I always admire Jamie Oliver for the impact he had on promoting healthy eating in schools. He may have been excoriated for cancelling turkey twizzlers but I’m with him, even when I wasn’t vegetarian, the notion of them grossed me out!
Although, I can’t help but think that we still haven’t really tackled the healthy eating issue. I dread to think what the diets of some kids are out there.
It’s a societal issue. Fast food and unhealthy food is cheap and more accessible than a lot of fresh healthy food and the culture pushes for convenience above anything else.
You’ve got to respect the Australian comedian Natswhatireckon for waging his war on jar sauce and packet foods during the pandemic, one man with the idea of pushing people to cook with fresh food and it made a positive change. He is also outright hilarious!
And I was taught home economic on a carousel in school and I only remember cooking a select amount of things. I’m grateful for those experiences but I can’t help but think opportunities for young people is limited.
These days, I cook more fresh things than ever and it feels healthy, but it’s also enriching in so many ways, it’s creative, it’s therapeutic, it’s a process that involves care, evaluation and you are in control of achieving tastes and flavours by your choices.
I love doing it and it’s an amazing past time in contrast to my current musical endeavours. Nothing beats eating something amazing that you’ve made and sharing that with others too.
I’d encourage everyone to learn to cook things from scratch. I’m a firm believer that it’ll promote a better sense of well-being in anyone who gives it a go and there are load of great websites out there. Even if it’s once or twice a week, it’ll make a difference.
To start, here is a link to one of my favourite vegetarian chilli recipes.
Ryan Mark Elliott Music 