It’s been a few days since I watched Food Network’s newest program “The 100 Mile Challenge” and yet there’s some lingering thoughts that the concept of the show has brought to mind. For those who didn’t watch it, the premise of the show is following a group of families who have volunteered to only eat produce that was grown/bred within a hundred mile radius of their home for a period of 100 days. To give you an idea of what this implies, for those living in North America, this would mean no coffee, no sugar, and no chocolate to name just a few. Although there are tangible benefits to such an approach to food consumption, there is an interesting sociological implication that arises from this in regards to what our society’s relationship with food might be down the road. But before I get into that, let’s look at this concept and the benefits it derives.

The idea behind this show stems from the “100 Mile Diet” experiment created by Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon in 2005 where they only consumed locally grown food for a whole year. While they took this on as a personal challenge, it has since become a source of inspiration for others in taking a closer look at what they were eating and especially where it came from. As the plan’s creators pointed out during the premiere episode of “The 100 Mile Challenge”, there are numerous advantages to taking on such a lifestyle approach to what foods we eat, such as supporting the local economy by purchasing Click here to continue reading »”Food Network’s 100 Mile Challenge – A return to simpler times?”

While watching TV a few nights ago, a pensive ball of wax got rolling regarding a subject that I’ll admit is not often on the forefront of my mind. One of key contributers to kick-starting this thought process was the semi-regular bombardment of commercials for these weight-reduction programs geared primarily toward the female set of the population. Now this isn’t about the ads themselves; instead, this has to do with our collective perception or relationship to a key factor for living – food. More specifically, it has to do with our lack of respect or appreciation for this most vital survival need.

Obviously, one of the great benefits of living in the “developed world” is the easy access to a plethora of foodstuffs. Indeed, the last couple of years has seen vast improvements on this front, both with an increased diversity through the inclusion of more ‘ethnic’-styled food offerings as well as increased governmental regulations on the quality of the food content and the requirement for more accurate product descriptions. And yet, despite all these benefits, we still seem to harbour this uncertain relationship with food, at many times more a love/hate relationship than one where we respect and value its necessity and contribution to our overall existence. Let’s get into the, uh, meat of this topic, shall we?

First off, let’s be honest about the fact that all of us at one point or another has done that dance of worrying about how much fat, calories, salt, cholesterol, yadda yadda yadda we’re sticking in our mouths. I know I’ve had moments where Click here to continue reading »”Food For Thought – Why Aren’t We Thinking More About What We Eat?”