Saturday, February 14, 2009
Stories by LEONG SIOK HUI
With today's fast food fad, we have become disconnected from food. How does one eat mindfully, make wise buying choices, and re-connect with food?
I prepared a simple lunch for the family. The bok choy was lightly blanched and topped with fried garlic and a dash of Braggs liquid amino (a healthier alternative to soy sauce).
Cubes of fresh cucumber and jicama were slathered with sesame paste sweetened with molasses. The chicken was steamed and served with ground chilli seasoned with vinegar, garlic and raw cane sugar. Hijiki (seaweed), sliced shiitake mushrooms, carrot and burdock root were simmered in mirin (sweet rice wine) and soy sauce and stirred into brown rice.
Everyone enjoyed the meal. The veggies were crunchy and flavourful. The chicken was tender but lean. The hijiki rice was a playful combo of textures and flavours: crunchy, chewy, sweet, salty and savoury.
So, what was unique about the meal?
I had planned it to be a meal wherein I knew the source of my food. This meant visiting the veggie farms and chatting with the farmers.
I now know the man behind the organic chicken and where in the Kedah hills the shiitake is grown. I also met the suppliers who import the liquid amino (from US) and hijiki (from Japan).
This exercise was meant to answer some niggling questions: What am I eating? Where does my food come from? And how does my choice of food affect my health and the planet?
In his best-selling book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan, a journalism professor who writes for The New York Times Magazine, traced the food chain back to its original source.
In the process, he unveiled some horrendous things about the American food industry ? from hormone- and antibiotic-loaded livestock and animal abuse in industrial farms, to the proliferation of synthetic additives in processed food that lead to rampant obesity, Type 2 diabetes, diet-related cancers and heart disease.
In Malaysia, we've had our fair share of food scares: Nipah virus infected-pigs, bird flu-afflicted chickens, banned pesticides in veggies and melamine-laced biscuits.Perhaps it's time we too put more thought into our food choices as we look at why food is causing sickness, polluting the earth and changing people's lives.
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June Lim is a qualified vegan chef and the force behind the healthy food philosophy at Woods. ? GRACE CHEN |
'Food' makes us sick?
Here are some facts to chew on: more than 98% of the 1.2 million diabetics in Malaysia are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. By estimate, 25% of Malaysians will be plagued by this killer disease by 2020. (Source: Malaysian Diabetes Association.)
A diet high in refined carbohydrate coupled with a sedentary lifestyle is the main culprit of Type 2 diabetes. When you gorge on sugary foods and starches, your body can't produce insulin fast enough to convert these foods into glucose for energy. A diabetic may turn blind, suffer from kidney failure or heart disease.
"Food is the major cause of many of our health problems," says Dr Mohamad Zainol Ahmad Haja, a consultant for pharmaceutical companies.
"If you ask nephrologists why our government has set up more dialysis centres, they'd say it's because modern-day food is causing more kidney failures."
Commercially-reared chickens are pumped with growth hormones and antibiotics to promote growth and prevent diseases in the name of profit, Zainol adds.
"Consumers who eat these chickens are fed hormones and antibiotics that surpass the limit a human body can handle," says Zainol, who also studied oriental medicine in the US.
"So when they see the doctor for an ailment, the prescribed antibiotic isn't curing their sickness or they need a stronger dose. Many children are also allergic to commercial chickens these days."
Zainol was so appalled by the quality of chickens that he started a chicken farm for his family and friends' consumption. Today his halal, hormone- and antibiotic-free chickens are being distributed nationwide under the Mumtaz Meat & Marine Foods label (http://www.azzain.com/index.html).
Processed food like chicken sausages contain less than 10% actual chicken meat, he adds.
"Think about it, if chicken costs RM12 per kg, how can a 500gm-package of sausage only be RM2.80? You're basically paying for artificial flavouring, taste and content," says Zainol, director of R&D for Mumtaz.
A macrobiotic counsellor with 15 years experience, June Lim says she is seeing more young patients these days. "I see young people in their 20s suffering from breast cancer, prostate cancer or leukaemia," says Lim, who was trained in macrobiotics in the US and Japan.
Her patients have usually undergone cancer treatment but suffer from loss of appetite or a poor digestive system. Lim helps design specific macrobiotic diets for her patients.
The essence of macrobiotics is living and eating in harmony with nature. A 5,000-year-old philosophy, macrobiotics believes that our body and the environment are closely related. Pure food, without chemicals, synthetic additives and flavouring, is medicine. And we have to eat food in its whole form. Celebrities like Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and John Travolta subscribe to the macrobiotic lifestyle.
"People don't change their diet and lifestyle until they face a serious health crisis," says Lim, 55, who hasn't caught a cold or cough since embracing the macrobiotic lifestyle two decades ago.
"My advice to my customers is, prevention is better than cure. Food has healing qualities but they work slower than drugs," says Lim who runs an organic vegan restaurant, Woods Macrobiotics in Bangsar.
"It takes time for your body to condition, and it's a slow but steady process."
Saving the earth
Meat-eaters take note. A 2006 United Nations report says the world's livestock generates more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation industry. Industrial meat production is one of the biggest contributors to water and air pollution, and a waste of resources like water and grain.
The livestock industry is also notorious for animal brutality. Beef cattle in America stand ankle-deep in their own waste and eat a diet that makes them sick. Broiler chicken get their beaks snipped off with a hot knife to keep them from cannibalising each other in confinement, while a laying hen, jam-packed in a cage with thousand of others, rubs her breast against the wire mesh until it's completely bald and bleeding.
