Tim Walker’s Sustaining

Consumer NZ is pushing for clearer food packaging that shows not only nutritional content, they now want it to demonstrate ‘how long the food will take to burn off’.

Presumably this is another attempt by New Zealand’s governing body to eliminate any need for people to think for themselves, yet to pose such a query is ridiculous, and for a number of reasons…

What Consumer NZ, along with their band of so called health advocates are doing, simply, is pandering to the nation’s population of unhealthy, irresponsible, overweight, under-exercised, food-crazed ignoramuses – ‘No, no, come on, you’re OK, it’s not your fault, it’s that damned food, isn’t it? It tricked you again, didn’t it? It didn’t tell you exactly how much of it you were allowed to eat, did it? Or how long it would be before you could eat some more..?’

…Take a 200 gram potato: if a 10-year-old boy were to eat that and continue to tear about like a soul possessed, it would be around half an hour before he needed refuelling; if however the same 200 grams of complex carbohydrate were given to a slothful 45-year-old man while he sat before a television slipping in and out of sleep, in reality that would probably sustain him for the entire day…

Instead of simply throwing back any food that looks, tastes, or feels good, how about taking a moment and listening to what your body actually requires; how about feeling the amount of food your body needs to ingest then appreciating when you require more.

…Other factors which can alter a food’s ‘burn-off time’ include: level of hunger at time of ingestion, level of activity following ingestion and in fact, yes, even the speed of ingestion will make a difference to a food’s metabolic rate.

I am fed up and I have had enough of uninformed Kiwis blaming the food they eat, the marketing behind the food, or even the food producer for the fact that they no longer fit into their favourite outfit.

People, come on, it’s time to take a little responsibility for our actions, realise that we make our own decisions, and quit blaming our shortcomings on the most convenient scapegoat: for Christ’s sake, it’s our food, we’ve bought it, we’re the ones who ultimately stick it in our mouths, chew then swallow; how can the condition of our bodies possibly be anyone else’s fault?

Back to the question: How long will food take to burn off?

Thus to the answer: Around about when you next feel hungry.

But I never feel hungry.

Then why do you eat?

Because I like eating – food makes me feel good.

How do you eat if you’re not hungry though?

I dunno, you just eat.

What drives you to eat though, you know, when you’re not hungry?

Taste, I guess.

How do you know when to stop though, I mean if you’re not hungry to begin with?

I dunno, I guess you just stop when you want to.

Not when you’re full though..?

Yeah, you can stop when you’re full, if you like.

Wow, I am honestly disgusted.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Chunk Chambers

Photography by Porky Pie

 

 

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