AS a chef, it disappoints me to see so much artificial and processed food being eaten all around the world but especially in more developed countries like the USA, the UK and Australia.
Europeans have such fast and hectic lifestyles that they have less time to cook fresh, home-cooked meals like we enjoy in Fiji. It's so easy to grab a box of pre-prepared food like a factory-made meat pie, crumbed chicken or roast dinner that takes a few minutes in the microwave oven, than to spend a few hours preparing fresh produce.
When I was in Australia recently, I took a walk down the aisles of our biggest supermarkets and noticed there were thousands of ready-to-heat foods for the busy family. I also ate chicken that didn't taste like chicken, I saw fruits and root crops that looked identical and artificially perfect, and the children's candy section was filled with bright colours of blue, pink and red. Manufacturers use bright colours in children's candy and ice-cream to make them look attractive but these artificial colours are now known to cause long-term health effects.
Reading the ingredients on the back of each packet they contained three-digit preservatives, artificial colours and food additives that are not only unnatural and disease causing but not the way God intended humans to eat. It's cheaper and quicker to buy manufactured foods but at what cost to your long-time health? Fiji, by contrast has some of the best, organic and world-class produce of any country in the world, and it is something that all Fijians, especially the farmers and primary producers should be very proud of. Tropical fruits, root crops, seafood and most animals are grown on a natural healthy diet, breathing clean unpolluted air. I am constantly promoting the local Fijian produce because as an overseas chef, we rarely get the opportunity in resorts to use organic produce that is full of flavour and straight from the farmers. During my time in Fiji, I've met many of the local growers who work hard to produce the food that blesses our tables, and much of it is still grown as your ancestors used to grow their crops and animals.
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