Niki Bezzant: Forget fads, remember the joy

Back in the day eating was a much less complicated undertaking. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Last weekend we had a family celebration for my parents' 70th birthdays. It was an afternoon tea with a traditional, verging-on-retro theme, heavy on the home baking.

We had soft, sweet, pink lamingtons, ginger kisses, sausage rolls and asparagus rolls (my favourite) and pikelets with jam and cream.

These are dishes most of us remember from childhood that have not really changed in generations. It was a pleasure to eat them.

It struck me that this food originates from a time when eating was a much less complicated undertaking than it is today.

In 1967, say, when my parents turned 21, not many people were on special diets.

I doubt anyone was gluten intolerant (or if they were they didn't know it) and food allergies were rare.

Although diets were around, they were more of the "no thanks, I'm cutting back" than the "I don't eat carbs or dairy or sugar or grains" variety.

I'm sure people were eating vegan diets, but they wouldn't have found many supermarket products labelled that way.

And paleo diets were still something studied in dusty museums, rather than a claim to marketing fame.

You could argue we've become more sophisticated over the years, and 1967 was not exactly a culinary high point.

Our diets have expanded as the range of foods available to us has expanded, and a good thing that is, too.

I've never particularly liked the maxim "don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognise", because based on that I would hardly eat any of the foods I enjoy now. I doubt my grandmother would have recognised soba noodles or kimchi or sushi or even some of the vegetables I regularly eat.

But there is something to be said for taking a simple approach to cooking and eating, and not getting hung up on the latest trends.

In 12 years of working on Healthy Food Guide, I've never seen more fads develop around "healthy" foods than in the past couple of years.

Think of all the terms we now consider to denote health in some way.

Most of them would have had no meaning - or a completely different meaning - five years ago: raw; clean; sugar-free; fermented; wholefood. They are sprinkled all over our food packaging like activated organic watermelon seeds (a real thing).

At Christmas when we tend to go back to traditional foods and old favourite dishes, it's nice to remember the past and the way we ate before eating turned into a defining personality statement.

We can eat that way now. Eat for pleasure and nourishment and for community and celebration.

We can eat mindfully, but not obsessively - forget the fads and remember the joy.

Have a very happy Christmas.

Niki Bezzant is editor-in-chief of Healthy Food Guide.