Mel’s Brain: Would you eat that much if…?

Over the weekend, I was walking in my yard, looking at all the macadamia trees we have. They sound awesome, and they are, but trust me when I say you don't want macadamia trees if you're not on acreage. Mowing the lawn turns you into an accidental terrorist, launching hundreds of mini missiles... everywhere.

My husband and I were clearing some trees, five this time, and while I was waiting for him to finish chain-sawing through my next load of stumps (to carry to the burn pile), I watched our way-too-many chickens scratching around, with the little chicks running after their mother hen. And I got to thinking.

First, I thought about how I don't think I could ever not live on acreage. I often complain about moving to QLD because I miss my Sydney life. "Sydney Mel," as I call her, didn't plan to move to QLD. It just... happened. But "QLD Mel" doesn't really know how to fit in here because people are... different. Where does QLD Mel wear her Sydney clothes? She doesn't. Sydney Mel did her face and hair every day. QLD Mel... why? I don't see anyone.

People think moving to SEQLD would be a treat because they'd no longer sit in Melbourne or Sydney traffic. They're so wrong (as was I when I used to say that), although granted, I did move to the Sunshine Coast. My humble opinion: driving up here makes you dumb. In Sydney, you're "on" all the time, changing lanes, making decisions, getting out of the way, driving past things that make you think, "Ooh, should I stop for a coffee? I need to go food shopping tomorrow... ooh look, something new is opening here." In QLD? You're just in zombie mode. Driving on a highway past nothing but trees.

There are things you can stop at, but if you're on the highway, you can't see any of them. You only stop if you already know they're there. You take an exit, and magically, some fast food and a servo appear. Then it's back onto the highway. And because going anywhere outside your bubble requires a highway, and the bubbles aren't big enough to have all the random shops you need, you do a LOT of highway driving. And I promise you, on almost any trip you take, there will be:

• An accident because "it looked like it was gonna rain,"

• A car on fire

• Someone broken down

• Someone sneezing in their car, which of course causes everyone that didn't even
  know someone sneezed, to panic brake... and then there is a 6-car pile up because
  of it.

Sunshine Coast roads are something you can only laugh at. So please don't move here thinking you'll avoid traffic. You'll just sit in different traffic without a way to problem-solve a different route. Of course, that’s just my experience, maybe many will disagree with me, but in saying all of that, QLD or not, I don't think I could not live on acreage. I'm sure if I moved back, I'd adjust pretty quickly to Sydney-Mel life. But on acreage, I can light a fire. I can grow trees. I can watch my dogs wear themselves out stalking the chickens.

I'm covered in scratches because removing trees in shorts and a singlet does that to you... but god, the freedom. Then the next thought hit me: In the three years we've lived here, only once have I bothered collecting macadamia nuts, drying them out, opening them, and eating them.

And even that one time, I only did like 20. Those 20 took days, even weeks to dry properly. And we have thousands. Our property used to be a macadamia farm... we’re abundant in macs. Then I pictured the bag of already peeled macadamia nuts you buy, "natural," "roasted," "roasted & salted." I've eaten so many of those that I once did a white poo. There is NO chance in hell I'm prepping that many macadamias myself just to fill one 400g bag. I like macadamias a lot, but not that much.

Then I thought further. I know I've talked before (a lot) about why food isn't food anymore, how it's full of questionable things they call ingredients, but let's add another layer. Let's just talk about the food part, not the made-up things called ingredients.

We'll leave aside the fact that even "real" food still has drawbacks if you buy the "regular" stuff, because I live next to strawberry farms and the chemicals I watch them spray are... insane.

Let's talk about how everything is just so EASY. When you buy a pack of macadamia nuts, the only thing that slows you down is the price. Outside of that, how much thought do you put into where they came from? Do you know macadamias grow on a tree, have two shells, one tough as a rock? That you have to pick them at the right time, keep them in the right environment for the first shell to crack, then let the nut dry without going mouldy?

If you had to harvest and process your own macadamias, would you eat as many as
you do from the packet?

I already came to a conclusion years ago about juice, as I'm sure many others have, but for anyone who hasn't: fruit juice requires zero work.

