Are We Eating Healthier Food?
By anne25penn
@anne25penn (3305)
Philippines
November 4, 2011 8:45am CST
I am just wondering if this is true. I remember the days where I would pick wild berries and not worry about getting poisoned with insecticides. We actually drank water from our taps and did not have to buy drinking water. As a child, my mother wasn't concerned with expiry dates, salmonella or other food related problems. Food was food. You had to eat what was prepared during lunch or dinner. It's either that or you go hungry.
I ate food prepared by sidewalk peddlers and did not get Hepatitis. At grade school and high school, my friends ate our local caviar (bagoong) with green mango and they were never sick. We ate peanut butter and mayonnaise sold in our local markets that aren't refrigerated but I don't recall anyone complaining of a sick tummy. Now with all the safety precautions when it comes to food and food preparation, are we actually eating healthier food now? Or are all these rules just something designed to make food more expensive?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@arnoldream (1332)
• Philippines
5 Nov 11
processed food like can goods, instant noodles, processed meat were made and processed in good condition as they say. but do we really know if this is true, when the food evaluators and inspectors is not always around to supervised and check the food processing in each and every food manufacturers. added to this is the quality of the food being processed, do they contained GMO, pesticides, are they infected with salmonella, e coli and other harmful bacteria, in which as study shows are active nowadays because of the rising temperatures we are experiencing due to global warming..these are some points but there are many reasons in which the food we eat to be healthy seems to be the one that cause ailments and other thing.
@cowboynextdoor (102)
• Philippines
5 Nov 11
In most rural areas here in the Philippines, the immediate source of food is the farm cultivated for subsistence. Any regulation that concerns food does not reach those places. Rice is dried directly in the streets where human and even animal may step on it. Vegetables and fruits are harvested and cooked with just the water from the creek to wash them. They eat pork, chicken,carabao and other meat without thinking of any disease that those animals had.
There is one place in the Philippines where menudo (a local dish)is cooked unusually. Ingredients are mixed and then they let a dog eat it. Then the next day, they will kill the dog and get the ingredients out of it's stomach. And then they will cook it.
I wonder what it taste like.
1 person likes this
@skysuccess (8858)
• Singapore
7 Nov 11
anne25penn,
I believe safety precautions, independent audits and checks are necessary when it is evident that there are actually unscrupulous merchants, food suppliers, food manufacturers, restauranteurs and even hawkers that does not observe proper food hygiene and/or preparations. Some have even known to have tainted hideous supplies in their inventories just to earn that extra few dollars.
I can understand your reasoning and concerns even but cases have shown that these checks are really necessary and would go a long way in keeping our edibles safe. Surely with such a system in place, the finished product will be more expensive but I still believe that our well being and lives are worth much more than the increases in food prices.
@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
4 Nov 11
Hi Anne, I think we are getting weaker and weaker, that is why we hear of some many people getting food poisoning.
All the bacteria causing food poisoning have been around for milleniums.
Not as if they are new inventions.
It is just that we are too concerned with clean food, clean environment, that is why our immunity towards these diseases are lower.
If we just eat as and when we like, including all the different kinds of street food, we would have the immunity.
1 person likes this
@microengineer (587)
• Indonesia
5 Nov 11
All the food safety regulation was made to prevent any sickness that may come from the food. That is good idea.
However, most of food safety is not really concern with nutritional requirements for healthy body. As long as it is safe, it will pass. Let say, it is more hygienic, non toxic, and non allergenic.
But, nowadays a lot of synthetic material were developed and it do not give any "plus" at our health. So we do not get the nutrition we needed. Moreover, more hygienic food made us get less exposure to any bacteria/fungi which make us has less antibody than our old man.
Good idea but need proper realization.
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