Closer Than You Think - 1

By Laura Capellaro

As a mother of two small children I can often be found, gazing abstractly into the remnants of cold cup of tea, pondering questions of universal importance about my children's future.

What legacy would I like to be able to leave them? Apart from the obvious dreams about giving them a financial crank-start - driving lessons, a university education, maybe even a deposit on somewhere to live - there are moral and ethical considerations too; ideas I know I have to pass on about good manners, friendship, and hard work.

As I write this, I am sitting in a supermarket café, gazing abstractly into the remnants of a cold cup of tea, scribbling on a paper towel with a pen I found at the bottom of my capacious handbag. A surreptitious glance round at my fellow diners gives me with a sinking feeling, as I see plenty of evidence for the new trend in Great Britain - copied, as ever, from the United States. Obesity.

It is a relatively new trend, but one that seems set to stay. During the Second World War, the United Kingdom soon discovered that it was unable to feed itself. We relied heavily on imported food, from the United States amongst others. The Germans knew this and persistently attacked supply ships, hoping to starve the British into submission. The ploy was threatening to work, until the British Government introduced food rationing in January 1940 (in point of fact it was not only food that was rationed but many other commodities as well, including fuel and clothing).

The Ministry of Food was created, in order to research and disseminate information on how people could best feed themselves under these reduced circumstances.

Ironically, the effect of this was to make the country nutritionally far healthier than it had been for decades. Great stock was put on the importance of home-grown vegetables. Encouraged by the new 'Dig For Victory!' campaign, people ploughed up their front and back gardens and took to growing their own fruit and vegetables instead of petunias, roses and lavender. Public parks, playing fields and other open spaces were similarly used. This sudden emphasis on fresh, seasonal, locally grown food had tremendous health benefits for the population.

Rationing continued in this country until 1954 - nine whole years after the war had finished. Sugar, salt, fat, tobacco and alcohol consumption was greatly reduced, with all the attendant health benefits.

Nowadays by contrast all that good work seems to have been largely forgotten. Working hours in the United Kingdom are now longer than anywhere else in Europe and the steady gravitation towards pre-processed convenience food is having a detrimental effect on the nation's health. Obesity, allergies, heart disease and hypertension (high blood pressure) are all on the increase. Not just in adults, but in children as well. The food problem is further compounded by increased mechanisation and the use of technology, inflicting a more sedentary lifestyle on all of us.

Does this sound familiar to you in the United States? Ah - we are closer than you think.

I say “inflicting a more sedentary lifestyle” as if we are powerless to do anything about it. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, many Brits are now concerned enough about the threat to health posed by industrial farming techniques, processed food and genetically modified ingredients, that there has been a sudden revival - small, but growing - of interest in growing one’s own food. Since Mediaeval times small parcels of land called Allotments have been parcelled out by local government to individuals for the express purpose of growing one’s own food. I know from my own experience that they require a lot of time and hard work and are normally the domain of the retired classes, but nevertheless more and more younger people are becoming interested. Not only are there obvious benefits - financial as well as health-wise - in growing one’s own food, but the extra exercise, sunshine, fresh air and friendships cultured alongside the tomatoes and the onions are also conducive to good mental as well as physical health. This nation was once called a Nation of Shopkeepers. Now we are fast becoming a Nation of Gardeners.

Nationally, the backlash against processed food is beginning to bite. The supermarket I am sitting in now is one of the market leaders in this country and I have been watching how they respond to the new "anti-trend" with a mixture of cynicism and wry amusement. They are back-pedalling furiously, promoting their range of organic vegetables and "Be Good To Yourself!" range of pre-packaged, ready-to-nuke TV dinners. These articles are, of course, a good 25% more expensive than if you simply bought the raw ingredients and made the food yourself.

The meteoric rise of Health Clubs and Gyms is due to shrewd business people cashing in on the new hysteria. Business meetings that used to be held in high-calorie French restaurants in London's West End, now take place over a non-fat latte the horribly high-priced eating outlets that one invariably finds in horribly high-priced private gymnasia. There is so much money to be made, from machines for a hundred different exercises that you could quite easily do yourself at home with a kitchen chair and a skipping rope.

People have come to believe that they have not TIME in which to look after themselves properly. They buy the convenience version of health, instead. They quickly discover that they have to spend even more time working in order to pay for all this convenience, and the vicious circle is formed.

I drink my cold tea without thinking and grimace. My children munch sullenly on their Salt’n’Vinegar crisps. Increasingly I am beginning to realise that there is something else I need to teach them, even at the tender ages of 6 and 2. That is how to feed themselves correctly, and to look after their little bodies. In some ways I feel this might be the best legacy of all.