The history of mankind is replete with legends and prejudices about what to eat and what not. What will happen in the future? In the 1860s, there was only one diet, the Bunting diet. It was introduced by the corpulent English undertaker, William Bunting, who was clearly better treated than he deserved. His diet became the first popular diet. Bunting insisted on cutting back on starchy and sugary carbohydrates and increasing meat to 170 grams per day - but not pork, as it was thought to contain carbohydrates. And all this is soaked in two or three glasses of good burgundy.
Since Bunting, the number of popular diets has grown exponentially. There have been tons of miracle foods, weight loss gimmicks and individual secret ingredients, but how many have really changed the way we eat?
Why do the recommendations for “good” and “bad” food always change?
At the heart of science is one important fact: there is nothing 100% "proven", and the same goes for dietetics. What is demonized now, perhaps, will form the basis of healthy eating next year, opening up new avenues for scientists to explore.
Remember when eggs were considered the creation of the devil for their cholesterol content? Then in 1995, a study showed that even eating two eggs a day, there would be no negative effects on the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Eggs also contain many other good things, protein, vitamins, minerals, so now they are highly recommended for consumption.
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Butter also caused panic in the 1980s when people learned about cholesterol and saturated fat, and their popularity declined sharply in favor of margarine. Then everyone started to worry even more about the trans fats in the margarine.
Is there a perfect meal?
It would be great if we could eat whatever we want and then fix all the problems with a handful of blueberries or walnuts. But our preoccupation with ideal food is completely different from the principles of healthy eating, says nutritionist Rosemary Stanton.
“The preoccupation with perfect food is just one sign of the never-ending search for the magic wand that will solve all problems,” she says. "This approach, which ignores the multifactorial nature of nutrition-related health problems, is perhaps one of the biggest myths."
The best approach today is to eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly.
Fortified foods and nutraceuticals: what are they?
Since the thought crept into our heads that certain nutrients are "good" for us, the food industry has been working to produce food that will contain increased amounts of these nutrients. This can be bread enriched with folic or niacin, table salt with iodine and margarine with vitamin D. Such food carries the thread from medicine to food, and the addition of nutrients allows the manufacturer to talk about the increased benefits of the product, which is not always true.
Stanton sees this as a simple and self-serving distraction from really healthy food: fresh produce.
Ironically, the idea of artificial food is credited to the 19th century French chemist Marcelin Berthelot, and it led to the prediction of the future era of chemical food. In an article published in 1896, the author takes Berthelot's thoughts to the maximum and argues that the nutrients in a steak can be easily consumed with a small pill.
What does the gastronomic future hold for us?
Science fiction fans may recall the 1973 film Green Soylent, in which the population eats a special diet, including the mysterious Green Soylent. The film's climax reveals the true ingredient: people. And despite its sinister origins - or perhaps in homage to the movie - Soylent is currently available as a product that claims to contain all the proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and trace minerals our body needs, either as a drink or bar. True, this is achieved by avoiding crispy apples, medium-rare steaks, fresh slices of bread or cheese.
Another science fiction classic, Logan's Getaway, hints that future food will come from the sea, not land. Currently, the oceans already provide 16% of our total protein intake, but interest is also growing in several less obvious sources of nutrients from the marine environment, such as algae.
Spirulina, a type of algae, has been on the list of healthy foods for a long time, but interest in other green marine foods is on the rise as microalgae have been shown to contain an excellent composition of the right types of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. It is believed that algae represent a less environmentally harmful alternative to grain crops.
ILYA KHEL
