Recipes for disaster

Too many of us eat things that don't deserve to be described as food according to an artist on a mission.

Amiria Gale describes what we eat in two categories: food and non-food.

She contends that many people have forgotten what food is and primarily consume processed arrangements of sugar, fat and flour.
“Supermarket aisles have the appearance of being filled with endless options but if you look at the ingredients, you’ll see that, for many of them, it’s the same stuff, just mixed up in different ways,” she says.

“The products are made to have the illusion of beauty but the variety is superficial compared to whole foods which have endless fruits and vegetables that people have never heard of.”

Amiria’s latest work endeavours to illustrate the artificial, glossy, nature of non-foods in a way that their seductive quality is less certain.
The first three works above fall under the ‘food’ category. Food, in this case, is taken as unprocessed, natural, whole foods, such as those humans have been eating for hundreds of years. The paintings remind us what food really is, i.e., that which nourishes us. They illustrate the variety of whole foods available (refuting the idea that consumption of whole foods implies restriction and limitation), draw attention to flavoursome, visually appealing heritage varieties which are not available at most supermarkets and aim to encourage an appreciation of natural foods.
The fourth painting illustrates ‘non-foods’, being food that has been processed to the extent that nutritional content is removed and calorie concentration increased. Non-foods appeal to our tastebuds, because of their ease of swallow and lack of chew, as well as, of course, the inclusion of sweeteners, preservatives and flavourings, but do not provide the nutrition for which our bodies are hungry.
After years of research and experimenting with eating in different ways, Amiria is committed to eating whole, sometimes unappealing, foods rather than the attractively packaged non-foods constantly in our faces.

Her Sandringham backyard is packed with vegetable gardens and feijoa, tamarillo, peach and citrus trees.
Amiria grew up in the small east coast town of Tolaga Bay. The eldest of six children, Amiria and her family lived right on the edge of the sea where her father was a fisherman.

“When I was 11, my parents purchased a farm and, from that point on, we became pretty self-sufficient. I milked a cow every morning before school for six years and always tended to the vegetable gardens and chickens. We lived 30 minutes out of town and with so many of us we didn’t go to restaurants at all.”

When she was eighteen, Amiria moved to Auckland to study architecture at the University of Auckland, gaining a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. She then taught art and design to secondary students for seven years, where she watched teenage girls dealing with weight issues daily.

“Kids, in the end, will follow what the adults around them model but when most adults are lost about how to eat with so many diet recommendations and conflicting messages around the issue not going away, it’s getting worse.

“It’s not because people are being lazy and know what to do but choosing not to do it – it’s a much wider problem. There are so many people struggling with their weight and the source of the problem is the food they’re eating.”

Amiria believes that although what we consume is edible, the majority of items should not be classified as food.
“In the same way drinking alcohol is not done to satisfy thirst eating those ‘non-foods’ are not going to provide the nutrition you need or satisfy hunger.”

Now pregnant with her first child, Amiria is conscious about making the right food choices not only for herself but for her posterity.

www.amiria.co.nz