Food for thought....

From a very young age food has been a huge interest of mine in which when given the chance to study Food Technology I was extremely excited. 

It is this passion for food that has driven me to now study a degree in the subject. However, down a slightly different path than I first thought. When searching for food degrees just over two years ago I was instantly drawn to Food Science and Nutrition or Food Technology degrees. 

Never did I think that two years later I would be studying a more business related food degree. But this is a step I am so glad I took. Learning about a different side of the industry I love so much has not only been academically challenging but also extremely interesting. I even found I quite enjoy learning about the agriculture side of the industry which I never thought I would considering how much of a city girl I am.

However, the aim of this post wasn't to talk about this passion of mine even though I could go on and on and on about it! 

Learning about food and nutrition has been a huge health driver in my life, allowing me to fully understand the properties of the food I'm consuming. This is knowledge that I hugely value. 

As a child my love for food (maybe a bit too much...) lead me to be fairly overweight for my age, which I look back on now and cringe slightly. I really did not understand anything about nutrition. Looking back on this I've realised how lucky I was to have the opportunity to study nutrition because this encouraged me to make a change in my lifestyle
. From the start of my foodie adventure in 2009, when I was in year eight, I changed my diet for the better.

 Now I didn't make any huge change but being more aware of what I was eating, and how much, made a great deal of difference to my weight and health. 

Although, I am not the slimmest of people I'm now of a healthy weight for my age and height which was always a huge driver for my younger self. I also quite enjoy working out and seeing results from this, which I never used to have the motivation for. 
 Of course like any human being I don't follow a strict diet because of this knowledge but try and maintain a balanced diet based upon these foundations. And after all we need a treat once in a while. 

 My huge passion for baking also leads me to creating some of the most unhealthy foods out there, but my joy in this comes from seeing other people enjoy my creations and not myself....which I suppose is a bit cheeky really!

It is for those reasons that I believe it is so important for all young people to have the opportunity to learn about nutrition in school. I've learnt that is is a subject that is hugely undervalued within academia. Throughout school I was (unintentionally) put down about studying Food Technology due to the outdated views of the subject as 'just' cooking. 

This caused a lot of irritation to not only me but all my fellow foodie students, my parents and my food tech teacher.
 For starters cooking is a key skill that you need in life so its just as important to learn as anything else, which when starting university I found quite a few people did not have this skill. But also to be able to be good at cooking, at A-Level standard, you have to know a fair bit about the interaction of foods and the science behind the nutrients within food. This is what many did not understand. 

I can remember not only my family, but many of my friends being blown away by the amount of work involved in the subject, as well as the amount of time I would spend completing this work during my breaks and after school. 

This is still an ongoing battle within the education system with Food Technology being dropped as an A-Level subject, which hugely upset me to find out. Students like me will no longer get an opportunity to learn about this amazing subject at a higher level, which I think is a great shame. Of course some nutrition is taught within the Biology syllabus however, this is not from a hugely foodie direction. An issue also arises from this as students similar to me who are not as tuned into science subjects may struggle to be able to study it at all, which could cause issues when applying for food related degrees. Of course one person like me cannot change societies views on this subject but I hope to raise some awareness to those I can about how important this subject is to our daily lives. 

The food industry is one of the fastest growing industries throughout the world, contributing hugely not only to the economy but a huge percentage of our global workforce. There will always be jobs in the food industry, and an ever growing need for graduates within this field to fuel innovation and development, which I hope to contribute to in the future. 

For now all I can do is carry on my passion and hope that others will come to realise what a hugely important subject it is, and follow the footsteps of individuals such as Jamie Oliver who are trying raise awareness for this. 

With an ever growing obesity crisis throughout the world, and two billion people suffering from micro nutrient deficiencies it is evident that change needs to be made. Making consumers more aware of their food choices, as well as how to maintain a healthy lifestyle on a budget is of great importance, which could be aided through proper education. 

I hope I've maybe got you thinking about your lifestyle and the little changes that could be made to start becoming healthier. After all a healthy diet doesn't have to be a boring one! 

http://www.fao.org/3/a-c0064e.pdf