Since admitting to my obsession with food I have been wondering if we aren’t all capable of being somewhat more interested and invested in our food consumption than is considered healthy or necessary. There is a global epidemic of obesity and its related health implications. Would those who over-consume have the same unnatural preoccupation with food as do those who under-consume? This got me thinking about the role of food throughout the ages, the value placed on it and the means of locating/ purchasing/ finding this life-sustaining commodity. I thought it might be interesting to draw up some comparisons/differences between early man and man today in our quest to ‘ survive’. Well, here we find the first , glaringly obvious difference. For early man it must have surely been about survival? Sure, this is sadly still a factor in many under developed countries in the world but for your average Joe, survival probably doesn’t even enter into the fray. Lets look at 2 scenarios:
EARLY MAN
He awakens after a fitful night as he, his pregnant wife and 2 small children huddle together in an attempt to keep warm. They have set up home inside a cave and have placed branches across the entrance in an attempt to stave off and deter any wild animals from entering. The man hasn’t ever slept more than a few hours at a time as he is constantly on high alert as he attempts to protect his family from any unwanted intruders. They have to expend much of their energy through shivering and walking around to keep themselves from succumbing to hyperthermia. Each day that they survive is considered a victory. However, they are always hungry and they have aready lost 3 infants who have died of starvation. If the man doesn’t find food urgently, the chances of them all dying are increasingly real.
It has snowed during the night and this is a double edged sword because whilst this enables him to track animals more easily thanks to their spoor prints left in the snow, on the other hand this makes him an equally easy target for predators. The starkness of the landscape makes him as visible as the animals he is attempting to track and his only hope is to approach them from the opposite direction to the harsh wind that is blowing. He has only one thought, one mission, one quest and that is to find food as soon as possible otherwise he knows that he and his family cannot possibly survive. His pursuit is focussed, measured and critical to his survival. Food = existence , it is literally the means to life. His mission may last a number of days and it is debatable whether he can last the length of time that it may take. It is one thing locating a source . Its another thing actually managing to kill the food source. Each minute that he is out searching is depleting his physical capacity to carry out the task with a successful outcome. It is his shere mental determination, a crucial situation of life or death that enables him to continue. There is little that he can forage due to the wintry weather conditions and a live animal, depending on its size,will nourish and sustain his family for a prolonged period of time.
He espies movement and a dark shape ahead. Despite the heavy snowfall that is obscuring his vision he stealthily approaches what he now sees is a large deer. His hands are almost frozen but his gaze and his arms are steady as he raises his right arm behind him, the spear tightly gripped in his hand. There is no question that he will miss his target. His and his family’s lives depend on his accuracy and the force behind the strike. The Gods favour him this time and he manages to startle and then bring down the beast as he plunges the spear into the animal’s flank. He immediately has to slit the deer’s throat with his hand-knife before it staggers to its hooves.
That was the easy bit. He now has to drag the animal all the way back to the cave and whilst he has tried to stalk his prey within limited boundaries that he has mentally enforced, it will still take him some time and considerable effort to carry this life-saving source of food back to his family. He drinks some of the blood and consumes enough raw meat to enable his body to manufacture the energy he needs to perform this task. He eventually makes it back to the cave uncertain if he will find any members of his family still alive. Once there,he first has the job of removing the pelt ( to be used as a valuable source of warmth and protection ) , dissecting the carcass , digging holes to store and hide the meat , making sure that no blood remains that will attract scavengers to the site. His wife meanwhile has had to keep their meagre fire going despite the difficulty in finding and drying out enough wood to facilitate this. They roast some of the meat and to them, each bite is life-affirming, life sustaining and has nothing to do with taste, texture, smell or desirability other than as the only thing that is keeping them alive. It is never taken for granted, never refused, NEVER wasted and is valued above all else where your only choice in life is to eat what is available in front of you through your extreme efforts or you will die.
MODERN MAN.
Given that there are 2 extremes: Those who grow their own produce; eat organic meat that they purchase at their local Butchers; cook everything from scratch and for whom the bit of effort required is to maintain a relatively healthy/planet friendly / no-cost-too-great lifestyle, – to those whose only contribution to their survival is to walk a few steps to the front door to receive their home delivered take-away, I will attempt to describe the methods of survival adopted by an average middle class family.
They express the fact that they are starving at least once a day. They also emphasise that they “ could never survive without ……….” ( take your pick of any of one’s favourite foods ). They desire to eat the maximum amount with the minimum of effort. The largest percentage of the foods they eat have no resemblance to the actual food they are purported to be nor would one be able to identify something from the ingredients listed. In order to enjoy the foods, there have to be multiple added ingredients to make each item suitably palatable for these discerning consumers. The larger the portion or the more you get for your money, the more enjoyable the food is. Modern man can choose to eat at whatever time of day he chooses. What’s more, he eats whether he is hungry or not. He is more than likely to eat all the food before him in one sitting and there is no need to conserve or save anything that may not be eaten – he has no compunction about discarding any remnants – he knows that there will be plenty more where that came from tomorrow. His quest for food requires some effort : He may need to use his fingers to tap on his phone ; his voice to order a meal ; his perfect co-ordination to drive to find his prey; his strength to push a trolley or carry his food source home. He too needs to cook his food and quite often he may need to operate a complex machine that will heat his food to make it more pleasantly digestible. He too, has mapped out boundaries around his hunting area although sometimes he may have to overstep these as he seeks food from farther afield. His family have evolved from early man and are more willing and able to help modern man with the hunting. They too have fears: What if their favourite food runs out or is out of stock? How then could they possibly survive?
However, by far the biggest threat and the most terrifying fear that modern man has is when the doctor tells him that he needs to go on a diet. This is the moment when modern man can truly share a common fear with his Neanderthal ancestor – that terrifying fear of starvation.
