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<\/a>But is hopping on the latest food trend, be it foods like chia seeds, acai berries, or kale, or dietary movements such as veganism, gluten free, and lactose-free, really going to benefit us?<\/p>\n
FAST-TRACKING HEALTH\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe really appreciate quick fixes in our culture,\u201d explains Camosun anthropology instructor Nicole Kilburn. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we\u2019re lazy, but we live in a very fast culture; we\u2019re very busy and it\u2019s very appealing to us if we can find shortcuts. So in terms of latching on to the next superfood, having a smoothie with acai berries that has all these promises attached to it for your health is maybe easier than eating healthy whole foods that you have to cook from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n It seems that the more \u201ccivilized\u201d we become, the farther out of touch we grow with many aspects of the world. Kilburn explains that as time has passed we\u2019ve forgotten that the food on our tables is much more than what we see sitting before us.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we don\u2019t have an awful lot of nutritional knowledge and we are distanced from our food,\u201d she says. \u201cYou take a look at things in the grocery store and they\u2019re in boxes and meat is wrapped in plastic and it doesn\u2019t look like an animal, it doesn\u2019t look like fields of corn. We have that distance between ourselves and what we\u2019re eating, and so I don\u2019t think we really know what we\u2019re supposed to eat anymore. It\u2019s a real vulnerability because it allows people to tell us what we should be eating.\u201d<\/p>\n Kilburn says that in the last 10 to 15 years there\u2019s been a change in the way food is marketed to us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re starting to see a lot of buzz words like \u2018antioxidants\u2019 or \u2018fibre\u2019 or \u2018whole wheat\u2019 and those things create this illusion of health that\u2019s really useful for marketers.\u201d<\/p>\n This distancing of North American society in regards to food couples badly with the all-too-common belief that everything should happen fast. \u201cPatience is a virtue\u201d has become more of a no-verb than a proverb and it tends to take a toll when we think about it in terms of health.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople tend to be quick to jump on trends because we\u2019re living in a day and age where we want things new and we want things quick,\u201d says local registered dietician Julie Kostyk. \u201cNowadays everything is made to last only a limited amount of time because as consumers we want new. We want fresh, we want updated, we want new technology and people are quick to jump on anything.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, Kostyk explains that although many of these food trends can be very healthy it\u2019s important to always look at them with a critical eye.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when we talk about food trends and food crazes we sort of know that what typically happens is something becomes trendy, something becomes hot, everyone wants to do it and the pendulum swings wildly to one side. When something becomes a trend you have to sort of look at it critically and ask yourself, \u2018Why is this something we haven\u2019t always been doing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n However, Kostyk also says that some food fads do need to be regarded with some scrutiny. Take, for example, our friend the acai berry.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the price of something that contains acai berries it will tend to be more expensive than, say, blueberries. Well, blueberries have antioxidants as well. That tends to be the biggest thing about acai berries: they contain a lot of antioxidants so they potentially help to fight cancer and things like that in our body. But regular berries also have antioxidants. As a consumer you have to be wary, because lots of times when something is trendy it also costs more.\u201d<\/p>\n THE FOLLOWING WORDS\u00a0ARE GLUTEN-FREE<\/strong><\/p>\n The price of alternative goods is only one of many obstacles encountered by those who choose to alter their dietary habits. Often people leap before they look and end up landing in a strange land without a map. This is a common occurrence in the cases of many of those choosing to stop their consumption of gluten.<\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely for the last couple of years gluten-free has been a real trend and for a lot of people out there I worry that the reasons they\u2019re doing it may not be the best,\u201d says Kostyk. \u201cThey may not have educated themselves enough for the reasons for going gluten free. People have this perception that if they eat gluten-free they are going to be healthier and that\u2019s not always the case. If you\u2019re choosing your diet wisely and you\u2019re choosing whole grains or alternative whole grains, eating more fruits and vegetables, getting your calcium from dairy or milk alternatives and eating good quality meats, fish, or legumes, for sure you can be gluten free and be totally healthy. I\u2019m just not sure that\u2019s the way many people who are going gluten-free are going.\u201d<\/p>\n Educating people about eating healthy has become more and more important in today\u2019s society. Victorian Ari Hershberg has seen this and to do his part has taken on a role as the event producer for Victoria\u2019s upcoming Gluten-Gree Health and Wellness Festival.