Food

An English idiom proclaims: 'You are what you eat.'

I have had a number of thoughts regarding food the last months: well, to be honest, I think more and more about food as I grow older and more interested in issues of health with regards to one's diet, but conversely want to keep a balance: not to become obsessed with diet like I observe some to be.

So when it comes to eating in an Islamic manner as suggested, I have discovered a whole host of viewpoints ranging from the indifferent to the obsessed (that is my perception).

The matter of certain things we are not allowed to eat seems, on the face of it, pretty clear.

But on researching the matter further, I was alarmed to see that the 'rules' according to some are so convoluted that the average person would have to carry a guidebook with them to the supermarket to do their shopping.

To elucidate, here is a list I found of e-numbers and the halal/haram status of these ingredients:

http://special.worldofislam.info/Food/numbers.html

I can certainly understand the issue of pork-based ingredients: this, to me, seems non debatable.

But when it comes down to the issue of food dyes, for example, here is where I think the issue becomes pedantic.

Pork is simply forbidden, right from the start, whereas alcohol was not banned right away. The reasons against alcohol seem to me to be completely due to the intoxicating nature of the substance. I see all sorts of special alcohol-free products on the market especially for Muslims and some of them aren't even consumable (like perfumes, for example)! It is my understanding that the alcohol used in perfumes isn't even one that is edible.

When it comes to food dyes, many are carried in an alcohol solvent. But what should be the real issue here? would the normal consumption of food dyes ever result in intoxication? How about the spraying of perfume: even in excessive amounts?

To cut a long story short, I found my way pretty easy to resolve the 'problem' by thinking about the intention on the original ban.

Not only that, but my personal habits with food tend to exclude these additives. How so?

1) Why eat something made by a company which is more likely to be interested in turning a profit than in your health? One fabulous example I found was the misnomer of 'Light' or 'healthy' products. I will illustrate this with a mainstay of American convenience food... Campbell's condensed soups.

I compared the label information for many of the chicken noodle soups that Campbell produces, and this is what I found: (yes, I *know* the chicken is probably not halal, but this is an example to elucidate my point on companies having a vested interest in your dollar over your health).

The biggest difference between the 'healthy' versions of the canned chicken noodle soup and the standard, was that the standard had a much higher dose of sodium. The rest of the differences seem rather negligible. Except the double and mega noodle soups have that much more noodle, and hence that much more carbohydrate content=more calories that are designed for immediate use, so use with caution.

One of the slogans on Campbell's website is:

Campbell’s^® soups have nutritious vegetables,
farm-grown ingredients, and delicious taste
to help you along the road to happiness.

'Farm-Grown ingredients'... probably some factory farm using GM wheat  and other veg being sprayed by round-up.

Let's think about GM crops for a minute:

Genetic material is fired into the seed of the plants to give it some property it didn't have before.

This is NOT the same process as making hybrids, where you cross-polinate and let God's design do it's thing. Forget piercing, forget tattoos, forget slitting the ears of cattle... It seems to me that this is the real 'change to God's design' Allah warns about in the Qur'an.

Tell me what you think...
And the preposterous suggestion that some soup is going to increase your happiness level is somehow going to be increased by this industrially produced product shows to what extent the company is willing to go to in order to brainwash you (yes, I really mean this) into buying their product. 

As for the dyes, I cannot see how a product which is transported through an alcohol-based solute could ever damn me to hell or be considered 'immoral' or 'wrong'. And in the end, whether or not you feel it's important to avoid these things, the best food you can make is that which is purchased locally and made from the base ingredients: 'home made', and you are then certain what is in there without having to carry a text book with you to the supermarket.