Introduction

Happy New Year! To welcome in the new decade, I've decided to write about food. Apparently, the thing we need to live is somewhat important, so have a loose collection of thoughts on food.

Food isn't accessible

Tens of millions of Americans live in “food deserts”: areas, particularly urban areas, which lack access to affordable and nutritious food. For these people, it is harder to follow a nutritious diet, especially since cheaper less nutritious options like fast food tend to be much more accessible to them. Food justice advocate Karen Washington prefers the term “food apartheid," which highlights how the conversation and the consequences are often divided along racial lines. Not only do black people tend to live in these “deserts,” for decades, governmental farm subsidies have disproportionately flowed to white farmers.

Food isn't straightforward

Apparently, it's quite straightforward to keep a healthy diet:

[T]he definition of a healthy diet has been clear for some time. In fact, the basic theme of optimal eating — a diet made up mostly of whole, wholesome plant foods — has been clear to nutrition experts for generations. [A healthy diet consists] of some balanced combination of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and water. If you get the foods right, the nutrients sort themselves out. But if you focus on nutrients rather than foods, you quickly learn that there is more than one way to eat badly, and we Americans seem all too eager to try them all.

Yet it never quite seems that way. For example, “people today who eat and exercise the same amount as people 20 years ago are still fatter.". Carbs are good, until they're not. Fat is bad, until it's not (Keto).

Food isn't orderly

Tens of millions of Americans suffer from eating disorders. They eat too much; they eat too little. The disordered, the unhealthy, and the uncomfortable come to distrust the American food system, especially since the recommendation to maintain a low-fat diet (endorsed by the until well into the 21st century and still prevailing as common wisdom) hasn't particularly turned out well, which we've known for many years. This on top of the unequal distribution of food I mentioned before, has turned many to fad diets, with mixed results.

Conclusion

Food is easy, until it's not.