Is trendy instagram 'Bowl Food' just food porn?

Lunch today. It may not be beautifully
styled but it was certainly more of
an experience than I'd been banking
on and it's made me think. 

So, in the interests of spreading the Frugal Snob message out to a wider base and engaging with a community who really know what they're talking about when it comes to foo and environment, I set up an instagram account for The Frugal Snob. You can follow it here. 

I am a massive Instagram girl and use it a lot with the other side of my life, which is writing YA fiction. I love the aesthetics of Instagram and how it brings out people's passions and creativity.

The food communities are insanely food obsessed. I mean, half an hour on there and I feel somewhat of a fraud, but I'm carving out  my own little cosy, middle-aged, elder niche and have had some great interactions so far.

It's fascinating exploring other people's relationships with foods, and being that a lot of what we are doing on Frugal Snob is about trying to change our lifestyle habits as a family, obviously I have been engaging more with the health guru timelines than the copious amount of accounts that are temples to the great burger and BBQ

Instagram is full of beautiful presented #bowlfood
or #nourishbowl as they are sometimes hashtagged
I shall be following them much closer from
now on as I'm converted. 

Because of that, I've come across this really pretty but sort of food porn version of eating called 'Bowl food'. Now when I first started seeing picture after picture of food arranged like carefully arranged flower arrangements, my grumpy middle-aged lady mode switched immediately to cynical.

WHAT IS BOWL FOOD?

Well, I'm certainly no expert but what I see is the idea that you take a bowl and you arrange your ingredients in it (attempting to be artful, I guess) so that they are all separate in their own little sections, with the idea that you can see how your various components measure up against each other and balance. It also helps you check your colours as well as separating them out so you're forced to mindfully select what item you're going to choose rather than just dipping into it all jumbled up.

WHY IS BALANCE SO IMPORTANT?

I've been reading (well, actually TEDx Talk watching and internet surfing) around the idea of superfoods and nutrients, mostly with the idea of satisfying my own beliefs that a lot of it is all nonsense and over hyped.

However, it seems that it's not quite such nonsense after all. I'm educated, like the vast majority of folks and we all know what a healthy diet looks like - or at least we think we do, but these guys, they are seriously into knowing how foods work on the various parts of the body, and importantly, how our requirements change depending on our age, lifestyle and medical health.

As a young family, we've had our share of health issues over the last twelve months. There's me who's diagnosed prematurely perimenopausal and having suffered years of IBS, there's our daughter who has had two episodes of pneumonia in three months and as a result has obliterated her immune system, then there is hubby who is having a minor mid-life crisis about his executive commuting lifestyle, and we have a pre-teen who is hormonally all over the place.

We're a great candidate for needing some serious nutritionally input and boosting - which is partly why our family project is The Frugal Snob.

So having read about nutrition plates, and rainbow food and food colour theory over the last few weeks and how it can medically and psychologically impact on our well being, I returned to some of the food bowl gurus and have given it a bit of a go. Now my Instagram page prides itself on the fact that all the food pictures are real food that is minutes away from being in our bellies, so it's not food porn, but food love -- so this is my lunch today. It's not perfect but I'm applying the principles that I've picked up and here's my findings.

WHAT DID I DISCOVER? FOODPORN OR FOODLOVE? 

1) It's ridiculously filling to eat like this -- I left nearly 1/3 of it.

2) By dividing your food up like this, every forkful becomes a conscientious mindful choice, slowing the eating process down and helping you engage with your food.

3) I'd forgotten what some of those flavours tasted like in their natural standalone state. I can't remember the last time I had celery without a big spoonful of stilton on it.

4) It felt clean and light - now I know that's hocus-pocus, but I can't fully explain how it just felt good to eat. Like when you're thirsty on a hot day and you drink a chilled drink.

5) In preparing it, I made choices and thought more carefully about how I was balancing out my vitamins and mineral intake in a way that I don't normally do when slapping together a cheese sandwich.

6) It was easy to eat whilst typing at my desk - which is how I have lunch everyday despite working at home.

So, what's the conclusion - it may look all a little foodporn - but trust me when I say, just like with other aspects of our lives, sometimes it's nice to make the extra bit of effort and feel like a goddess.