The incidence of health problems for populations in the U.S. related to obesity is beginning to drive thought on food. West of Tucson in the lands of the Tohono O’odham the obesity crisis and its attendant health risks has garnered the attention of the people who traditionally lived sustainability off the desert. The crisis has reached epidemic proportions as over 50% of the adult population has been diagnosed with diabetes and an increasing number of young people are at risk to develop the disease. Contrast this with the fact that fifty years ago diabetes was unheard of in their nation.
Processed foods are driving this.
The Tohono O’odham are essentially the “canary in the coal mine” for the rest of us who live off food that is processed and delivered. This dependence, contrived by a myriad of factors including advertising and marketing of foods that are produced far distant from the consumer, has created a culture of alienation from what is the most intimate of cultural exchange, food.
While it is easy is to depend on your local fast food joint to provide sustenance, or to buy foods that require little preparation, food in its natural state is slow. It requires love and a reverence to create what is healthy for us.
If each of us spent the time to really evaluate where a food source comes from and how it comes to our table; I believe we will begin to wean ourselves from the corporate ideology of food that does not sustain the land or the body.
KJ84
