Tiki's
     Guide
           to
                Food  

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Everyone knows that. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. For me, it’s very simple: food is fish. I just love fish (especially eating them!). I wonder what your favourite food is? Let me guess… hamburgers? Ice cream? Candy bars? Well that’s probably more likely than raw carrots or garlic.

So anyway, what exactly is food? Let’s look at what it’s made of.

Food (which really includes many types of drinks too – like milk shakes and cola – but not water) is made up of nutrients. These are the things which give you energy or help build up your body as you grow.

Maybe you already know what the most important Big Three nutrients are:

proteins which you find in meat, fish, beans and stuff


carbohydrates – sugar is one and  you find others in bread, cereals and vegetables


fat – I guess you know what that is. You find it in fried foods, cheese, butter, margarine and oils

Almost all the food you eat has some of the Big Three in it. But there are other things too which you need to eat in much smaller amounts. They are vitamins and minerals. You need small amounts of both.

I’m sure you know about vitamins. There are quite a few and most of them have letters: vitamins A, B, C, D and E.

And minerals? One is salt. Other important ones are calcium and iron.

Anything else? Well yes. Scientists have discovered that all kinds of other things in fresh fruit and vegetables are very useful in helping stay healthy. This is part of the reason why it’s a good idea for people to eat lots of these foods. They contain useful things like flavonoids as well as lots of vitamins. They also have stuff in them that people can’t digest very well called fibre (so do grains like oats) which turn out to be useful too because they help prevent nasty diseases like cancer.

Where does food come from? How is it made? — Easy. You know the answer already, don’t you? Food comes from farms – right?

Wrong!

It’s true that most food comes from farms in the first place, but most of the stuff people eat today has been processed so much in factories that the only way you can know what’s in it is by looking at the list of ingredients. And if you do that, you may get a shock because you won’t know what half the things are.

Scary sounding names, and some of these additives may be harmful.

Raw unprocessed food comes from farming.

It also comes from fishing. Everything else is processed. Let’s have a look at each: farming, fishing and processing.

Farming — Farming is a very efficient way of growing the sort of food people want to eat,  in very large amounts. Until early last century, all farming was based on sustainable methods because there was no choice. Today, people in poor countries continue this way of growing food because they cannot afford the machinery and chemicals needed for modern industrial farming. Industrial farming certainly makes loads of food but it damages the land, sea and air. There are alternatives such as organic farming which is sustainable. The problem with organic farming is that the farmers have to be much more skilled. They can’t rely on spraying and 'instant' fertilisers and have to plan their crops in a very different way. This means more people have jobs and this type of farming is nature-friendly... but organic food is more expensive. There is a huge argument about this at the moment. Modern industrial farmers say that only they can ‘feed the world’, preferably using genetically engineered crops.

The sustainable farmers say this is nonsense.
But sustainable farming has to be the future because industrial farming does so much damage to the world we all live in and the oil it depends on will run out.

Fishing — Once, people who lived near lakes, rivers and the sea often depended on fishing for much of their food. Today, most small fishermen who just caught enough fish for themselves with some left over to sell locally, have lost their jobs. Why? Because humans always want more and more of everything. They’ve built big ships which can catch millions of fish in just a few days so there aren’t enough left to breed and make baby fish. No baby fish means no new adult fish… which soon means no fish at all! And because of the pollution from chemicals from farming and factories – which gets into the rivers and then the seas – many fish are either not able to breed or contain so much pollution themselves that they are not good to eat any more. This is very sad because fish are yummy and the oily ones are very healthy for people and penguins to eat… or were.

Some people have found that they can farm fish too. This seems like a good idea until you find that they too use poisons on the fish to stop diseases which only start because the fish are kept close together in tanks or floating net cages in the sea.

Of course, not everything that comes out of the sea is a fish. People catch lots of animals like squids (I like those!) and octopuses, shellfish, crabs and lobsters. Some people farm prawns in big open ponds along tropical coasts, once protected by mangrove trees. The ponds for the prawns meant the mangroves were destroyed. This can be very bad because when big storms happen, the coast isn’t protected any more.

