Is there such a thing as a luxury diet?

July 26, 2012

Several years back, from the Middle Ages all the way to recent years, the definition of a luxury diet is one of excess. It is not only eating a scandalous amount of food but also taking in food that the general population does not normally enjoy. Keep in mind that advances in agriculture has made it possible for meat and meat products to be enjoyed by the majority of the population. Before that time, meat was enjoyed on a regular basis mostly by noblemen, the elite in the society and some upper and middle class people alone. Meat was a rare luxury in the diets of most people. When the industrial revolution came and changed agriculture forever, what was previously a rare commodity became a common place. Now, anybody can enjoy a burger or a two-piece chicken meal. You don’t have to live in swanky Miami real estate to enjoy meat dishes.

In today’s world, how is a luxury diet defined? Price can be deceptive. If something is pricey, it does not necessarily mean that it really is a luxurious diet. Is it a luxury to kill yourself with a high cholesterol, high fat, high sugar, high salt diet? I don’t think so. While we cannot exactly define what a luxury diet is, there are certain criteria you should keep in mind.

1.It should be healthy. Health is wealth. Now, high cholesterol and fatty foods are flooding the market and most people can enjoy it. Even in struggling countries, fast foods that serve highly saturated fatty food and fillers can be found anywhere. A healthy diet means a low fat, low cholesterol, and low salt type of diet.

2.It should be organic. Before, when we talk of organic food, it is always associated as a poor man’s food. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides were not used before so everything was organic. Nowadays, it has become the opposite. In order to boost up food production, farms are now washed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides which in many instance, could cause allergies that pose serious health threats and even cancer as shown in many lab tests. Because of the uneconomical nature of organic farming, organic produce is more expensive. There are also no artificial means to preserve such organic products to make its shelf life longer, making these products come at a premium amount. This is the reason why it definitely is a luxury.

3.It should be exotic in nature. A lot of the historical definition of luxury is turned on scarcity. That is why foods grown in the tropics, which are organic and rarely found in northern climates, and served in a restaurant in Alaska are definitely more luxurious that the regular food that they eat on a daily basis. It can be as simple as “out of season” meals served. You don’t necessarily have to enjoy it in a premium piece of Miami luxury real estate but it would certain help with the ambiance.

Taking all these consideration together, there certainly is such a thing as a luxury diet in this contemporary time with mass produced food and industrialized and heavily mechanized synthetic farming.