Food for thought - 
From "cartoons & crisps” to "Attenborough & apples”

Malaysian Borneo

I grew up at a time where many a doctor, health physician, home economics, and PE teachers would repeat the mantra of “You are what you eat”. The same could be said, and has been, about the consumption of TV, “You are what you watch!”

As a passionate biologist, career cinematographer, film maker and a dedicated parent I truly believe in the importance and necessity of film making and television as an essential educational platform that doesn’t exist just to entertain and blur out the world, but an all-important entity to broaden and expand the mind. However, its “nutritional” value, its derived benefits, and its overall affect upon you, just as with food, is governed by what you actually consume, how much you consume and where it came from in the first place.

As a film maker watching TV is my “homework”, but I am also a firm believer that it should be the same for everyone no matter your age, race, religion, or career choice etc. I therefore believe that watching TV is a valuable homework ingredient for my kids as well, with certain caveats in place of course.

Considering the past two difficult years dealing with COVID, lockdowns, travel restrictions and increased levels of home, hotel or even health facility confinement, everyone has turned to their TVs, computers, tablets, mobile phones and streaming platforms more so than ever before to while away the hours. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing but what you do need is a balanced “diet” and just as you know its healthier for you to watch what you eat and what goes into the foods you consume, the same goes for your consumption of TV.

Over my lifetime alone I have witnessed the growth of the TV and Film media industry grow from the single TV in the family home, screening three terrestrial broadcast channels (that didn’t even run 24 hours a day) to the invention of the satellite broadcast which brought you hundreds of channels, to the more recent explosion of online streaming content through a multitude of digital web-based platforms. Never has the world become so much bigger and yet smaller all at the same time. You can watch programmes from all over the world in their native languages with your very own chosen subtitles so you can follow along. These are now watched from every room in the house, bus, car, train, and plane, on computers, tablets, phones and smart TVs.

As a biologist I always wanted to get my research findings out to as many people as possible otherwise what was its purpose and effectiveness. As a film maker I want the same and not to just make programs for programs sake, but to make sure it had some kind of “nutritional’ value and that by the end of the viewing you not only felt entertained but that you learned something new along the way and felt more enlightened by the end of it - that it was educational in some way. For the past 24 years I have taken most pride in those film shoots that have focused on raising awareness of the natural environment, its importance and why we should care about it as well as the threats it faces. What we can do to live in harmony with it, and above all, how we and the natural world can carry on surviving - a win-win for all concerned.

Since becoming a parent I have always been concerned about what my children eat, parenting 101 - a good and healthy balanced diet enables your children to grow and develop in a healthy and balanced way. As a passionate home cook I have always tried to look at the ingredients, their origin and the nutritional properties of the food I prepare or the food I buy so that my children can continue to grow to be the best they can be.

As we all know though, life just isn’t that straightforward. There are many factors and decisions we make and what we ultimately consume, that shape our daily lives. There are days that call for “cartoons and crisps” which may not have the greatest nutritional value or are downright bad for you, but if they are kept to a minimum and balanced with “Attenborough and apples” and a good helping of exercise, then we can still maintain our own health but also that of our families, as well as our body, mind and soul.

As the food choices within our supermarkets grow so do the viewing options on our TVs and tablets, but as we proceed through these days and years of COVID concerns, the silver lining is that as a whole I believe there has been an increased awakening to the importance of our need to reconnect with nature. Whether we go out and actively exercise within it, or learn more about it, and also to learn how to grow and cook our own foods. This has lead a to an increased balance of good healthy documentary programming out there on the TV and streaming platform menus for you to choose and digest of your own free will. Ironically many of these programmes are about food and cooking!

As I say watching TV plays an important part of mine and my children homework but in a balanced way. As a family we spend a great deal of time outdoors enjoying, the environment as a whole, but also looking closely at all its “ingredients". Whether it’s a majestic tree or line of termites at its base and because it’s so much fun we hardly realise we walk the 2-4km along the way. Just as exercise is important, once home, we also make time for relaxation, whether through play, reading books, listening to music, and quite often, watching TV.

Whether it’s Netflix, BBC player, Disney+, AppleTV+ or Curiosity Stream, the menu on offer is vast, and I have to say the quality of programming these days is increasing, just as the abundance of quality organic, single origin, ethically sourced and local produce is increasing in our local supermarkets. At the end of the day it’s your choices and your consumption that will shape your health. It should also go without saying that as with some food and beverage items there is an understanding and acceptance that some are not age appropriate for younger consumers, that also goes the same for TV programs and therefore we should also make appropriate choices or advise our children in the same way.

But what has me so fired up today, that I sit and type this essay? Well it has been a culmination of many recent incidences actually, which may have been bubbling away in me for many years, but the current COVID crisis has catalysed, cooked up, and helped bake to the point of action.

Personally I decided it was high time to become healthier, mentally and physically, and I found quite early on that these go hand in hand as I discovered the cathartic and meditative properties of walking, swimming, and bicycling. Not only did I manage to lose considerable weight but I also managed to significantly calm and clarify my mind. I also actively managed and refined my consumption of food that also played an important role in my new lifestyle. Finally for someone who finds it hard to relax, sit still, chill out, I actively pursued those aspects which allowed me to do just that as well, home projects, cooking, listening to music, reading, and yes, watching TV!

Watching TV with my family is one of my greatest pleasures whether it is “Friday-night-family- movie-night” or late afternoon “nature-TV-time”. Whether it’s the movie “Ice Age” or the latest “Green Planet” series with Sir David Attenborough, there is always something to learn, not only for my kids but for myself as well and not only does that increase the value of family time but also for family discussion, important added value to what we have just watched. As a family we have been watching the new "Green Planet” series avidly through the BBC iplayer app, eagerly awaiting a new episode each week, as well as an incredible series called “Evolve” on the Curiosity Stream channel, and “Welcome to Planet Earth” with Will Smith on Disney+Hotstar.

But what really got me fired up today of all days was watching a couple of episodes of the documentary series “Rotten’ on Netflix. The first episode was all about honey, an incredibly rounded, high quality and global account of the world of honey and what it means to us all. That followed with “The peanut problem” in the second episode, which covered all aspects of the increase in food allergies, especially amongst the younger human population. Once again an amazing high quality rounded account of this deadly issue which intrigued me, not only because I have had life threatening anaphylactic allergic reactions in my past, but have had a child with allergic responses also. In addition to these personal reasons, I feel as a decent human being, who is aware that people around me have such deadly allergic reactions, I should keep up to date on such a subject. At the end of the documentary I was so impressed by the information and the way it was filmed, conveyed and put together it made me appreciate this bloom in TV programming even more and realised that in some way it was brought about as a product of the COVID silver lining, the bloom in online streaming programs.

It’s a very human quality that when faced with a threat or enemy our first reaction is aggression, and to try and actively fight our way to a solution. Quite often it is the research and scientific understanding of a threatening issue that provides the best course of action. At first it was thought that to fight against peanut allergies we must ban peanuts from public spaces, restaurants, airlines, schools and so on. However, once we understood the issue more clearly we quickly realised that the best course of action was about acknowledging there was an issue and educating everyone around us more about life-threatening allergy issues. Increasing awareness, training, and the scientifically backed treatment that will indeed help overcome this issue as time moves forward.

I believe now more than ever, that we are what we eat, that we are what we watch, and that we are what we read. The “menus” on offer are now the most extensive and varied they have ever been, so choose with thought, choose with moderation and choose with not only your health in mind, but with that of your family, friends and community around you also.

Bon Appetite!