One of the key methods of modern scientific analysis is to reduce the complexity present in any given problem down to smaller components that can be analyzed individually. Reductionism assumes that a complex system is the sum of its parts. If you analyze the parts, you will understand the system. This approach works well in the mechanical world but shows its weaknesses in the life sciences, where extremely complex systems can be highly unpredictable, and research often shows more shades of gray than black and white.
Are you asking yourself what has this to do with food?
Welcome to the world of food science, a world you encounter almost every time you read a newspaper, magazine, or browse the Internet. Food science is an applied science, concerned with food from harvest through consumption. As an applied science it is a natural parent to new technologies. The development of food-related technologies such as processed foods, food supplements, and the industrialization of our food supply has played a huge role in Western life for the better part of the 20th and all of the 21st century. It has also led to a focus on "nutrients" - the deconstructed parts of food - rather than on real food itself.
Nutrients..... we're talking about the B vitamins, calcium, saturated and unsaturated fats, protein, carbohydrates; all of them so familiar to us now, although perhaps still mysterious (ah, those gray areas!). Food has become nutrition, and we're looking to the food scientists to tell us what to eat in order to cure this, cure that, or lose weight. Have you become aware that the sensual fun of eating has slipped away, and been replaced by ... guilt?
Another by-product of the reductionism applied to the question of “what to eat" is a cottage industry of oversimplified solutions. Popular diets, for example - if you are more then 30 years old you have seen much diet advice initially heralded as the next best thing turn out to be either unhealthy or downright dangerous. Remember the Atkins diet, or the grapefruit diet, or the low-fat diet? The low fat craze led people to overeat on carbohydrates and sugar in a sub-conscious effort to compensate for their bodies' craving for the essential fats required to maintain a healthy body.
Let’s rediscover our human need for food, and have a little fun in developing our relationship with it. Let's look beyond the temptation to chase the latest trend in nutrition. Real food is waiting for us in many places, but a farmers market is the best place to buy fresh local vegetables and fruits. See, touch and taste these colorful, attractive and nutrient-packed beauties. They are full of antioxidants, vitamins, carbohydrates and fiber.
You don’t need to be a scientist to recognize that leafy greens, root vegetables, and fruits have been a part of the human diet for a very long time and for very good reasons.