Your digestive system starts with your senses: eyes see it, nose smells it, your mouth salivates, your stomach prepares. You bite, chew, swallow. All of that tells your brain you've eaten. You'll eat one piece of fruit, maybe two, and you're done. Now picture juice. How many oranges in a 350ml glass? Four to six. But that's the thing, you haven't "eaten" anything. You've dumped flavoured sugary water into your stomach.

No chewing, no salivating, no work. And I am very sure you would never have eaten 6 oranges in one go! And what's left after juicing is basically fructose and water. You didn't tell your brain you ate, and you loaded it with the one sugar designed to make you hungry: fructose.

Anyway. The point is the principle: how easy and fast it is to consume. And how easy it is to go back for more. If you had to buy a few kilos of oranges and juice them by hand, you'd treasure that juice more. (God, now I'm thinking about bringing the same conversation to protein shakes. I'll try to hold off.)

I can't help but think about why over 66% of our country is overweight or obese. Yes, 66% of Australian adults. People know America's number is high, but Australia isn't far behind.

I’m gonna jot some boring numbers below, feel free to skip straight over them if your brain isn’t in learning mode.

America sits at 73% according to my Google searches.
Australia only started measuring in 1995, but America has numbers from the 40s:

• 1940s: <10%

• 1970s: <15%

• 1980s: approaching 30%

• Early 2000s: 34%

• 2010: 73%

• And still around the +70% mark now.
  

The last count in Australia was 2017–2018. Projections for 2025: 75–80%. What? Interestingly, American studies show from 1988–2012, overweight percentages didn't move much, but obesity went from 22.9 to 34.9, and extreme obesity from 2.8 to 6.4.

So my conclusion is: new people kept becoming overweight, and a little over half of those already overweight continued to become obese and extremely obese. We talk a lot about what we're eating. But people seem to get offended when you ask how much they're eating. It's a serious question because would you eat the same amount if you had to make or prepare every part of what you ate, yourself?

Every single person in my family is overweight.
Wow. Writing that out makes it land differently than just knowing it. And somehow, I’m the only one in my entire family who loves food in a cheffy way, and also the only one who isn’t overweight. I think I may have just connected a few dots.

I’ve always been big on ingredients. I read labels without thinking about it. My family… not so much or really, at all. And that’s not a criticism, just a difference. But beyond that, I’m also the only one who really cooks. Like, actually cooks.

If I said this to my mum, she’d rightly point out that she doesn’t always use packet foods, and she’d be right, but cooking some meat and veg a couple of nights a week still leaves quite a few meals relying on jars, packets, and convenience foods. And I know my sister would be the first to admit she wouldn’t tell a red onion from a brown one, packets are just part of normal life in most houses.

I’m not saying this to judge anyone. I’m just sitting here, noticing patterns, and realising how quietly powerful everyday cooking habits can be.

I'm getting sidetracked. My point: I'm questioning, as I type and process, the deeper level of convenience. Everyone thinks of fast food when they hear "convenient foods," but almost everything available today is convenient. Combine that with the low-quality ingredients and you have a huge contributor to obesity rates.

Have you thought about the fact that one of the highest contributors to current inflation is food? After housing, food is the second biggest. And not only is food contributing to inflation, the foods being bought are so low in nutritional value that they keep you hungry and sick, and therefore buying more and more, which is exactly why it sits at number 2.

In the three hours I've sat writing and thinking about this, I'm convinced I've solved half the world's problems in theory. I need to stop before I get further down this rabbit hole in my own head.

To leave you with one analogy, because they just appear in my brain, what I'm explaining is like ChatGPT. You all thought it was crazy when it was just a concept, and now most people can't write an email without running it through AI. This is what food has become: always there, ready to consume with barely a need to do any work to produce it.

So I'll leave you with this thought: the next thing you pick up to put in your mouth, ask yourself...

How would you treat it if you had made it yourself?

Ps, I wrote this about two months ago and have only just come around to send it. And since writing this, the US government has finally flipped the pyramid upside down. More to come on that!

Mel xx