OPINION: Time to pitch in for simple, healthy eating

COMMUNITY EFFORT: Community vege gardens are a great way of making healthy options more readily available.

Last week, I met Anita Baker and Nicola Rayner -- founders of the Wairarapa Natural Health Clinic, which opens in Carterton this weekend.

The clinic (see page 10) specialises in alternative treatment options, and will eventually offer classes on preparing nutritious meals with organic ingredients.

I've have noticed how passionate we've become in Wairarapa about a healthy diet. We're growing our own veges, picking fruit from the trees and preparing meals from scratch. We're mindful of preservatives, refined sugar and GM. We use buzzwords, like "clean eating", "whole foods", "fresh ingredients", and "superfoods".

I must confess the "health food" movement, characterised by fancy marketing terms, food blogs and women with supermodel figures clutching kale smoothies on social media, grates somewhat.

It's overly moralistic, for a start. Clean eating and whole foods? Are other foods dirty, tainted and dishonourable? Are we eating too many half foods?

Many of these movements are rooted in privilege. Organic bread bursting with grains? Five times the cost of your average supermarket loaf.

Forget organic -- even some of the basics are getting steep. A head of cauliflower is now more expensive than a McDonalds Happy Meal, and one avocado was pricier than a scoop of chips. If you're a low-income family you're going to get the best for your money. Sometimes, that's frozen veggies and tinned tomatoes.

Plus, Kiwis are time-poor. A recent international survey found 60 per cent of New Zealand respondents reported stress-related illnesses at work. Not exactly conducive for cooking from scratch.

I recently watched a documentary in which members of a wealthy community in India prepared hearty meals for impoverished local families. They donated food using good cuts of meat, seasonal vegetables and quality spices -- out of reach for their poorer neighbours.

Now that is community spirit. And if we want our fellow Wairarapa folk to eat a better diet, community initiatives are a good place to start.

I think many have lost confidence in the kitchen. Not all of our parents had the time to pass on culinary wisdom. The food industry has been telling us how terribly difficult home cooking is for years -- in the hopes we'll keep stocked up on two-minute noodles.

So, let's make it a group effort. Community gardens and vege markets, like the new one in Featherston. Gardens and greenhouses at primary schools. Teaching young flatters to prepare affordable meals. Running courses on cooking with fresh ingredients and how to keep shopping costs down, like the new clinic proposes.

It's a sad fact -- decent food is becoming more and more of a luxury. So, rather than posing on Facebook with our chia seeds and goji berries, maybe it's time we got involved with our community vege patch -- and gave something back to others.