Give food fascists the final word? Fat chance

By Padraic P. McGuinness

The food fascists are at it again. They're already telling us what we ought to eat, and now they want to make us eat it. An official from the World Health Organisation is in Australia now, telling us that we are among the most obese nations in the world, which is probably true, but then preaching the message of government compulsion to make us change.

Apparently, the idea is to force restaurants and other food outlets to serve vegetables with everything else they sell. Now, while there is no gainsaying that most of us could improve our diet by eating more vegetables, by eating less, or both, in addition to doing more physical exercise, there is something deeply objectionable in the idea that we should eat as someone else tells us.

According to this expert, the policy of force-feeding worked very well in Finland. Well, I have no doubt his statistics are right, but I still wonder. Visiting Helsinki a few years ago, I was unimpressed by its social policies. Liquor and tobacco are very heavily taxed and there are generous welfare provisions. This is fine if you are rich or abstemious. The deserving poor who neither drink nor smoke do pretty well. Despite this, the Finns, who as a people are a pretty nice lot, are terrible drinkers. Every bar in Helsinki that I passed (or didn't pass) was full, and many were packed with drunk Finns of all ages. They were drinking, at very high prices, bad beer or a horrible concoction called something like Longkeru, a kind of pre-mixed gin and tonic.

So clearly the do-gooders who pitched the taxes so high left something out of account. They have simply made the poor poorer. I suspect that if they try to force a particular mix or type of food on a population there will be a similar kind of revolt - and certainly restaurant prices in Helsinki were high, and there was plenty of junk food available.

It does make sense to insist that children should get a balanced diet, and in institutional situations like schools this can be insisted on. It is a good argument for the provision of lunches at schools, too. But there is no reason why we should trust the dietitians. Every few years there is a new fad about one food or another, often proved not only wrong but actually harmful. The cholesterol craze is a case in point. Originally we were warned that olive oil was high in cholesterol, then it turned out it had none. Margarine was supposed to be better than butter, now the reverse is believed. Eggs were chock-a-block full of it, now they are allowed back on the menu. And so on. More sensible has been the discovery that certain countries eat better than others, especially the Mediterranean countries and France, where regular wine intake, cooking with butter or oil or, better, goose fat, and lots of meat of various kinds has no ill effects. The secret seems to be in the range of foods served in a meal - even the university cafeteria where I used to eat in Paris when I was teaching always served a lunch with an entree of salad, often tomatoes, grated carrot or lentils with a vinaigrette, a main course with vegetables and a dessert or fruit. But I have noted sadly on successive visits to Paris that fast food, pizza joints and McDonald's have taken a firm hold. And the students don't even drink wine.

So something must be going on that the dietitians do not understand - not that they understand much. McDonald's, of course, gets an undeservedly bad rap. Those who denounce it are snobs or worse. Fast food is cheap and gratifying. That is enough of an explanation. But why do kids prefer it? I suppose in part it is their parents' fault, but it does suggest that we ought to be setting those few dietitians who know about cooking to discover healthier ways of delivering cheap, gratifying fast food. Perhaps McDonald's should be subsidised to find out how to do it - although they do it pretty well already.

To some extent obesity is genetic, not at all a matter of self-discipline, gluttony or sloth. This is certainly true of many descended from peasant stock, and it is true of many Aborigines who in the past had to work and walk pretty hard to eat at all. There is no doubt that many desert Aborigines simply died of starvation. Now that high-fat, high-sugar foods are cheaply available, obesity and its frequently accompanying ills are rife among indigenous peoples all over the world. But this will not be solved by telling restaurants what to serve.

There is, and must be, a right to choose one's diet. My choice has been to eat and drink as much and as well as I like and can afford. But never having smoked, and having a taste for really good food, when I cook as much as in a restaurant, and having consistently cooked mainly with olive oil for 40 years, I have to this point defied the doctors. If you want to starve yourself, or live on nuts and lettuce, go ahead. You will certainly feel as if you've lived longer.

I would never enter a McDonald's without coercion. But I would defend to the death the rights of those who want to, without coercion as to what they will eat there.

ppmcg@ozemail.com.au