5 Things to do on
WORLD FOOD DAY

World Food Day is celebrated on October 16th each year. It's a day to bring to our awareness the world food problem. While world food day is mainly about solidarity regarding starvation and malnutrition it strikes me as ironic that never before have so many people been malnourished while other population groups are overrun with obesity, including the much anguished about childhood obesity in the Western world.

It seems to me that there is enough food for all, only the distribution of that food is where it all starts to go awry. Billions of donations go towards food for the starving and yet little seems to reach them.

World food day for me though also raises other questions that I think we should consider. One of them being the quality of our food. While the obesity epidemic of the Western world would seem to indicate being too well fed, in many cases it's a case of being overfed and undernourished. And you may be surprised to find out that diet foods rank right up there with junk food. There is nothing like quite like eating what is naturally occurring in Nature before the food industry gets hold of it.

Really we should have a campaign for eating green. And many people the world over believe in Eating Raw Food for energy.

Look out for deceitful marketing

Food manufacturers are experts at coming up with deceitful marketing aimed fooling the masses into believing that their food is healthy e.g. Kellogs changing the name 'Sugar Smacks' to 'Honey Smacks' comes to mind. No 'good' mother wants to buy a product that has 'sugar' emblazoned on the box... but honey - well that's a different story isn't it - honey is healthy.

Only problem is that while the packaging had changed the ingredients were still exactly the same. Sugar was still at 50%. Yes! Seems to me that on world food day we should also be exposing these kinds of food myths

Reduce your carbon footprint
buy local

The other issue I think we should be giving more attention to on world food day is where our food is grown. Nowadays, it's easy in the Western world to sit down and eat Avocado pears from Mexico, tomatoes from Egypt, Olives from Spain, Beef from Argentina. Sounds good doesn't it?

But what does it to do the carbon footprint of the world? What does it do to the cost and quality of food which has to be transported thousands of miles as we burn up our natural resources in transporting them.

World food day, it seems to me should also promote eating what is grown locally, supporting small growers so that family farms can make a sustainable living.

Campaign for better quality food

And it's not just where our food is grown that should be spotlighted but also how it's grown. What is happening to the quality of our food when:

• genetic modification of seeds is rife and companies like Montanto get richer while our diets get poorer?
• fertilizers are inorganic and bad for our bodies?
• pesticides are sprayed in increasing amounts spewing toxins over our earth
• foods are fortified - all the goodness is first removed- and then as if they're doing us some great favour, food manufacturers headline the fact that they are adding back only a few of the nutrients they've stripped from it
• animals are kept in inhumane conditions, pumped with growth hormones and toxic antibiotics all in the name of commerce
• Applaud initiatives like the Walmart healthy eating campaign because their marketing can make a difference.

5 Actions to take on
WORLD FOOD DAY

Seems to me this world food day we need to do five things:

• Get involved: make a donation to TeleFood which funds small, self-contained agriculture, livestock and fisheries projects that help poor families produce more food.
• Do this ditch diets eating exercise to gain a new appreciation and gratitude for our readily available food source.
• Make sure the eating you do for this day is happy eating.

• Plant something in your own garden - even if it's a few carrots to grow even one item of food for your own table
• Make a pact that next time you go into your local grocery store you'll ask which product is grown locally and support the local farmer with your dollars. Or buy your produce at a local farmers market.

---

---

If you find the ditch-diets-live-light website useful, please recommend it to your friends.

Best Weight Products	Your opinion for a free e.course		Your Story/Poem & Feedback	Our community & newsletter

Custom Search

Love this page - please help by using the buttons below to Stumble or Buzz it up! And please let me know you buzzed it up by mailing me here and I'll send you my complimentary THANK YOU e.course. You'll love it!

Return from World Food day to Healthy Eating Guidelines
Return to Eating Healthy Return to Homepage

© Copyright ditch-diets-live-light.com 2008: Photos of Cari by Di Loria
Disclaimer: Your unique health situation may not allow you to stop dieting.
ALWAYS CONSULT WITH YOUR INDIVIDUAL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL.
Neither Cari Corbet-Owen nor ditch-diets-live-light.com dispense medical advice.

SBI!