UnNatural

I went all steak and potato on my dinner last night: after living on rice and pasta for 7 days - I wasn’t on any sort of anti-Atkins diet, I just didn’t really plan my weekly menu all that well. The first 4 days were good - carbonara, linguine and raab, spaghetti and peas. Then a few days before payday, my choice was eat out or buy groceries on a credit card or have some more pasta, I opted for the latter. When I went to the store to reload, I placed semolina on my shopping list and then couldn’t bring myself to buy it - we need a timeout. 

Last night’s dinner was a definite response to my week of carbs – Steak and demi-glaze, potato cakes with grated leeks & horseradish and steamed cauliflower - I obliterated any nutritional gain a simple veg could have brought me by covering it with a cheddar cheese sauce. Bourbon and an ice cube for dessert. I know last night's meal was reactive, but it might have been reactionary too.

As unbalanced as my diet was these last 7 days, at least my diet isn’t Scottish: BBC reports on a study that finds 97% of Scots have at least one risk factor to their health. “Unhealthy living is nearly universal” in Connery-land. Although BBC didn’t pass judgment, I will – what a bunch of kilt-wearing, chain smoking, would rather distill a vegetable than eat it, who only take time out from drinking, smoking and not exercising to eat the one food of their regional cuisine - no, not haggis, but anything that comes out of a deep-fryer. Your a culture that makes the average suburban Texan look fit in comparison, hey Scotsman, I taunt you.  

While the Scottish may live an unnatural life, our friends at the Coca-Cola Company are trying to help. By promoting a healthy diet? No, they are trying to blur the definition of ‘natural’. Coke ingredients like citric acid, cocaine, high-fructose corn syrup and beet sugar are natural in the sense that they are ‘natural in origin’. Whatever that means.

In fairness, natural isn’t a legally defined term. The UK and EU have some standards regarding the term. The US has usage guidelines for natural as it concerns packaging. According to comments made at a recent conference, Coke - the company, is concerned the average consumer doesn’t understand the distinction between natural and artificial. Coke’s solution - clear, concise definitions agreed to voluntarily by all industry participants? No, it wants no regulation or government oversight at all.

It doesn’t appear Coke wants to relax standards in order to label its category leading cola as ‘natural’. The company probably wants to clear the playing field for additives/functional foods (antioxidants, memory-boosting ginkgo balboa) or simply to allow sweetened concentrates to be labeled ‘natural’. Because if the government can’t do anything right, a large multi-national corporation will always do what is moral and rational. Or more likely they want us all to adopt the Scottish Diet and then sell us insulin.


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