Why food is so confusing

The ‘absolute explosion’ in food technology in the past century has caused massive changes in the way humans eat and think about food.

It might be one of the key indicators used by health professionals, but one local expert believes there are serious limitations on judging health on BMI and diet alone.

‘‘There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to diet,’’ nutritionist Amanda Cleghorn says. ‘‘Even eating healthy foods can be detrimental to some people’s health.’’

Cleghorn makes the suggestion in Being Human ,a Stuff video series hosted by Antonia Prebble that examines some of the fundamental parts of the human experience: food, sleep, love, fear and happiness.

In the episode examining our relationship with food, Cleghorn explains healthy eating can mean different things to different people – it’s just about getting to know what your body needs.

‘‘If you have digestive issues, for example, if you have an overgrowth of yeast or bacteria or parasites – which I find are increasingly common, particularly in New Zealand – for those people who have those infections, even eating healthy, fibrerich foods, can be problematic.

‘‘So, temporarily, you have to take those out of the diet, sort out the underlying problems and then re-introduce them.’’

There’s no denying food and the changing ideas around nutrition are constant topics of conversation in western culture.

And with every discussion of the diet-of-themoment, food intolerance or eating plan, there is also consideration needed for why simply eating dinner can seem more challenging than ever.

‘‘You’ve got to think back thousands of years to how man was evolving,’’ Cleghorn says.

‘‘So, going from foraging for berries and nuts to eating more animal products, because we developed weapons to be able to hunt properly.

‘‘And then, if you think back just to the last hundred years, there has been an absolute explosion in terms of food technology.’’ That means more intensive farming, the introduction of antibiotics in farming, food being produced in factories, the use of preservatives – it all adds up to a massive change in the way we eat, what we eat and how we eat it.

‘‘I really feel that people’s bodies are almost fighting back,’’ Cleghorn says, ‘‘that we just can’t keep up with the pace because we are still living, technically, in those cave men and women’s bodies. Genetically, we haven’t moved on as fast as the type of food that we’re eating has moved on and this is creating a lot of the problems.’’

The problems can be varied. According to the NZ Nutrition Foundation, about 1 per cent of adults and less than 10 per cent of children are ‘‘at risk’’ of allergic reactions to foods.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Health Survey

2018-19 showed just over 30 per cent of the adult population is obese, which equated to 1.22 million adults.

In the same survey, only 32.5 per cent of New Zealand adults said they got the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables (eating at least three servings of vegetables and at least two servings of fruit each day).

This number has decreased from 43 per cent in

2006-07.

The weight loss and diet industry is worth millions – last year, the United States market alone was valued at more than $72 billion. Cleghorn says popular diets like paleo, keto and fasting do have some validity to them when it comes to results. But like anything, caution is recommended.

‘‘There is a lot of evidence behind all of them. They have been introduced by scientists, there is backing to it, but like any of these, it comes down to individual preference,’’ she says.

‘‘Some people will absolutely thrive on those kinds of diets, and others won’t.

‘‘It depends on underlying health issues, so it’s

worth checking those out to start with, going to a doctor, going to a nutritionist, and asking for some of these tests [that exist] to actually see, if they do have symptoms, what the underlying cause of those symptoms are – and then tailoring a diet accordingly.’’

‘‘I really feel that people’s bodies are almost fighting back.’’ Amanda Cleghorn, above

Ultimately, Cleghorn wants Kiwis to look past all the bells and whistles and get back to basics when it comes to the food they eat. And most of all, she wants them to realise eating well for their body doesn’t have to be difficult.

‘‘The same messages come through whether you’re thinking about liver problems or hormone problems.

‘‘It’s just about keeping your diet clean and simple. It’s half a plate of vegetables, non-starchy, leafy green vegetables.

‘‘We’re always telling people to eat their greens, now more than ever.’’

To watch Being Human, go to stuff.co.nz/ beinghuman