of settling to follow your habits, you can try this: Before purchasing, cooking or ordering, ask yourself what you really want to eat; when eating, really stop to taste your food; after dining, really pause to see how you feel.

This is true enjoyment of food. Put it to the test, and you may be pleasantly surprised how healthy and fun eating can really be.