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ve gotten to a point where we have so many options that we don\u2019t know what\u2019s best for us,\u201d says Hershberg. \u201cSome people do really well with dairy and some people don\u2019t do well with dairy. Some people do well with gluten; some people don\u2019t do well with gluten. Do some people just jump into gluten-free too fast? Heck yeah, people jump in things all the time. You have to educate. I want people to have enough education so they can either be like, \u2018It\u2019s not for me\u2019 or, \u2018I\u2019m going to try it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Hershberg (whose gluten-free fest is happening on February 22 at the Victoria Conference Centre) says that while every new dietary idea is considered a fad, gluten-free isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to call it a fad because its new,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that gluten-free is starting more people thinking, \u2018Which foods works for me and which don\u2019t?\u2019 and it starts people thinking,\u2019 What works for my body?\u2019 without getting too crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Jumping headfirst into anything can be a major problem but there is also the risk that comes with not jumping at all. Sometimes we take an all-or-nothing approach to nutrition; it\u2019s important to find that happy medium and think about what we\u2019re eating.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I think we create these big fads or a buzz that gloss over without thinking about some of the smaller pieces,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cCertainly we\u2018ve been having some problems with the consumption and amount of wheat we are consuming today. Going gluten-free kind of depends on what that gluten-free food is; sometimes gluten-free food may be heavily processed. You may have something that\u2019s gluten-free but has a bunch of other foods that are a part of it that cause problems. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as easy as saying yes or no, but certainly there seems to be something going on in terms of the type of wheat that we are consuming today that people should be aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n LOOKING, THEN LEAPING<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether gluten-free is a fad or not, it\u2019s always beneficial for people to consider what they put in their bodies. In the last decade or so, North American culture has begun to shift towards thinking more critically about what we eat. And that includes thinking more critically about how that food is marketed.<\/p>\n \u201cIf customers feel confident that they\u2019ll receive \u2018value\u2019 from the purchase, meaning the product or service will be worth more to them than the money they spend on it, many will make purchases based on incomplete or inaccurate information,\u201d explains Camosun marketing instructor Glen Allen, who adds that \u201cin today\u2019s society, when information is so readily available it can be easy to do comparative research when shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n Allen explains that food trends can only be perpetuated as long as the market will support them… and sometimes the support is manufactured.<\/p>\n \u201cBy telling the public, for example, \u2018You need to eat more fibre,\u2019 marketers are likely trying to create a want or demand for fibre-based products by educating the public of the \u2018benefits\u2019 to be gained by consuming them,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s often done through target marketing, as this type of message would likely get better reception when presented to the segments of the population whose circumstances, such as being overweight, pregnancy, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol may benefit from higher-fibre diets.\u201d<\/p>\n Apart from seeing through marketing schemes, the task is for people to actually apply critical, and logical, thinking to their real lives and their diets.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a vegetarian when I was in university,\u201d says Camosun\u2019s Kilburn, who admits her passion often overshadowed her logic. \u201cIf someone asked, \u2018Why are you a vegetarian?\u2019 I would say, \u2018Oh, well, you shouldn\u2019t eat meat.\u2019 I hadn\u2019t really developed a good reason or rationale for it but I was very vocal about it. I find that many of my students are in the same situation; you won\u2019t eat meat because you won\u2019t eat meat.\u201d<\/p>\n But Kilburn says the individual should evaluate that a bit more. Are they not eating meat because of animal rights, the environmental footprint, or health issues?<\/p>\n \u201cThose are all really good reasons but you need to be evaluating your food choices. I was a very faddy vegetarian,\u201d she admits. \u201cI was a vegetarian because everyone else was a vegetarian, and that was just the thing to do when you were an undergrad.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes down to it, people have to enjoy the dietary changes they make in order to keep doing them, says registered dietician Kostyk. \u201cIf you\u2019re following a crazy way of eating that you really don\u2019t enjoy, if you\u2019re suffering,\u201d she says, \u201cthen you\u2019re probably not going to do it for very long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes, when faced with endless choices at the grocery store, you feel like you\u2019d just rather live without it, but you can\u2019t: food is our bread and butter. But how much do we really know about the sweet ambrosia we shovel down our gullets? The truth is that a lot of people today will eat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-february-19-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8612,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8610\/revisions\/8612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}