Most of the food you eat will have been processed in a factory in some way.
An fresh orange is not processed – though unless you eat the peel too (ugh!) you will process it yourself by peeling the skin off.  Food processing used to be done at home but now, people have become rather lazy – or just too busy - and prefer to have someone else do it so they can buy and eat right away. This adds to the cost.  How many of the foods you eat come from factories, do you think?

Here are some examples of foods made  - processed – in factories:

	Milk (which is a food) usually gets put in packages after being heated to kill any bugs (pasteurised). Then it’s cooled and taken in big trucks to supermarkets and shops. Milk can be made into cheese too. Skimmed milk has the cream taken off to be sold separately as cream or butter. Some milk gets made into yoghurt
	Snack foods like chips. There are hundreds. Most of them are made from potatoes, corn (maize) or other grains with added salt, sugar and fat which makes them taste good
	Tinned, frozen or dried (dehydrated) food
	Breads, biscuits, crackers
	Soda drinks (pop, fizzy) like cola and fruit flavours. Some of these really are foods because they contain nutrients like sugar
	Meat – animals are killed in special factories called abattoirs (slaughter houses). Almost every scrap of them is used for something. For example, their skins become leather for clothing and shoes, and other stuff that nobody would much like the look of gets made into sausages and pie fillings
	Sugar. This is made from crushing either sugar beet or sugar cane
	Spreads

And so on. I’ve only mentioned a few of the main sorts of processed food. How many more can you think of?

—

So...
which
foods
are
good?

Good foods Almost anything fresh is a good start. Better still is fresh organic food. Oily fish Vegetables, particularly orange- or dark green ones (carrots, chard, broccoli, squashes like pumpkins) Fruits Oats and other fibre-rich grains Pulses (beans, peas) Certain vegetable oils which are high in monounsaturates (olive, canola)

And
which
foods
bad?
(By ‘bad’, I don’t mean they will make you sick or anything. Just that you should eat them in moderation.)

'Bad' foods Most processed foods – which generally contain sugar, salt and fat Fatty foods like margarines, butter, cream, most cheeses, fatty meat Sugar and sugary foods like cakes and candies Food containing additives and colourings Sugary or diet soda drinks Salty foods Junk food Fast food and takeaways

Try my second quiz: which foods are good and which bad?

Does everyone have food? If not, why not? — Sadly no. Nearly 1 billion people on our planet – three times more people than live in the United States - are constantly short of food or near starving. This seems doubly wrong when you think that almost the same number have so much food they get to be overweight and even obese. Couldn’t humans divide things up a little more fairly? We seabirds never eat more than we need. You know why? We can’t afford to get fat! Can you imagine a fat penguin trying to catch a fish? We have to stay sleek and healthy. Humans can get fat and it doesn’t matter (though they might be quite unhappy about it) because they don’t have to hunt their food. They can just get into their cars and drive to the supermarket or takeaway when they feel hungry.

That other billion people – the hungry and starving ones – can’t get enough food to eat because they are so poor. They can’t afford to buy food – or can only afford the very cheapest, low quality stuff no one else wants. If they each had a little piece of land, they could grow their own. But they don’t because most of them live in slums (favelas, pueblos jovenes). They can’t get jobs because there are none, so often they have to beg, steal or scavenge the garbage from richer neighbourhoods.

What a miserable life.

Food means business —

Long ago, all people gathered or grew their own food. But gradually most people specialised into other lines of business, selling the time they worked for tokens which you call money. With that money, they could buy food. Today in the rich countries, hardly anyone grows their own food any more. Hardly anyone knows how to. So growing and selling food has become a big business.



This involves  several giant corporations which increasingly own all rights to vital seeds and also make the chemicals farmers have to use to make them grow into plants ready to harvest. Machines harvest the food (in most cases) which then has to be stored in silos or refrigerated buildings. Trucks and airplanes then transport the food around the world and it ends up, after processing, on supermarket shelves… where you buy it. This system is very new, it makes lots of money for those who run it and it is very good at producing lots of food. But there are hidden costs… and I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about damage to people’s livelihoods, damage to the environment (land, sea, rivers, air, forests) and damage to people’s health.

