Food and plastic

I wish I could choose a better title but I was really shocked when I found out about microplastics and how they have gotten into our food. If you read more about fish and how they absorb or eat microplastics, you may just become carnivorous again. But if you have already skipped red meat and chicken and have turned to fish as a safer protein, think again. Knowing about plastics and how our oceans are full of it may drive you to avoid fish and turn vegetarian.

More than ever, we need to know where our food comes from. So let me share the story about a friend who has developed an allergic reaction to processed food, anything that is older than fresh and anything “cured” like salami and hotdogs. She has become so careful about consuming food outside the house as her skin breakouts are predictable as soon as she consumes food that is not freshly-prepared. In Filipino we can say she is “maarte” or picky.

In reality, she just wants to stay on the safe side and avoid taking anti-allergy pills each time she eats. And that’s been going on since she started to be conscious and observant on why she reacted to food additives, processed food and cured meats.

It may be a good time to study and know your own food intolerance. Because these days, freshly-prepared food is hard to come by. With scaling up of food production to supply hundreds of fast food outlets and preservation of food to prevent spoilage, one is hard pressed to find unprocessed or whole foods. Whole foods are edibles that come closest to its natural state – fresh fruits, uncooked vegetables and dare I say fish or meat when I was not the one who caught the animal?

I met an intellectual who did not want to try a barnacle because it had no eyes! And I met someone who did not want to eat anything that could look you in the face, like fish or cow. It may be a good way to describe what we choose to eat. Eyes or no eyes, why are we getting picky about food? Because we are what we eat.

But for most everyone, taste is the differentiator. What tastes good seems good. So we can say butter wins because it tastes good. Ice cream wins because it tastes good. Some say what tastes good is actually bad because it is laden with