Actually, when I get into the canteen in my university, it’s not easy to find the information about the food except price. Sometimes there are three numbers with its memu. It indicates total number of calories. So you may be disappointed, if you are now very interested in a diet and well-being eating habits. But I think it’s not too bad to you who want to be healthy, rather, it’s better situation to you.
I have a friend. He is very interested in well-being eatings. So, every time he eats something, primarily his eyes find calories number of the food. On the menu bar, on the cover, on the handbill, or even on the internet browser by searching. And he also wants to see the percentages of the food splitted into several nutrients. Carbohydrate 35%(of daily accepted), Calcium 13%, Fat 27%, Trans-Fat 0%, Vitamin A 8%, Vitamin B 1%..., and so on. He pierces every food in front of him into numbers. He makes calculations and comparisons with the number. Next, he make a decision whether the food is good or not. And Finally, he starts to eat it. It is a natural routine to him. Anyway, he looks to eat very good foods from his own efforts. But I’ve founded that the more he get numbers in front of food, the more he blinded to the color, texture, and smell of the food. And he shows some kind of obsession on the numbers. So in the table with him, I sometimes feel him eating numbers instead of food.
Even though this case of the friend of mine cannot be generalized for all the people who has awake thinking on well-being eating, I think it has potential negative effects more than positive ones. When some consumer really needs the detail of elements list of the food with its percentages and calories numbers for his/her critical healthy condition(e.g. hospital patients or his/her nursing person), much numbers about the food can make more positive effects. But, for the people in normal, much numbers can make reduce their ability to insight and to distinct what the food itself is and how healthy it is. In short, they will lose their good sense on the food against numbers, futhermore they will lose sight of the variations of our environment. Because food is one of the most important thing from our nature and environment and it originally comes to us by not numbers but senses.
So, when making information about nutrition available to students in the canteen of university with too much numbers, it can make side-effects more the positive effects. I insist the school has to serve the information made by what we can see and touch. We never can see ‘nutrition’ and its ‘numbers’ of percentages and calories. We need to be given the nutrition information as we can sense it. For example, the school can open a class about ‘eating’ with giving a chance to the students ‘how each food go though our body’. Students need to feel and to know when each food comes to their mouth, stomach, and excretion organ. Just seeing the numbers on food cannot be helpful. Because there are no chance that the students themselves make connection between the detail nutrition information and original food.
On the other hand, if the school gives them the chance by a class or special program. If so, the numbers with nutrition information at this time can make some positive effects. But, without educations ‘from sense to sense’, it can make side-effect more than positive. Therefore, the solution we can start now is the class or the program that is a step we have lost until now.
Hongsung Kim
iamhongsungkim.blogspot.com
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