The Meatrix: Let Moophius take you and Leo, the pig, on an animated tour of industrial farming.

It’s not all gloom though.

Things are – as ever – changing. People are beginning to see that money isn’t everything if making it damages the planet so badly that the future is bleak. So many farmers are beginning to convert their farms to sustainable farming (which is what they were anyway before industrial farming took over).

You know all about ads if you have a TV. Companies spend millions – billions – of dollars on trying to get people (including, especially, kids like you) to buy things they don’t really want and don’t need. Advertising is really all about making people desire things. The ads do this in various ways. One of the most successful is by ‘spinning’ the product in such a way that it becomes cool, trendy and fashionable to have it – whatever it is. This is what designer labels (very well known brands) are all about. And kids fall for it as well as adults! Just check out how many items of clothing or shoes you or your friends have got that carry these ‘must have’ labels.

We penguins just don’t get the point of it.
We all wear the same feathers all year round. We keep them neat and clean and oil them regularly so we stay sleek and waterproof. Each year we grow new ones as the old ones get worn out and fall off. This is called moulting and all birds do it.

Food and drinks are high on the advertisers list. And it works. Advertisers wouldn’t waste money advertising if it didn’t. So all your life, you get bombarded by ‘messages’ – dozens a day, and not just on TV – trying to get you to part with your money. And kids everywhere buy food and drink they don’t need – or pester their mums and dads to do it. The food companies even sponsor schools. The idea is not just to sell you stuff now but to make you loyal their ‘brand’. They know that if you start buying a particular brand of cola or hamburger, you’re likely to stay with that… which over the years could mean thousands of $$$ from you flowing into that company.

Food for you and food for thought —

It’s fun to eat out or grab a takeaway. But it can also be fun to create really good food yourself – or help your family do so. It’s a great way to spend time together. I eat my fish raw but most people like their food cooked and hot. This is why you have a kitchen in your house… so use it! It’s  cheaper and better for your health if you prepare your own fresh food rather than buy everything processed or ready made.

So there are several things you can do to help your family to a healthier and, often, cheaper way of eating:

	Things you can do	>More details
	Buy locally grown food whenever you can	Check for farmers’ markets in your area. Many places in America have CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) schemes you can link up with. Ask your local shops or supermarket to stock locally grown food. They usually try to provide what their customers want. Some farms run a delivery service – vegetable boxes – so you don’t even have to go out. Some mail order companies can supply quality foods (including fresh) which they also deliver
	If you can afford it, buy organic	Better for you, your family and the planet. And you don’t have to do without many cans of soft drink or takeaway meals to save quite an amount of money.
	If you’re thirsty, try drinking water.	It’s free – unless you buy the bottled sort - and it’s the healthiest drink there is. If the water out of the tap tastes bad (chlorine or something), you can get simple filters which remove the bad taste. Or just fill a jug with it and leave it for a day (no lid so the chlorine escapes). Then drink it.
	Watching a cook on TV is no substitute for cooking yourself	If people did as much cooking as there are programmes on TV (and books) telling them how to, they’d never be out of the kitchen!
	Learn to cook	Be bold when you cook: try different recipes or even invent some yourself.
	When you have plenty of fresh veg, make salads	These are easy to prepare – especially if you have a food processor with a grater attachment. Salads are very healthy indeed and yummy (so I’m told) with a delicious dressing – which you can also make yourself. You can use lots of root vegetables like squashes, carrots, rutabaga (swede) and so on, to grate into your salads.
	Invite your friends to have a meal with you that you’ve made	It will probably be a new experience for all of you and an opportunity for fun!
	Grow your own food	Even if you've only got a small space, you can still grow some of your food. What's more, it's fun: sowing your seeds, watching your plants grow as you care for them and, finally, harvesting. You can even grow tomatoes (or other plants like capsicums) by the window in your room... wherever there's good sunshine. Many cities now have local community farms where you can join other people who grow their own. It's cool!

Happy cooking and happy eating! As for me, I'm tired and hungry after all that and I'm off to catch my fish for dinner!

Bye!

Love from

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