Searching for solutions

I WAS intrigued to read Google’s recently released list of the mostsearched-for recipes by New Zealanders in 2012. Topping the list are pancakes, followed by banana cake and chocolate cake. One of only two savoury items, chicken, is next, followed by the only non-edible item, playdough. Pizza dough, waffles, vanilla cupcakes, red velvet cake and strawberry shortcake round out the top 10.

I have been pondering what this list means. It’s no surprise to see chicken, our favourite meat, popping up so high on the list. This mirrors what people search for on the Healthy Food Guide website, where chicken is also a winner. Clearly as a nation we love baking, and we have a significant sweet tooth. We’re influenced by trends, as we can see from the red velvet cake making an appearance. (From what I can gather, it is just chocolate cake with the addition of lots of red food colouring.) The most-searched food and drink terms are revealing, too. The list runs as follows: 1. Pizza Hut 2. Hell Pizza 3. McDonald’s 4. Coffee 5. Subway 6. Burger King 7. Burger Fuel 8. Healthy Food Guide 9. Mad Butcher 10. Pancake recipe

While I am thrilled to see Healthy Food Guide appear on this list, it is the odd man out. The rest of it is fairly depressing. It says something, perhaps, about why we are as fat as we are. It was reported last week that more New Zealanders will die this year from obesity-related illnesses than will be killed in car crashes. Yet obesity is now so common that many of us don’t recognise it as an issue. Because 60 per cent of us are overweight or obese, we often fail to see that being fat is not normal. As in the United States, the fattest nation in the world, the thinking seems to be: if I (or my kids) look like everyone else, what’s the problem?

Part of the problem is that obesity now costs New Zealand about $849 million a year in healthcare and lost productivity, and that bill is only going up.

I think this list of search terms speaks to the same issue. That fast-food outlets are so frequently the subject of online searches seems to say that we think of these as everyday foods. Just as we’re in denial about our fatness, we are in denial about our eating habits. Fast food burgers, pizza and yes, pancakes – should be foods we eat occasionally, as a treat. They’re not for every day, especially if we care about how good we feel and how fat we are. The same goes for all those cakes on the recipes list. They are for special occasions, to be savoured and enjoyed, not eaten on a daily basis for morning tea.

It would be lovely to see next year’s search term list include things like ‘‘how to get more vegetables’’ and ‘‘energy-boosting dinners’’. I don’t hold much hope, but I couldn’t think of a nicer Christmas present (for all of us) for next year.