Soul Food is Home Cooked.

As infants our earliest bond with our mother is being breast fed and later eating our mothers home cooked meal. Yet as we grow we fall prey to fads, changing lifestyles and technical advances mean we eat more of processed foods which are not in the best interest of health or longevity. In combination, internet social networks and poor diets seem to be conspiring to produce a generation of pudgy, lazy mutes with short attention spans. Culture begins and ends on a plate. A proper wake is followed by good food and drink for good reason; a testament to life even without the guest of honor. We eat to live and then we live to eat. From the earliest times, food played a key role in the spiritual and literal growth of families and a larger society. Long before convenience became the buzz word our grandparents have followed a regime of healthy eating. Simple fare, with had a variety of seasonal ingredients grown locally, no heart burn or indigestion. The scientific causes for obese, dull, or obnoxious kids are partly due to poor socialization, bad nutrition, which afflicts children. The key ingredients in packaged, fast food, or take-out are: calories, fat, salt, sugar and all the chemicals required to prevent the awful from becoming inedible. An army marches on its stomach, “said Napoleon Bonaparte (C’est la soup qui fait le soldat’ or it’s the soup that makes the soldier) successful armies have always known the need to secure their kitchen supplies. Patriotism they say is the taste of food eaten in childhood. Yet despite eating home food religiously during our youth we shun it the moment we begin our career. Just like other city slickers we relish, burgers, pizza’s, taco’s and other junk food. Then when obesity and life style diseases set in we go on diets and bariatric surgery. In the animal kingdom or fauna are more attuned to nature’s circadian rhythm but as Homo sapiens evolve we tend to forget what is naturally good for us. The older generation relished the whole grain bread, stew, rice, watery veggies and lived a healthy life.