The 10% of hens that will die are built into production cost. (Source: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan)
And let's not forget the hidden costs to the environment and taxpayers in conventional farming, from water and soil pollution, antibiotic resistance to food-borne diseases, subsidised crops, pesticides and water.
The pleasures of eating
In our slapdash and fast food world, we've forgotten to savour the freshness and taste of natural foods. Chef Takashi Kimura (on cover) of Sage Restaurant at The Gardens Hotel in Kuala Lumpur supports local farmers, and uses only their fresh ingredients for his Japanese-infused French cuisine.
"My approach to ingredients is taste comes first, and I believe if it tastes good, it's a healthy vegetable," says Kimura who garnered a cult following among local gourmands when he helmed Cilantro's kitchen (now closed for renovation).
"Then I found that good-tasting vegetables in Malaysia are grown organically," says Kimura, 37.
"Organic spinach is so flavourful when you take a bite; even the stem is sweet and you can almost taste the rich soil where it's grown."
Though Malaysia boasts a large variety of veggies, Kimura finds it hard to source for quality produce. At Sage, he uses locally grown veggies like zucchini flowers, fine beans and herbs like French tarragon, chervil and chives. His farmer friend runs a small farm in Janda Baik, Pahang. Kimura even brought different seeds back from Japan for his friend to plant.
Surprisingly one of his signature dishes, the juicy and flavourful chapon (capon/castrated rooster) comes from a farm in Semenyih, Selangor. And he gets his ducks, guinea fowl and turkey from a farm in Negri Sembilan, while his garoupa and crayfish are from fishermen in Sabah.
"In Japan or France, consumers appreciate local food more than imported ones. Here it's completely different ? people tend to favour imported food," says Kimura, who hopes to change people's perception gradually.
Re-connecting with food
Callie Tai believes that disconnecting from food is the same as disconnecting from life.
"I used to be in the corporate world, and I know what it's like, the rat race, buying branded stuff and expensive make-up," says Tai in her 40s. Her life took a turn when she started a family.
"You want to feed your kids the best you can. At that time, I knew very little about organic except that it's safe and I liked the idea of no chemicals or additives," says Tai who became a vegetarian and later joined the family business, Justlife Group Sdn Bhd, a retailer and importer of organic food.
Today the CEO of Justlife, she is a strong advocate of vegetarianism and saving the earth through food choices.
"I guess once you find something that you believe in and enjoy doing, you change your outlook in life," adds Tai.
A philosophical young man, Yahqappu Addaikalam believes that our spirit, soul and body have to be in harmony. But your body depends on your health, which is affected by what you eat. Inspired by the literature of Tolstoy and St Augustine, Yahqappu ditched the city life to become a farmer six years ago.
"I got to thinking what food was about, why food had become so cheap and insignificant, and realised I had to do something about it," says Yahqappu, now a father of one.
"St Augustine promoted agriculture as one of the foremost work and a noble thing a person can do."
Today his 1½-acre (.6ha) organic farm, called The Lord's Garden (☎ 017-370 8326), in Batu Arang, Selangor produces a variety of veggies and fruits. His family of three live in a one-room, brick house. His water supply comes from the well and rainwater, and he plans to generate his own renewable energy using a bio- digester.
"Our salvation must come from food. With the right method of farming, we can ensure the earth is safe, produce just enough and don't eat more than we need to.
"We take so much from the earth, it's time we give back," says Yahqappu , 35, who also makes fresh organic bread and peanut butter to sell. "By being a living example, I hope to inspire others to think about their way of life."
Less than 200km north of Batu Arang, Chin Yew Wah runs the Simple Life organic farm (☎ 017-483 8387) in Tg Tualang village near Kampar, Perak. Like Yahqappu, Chin is an anomaly in the farming world.
He single-handedly runs his seven-acre (2.8ha) farm, which produces about 40 varieties of veggies, herbs and fruits, and supplies his produce to the villagers. His modest brick house boasts an extensive library that would make a bookworm green with envy.
"Living a simple life means going back to the source, to the way of thinking and doing things," says Chin, 51. He lived in the US for 15 years before returning to Malaysia a decade ago. He lives off the farm except for some staple food like brown rice and brown rice noodles.
"My money is my health. I don't need much."
Chin is passionate about teaching people about food's healing qualities. He teaches his customers how to prepare and serve his veggies so the nutrients are retained.
"My formula is organic food plus spiritual food equals whole food ? it's a complete cycle. You're born as baby. Then you grow older and become like a baby again, and people have to take care of you," he explains.
"It's a whole cycle ? if nothing's dead, nothing will be alive. If you live a long, healthy life, you have no problem accepting that death is part of life. But if you get sick, you're afraid of dying because you time hasn't come yet."
Food and life
My own journey to find the answers isn't over yet.
But after the farm visits, being inspired by enlightened farmers, organic proponents and a macrobiotic expert, I have come to understand why the mere act of eating "is an agricultural act", as farmer, poet and author Wendell Berry once put it.
Eating ends the drama of the food economy that begins with planting and birth, and we, the consumers, are passive participants.
"To an extent, how and what we eat determines the health of our bodies, the plants, soil, animals and our environment," Berry said.
Food for thought (no pun intended): we can strive to eat in full consciousness and take responsibility for our role in the food economy.
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