Food Desert in the Modern World

by: Junji Takano

The term “food desert” is nothing new. This term was first used more than four decades ago according to some knowledgeable people. However, the term food desert is becoming more commonly used since the late 1990s.

A food desert is an area with no access to foods needed to maintain a healthy diet but served by plenty of junk food stores. Some researchers claim that more than 4-5% of the entire population lives in a food desert without access to fresh products at most grocery stores.

Feeling hungry? Not enough food in the house? Is it too far to travel to the shops? Are you tempted in buying simple burger and chips, despite not being a healthy food? If your answer is yes, then you are living in a food desert.

Access to shops can be difficult if the shops are distant, the shopper is elderly or in poor health, inadequate public transport, and if the consumer doesn't have a car.

For shop owners, the main reason is financial inability to accommodate few customers and other government restrictions. In some urban areas, due to lack of fresh vegetables and seafood suppliers, every access for both sides becomes difficult.

Back when we were young, there were no convenience stores, supermarkets, malls, department stores, and fast food outlets around. But we never felt that we live in a food desert at all. What is wrong with modern living of today? It may be because of the lifestyle of young generations and internet craze with mobile phones.

During the time of our old folks, most foodstuffs are being dried or preserved during off-season. Vegetables, fishes, seaweeds (kelps), mushrooms, and most of edible foodstuffs will contain more nutrients when you dry them. Of course, there are foods that differ in nutrients when brought to different forms. Whatever and whichever they are, you can bring the dried stuffs to become just like fresh foods by means of submerging them back into water.

When I was a kid, we used to have hens, rabbits, and goats in our backyard. We used to plant vegetables in vacant lots, and we seldom go for shopping. We were a big family. Grandparents, parents, children, and grandchildren, we all live together in one house. We were all happy together.

Today, we are trying to gather all poor relatives together including their families in one portion of a farmland that we've acquired. We now have all animals we mentioned above, which are all good for our protein needs.

Nutritional Value of Fresh Radish and Dried Radish (Comparison)

Fresh Radish
Fresh Radish
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Calcium - 23 mg
Iron - 0.2 mg
Vitamin B1 - 0.02 mg
Vitamin B2 - 0.01 mg
Vitamin C - 11mg

Dried Radish
Dried Radish
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Calcium - 94 mg
Iron - 9.5 mg
Vitamin B1 - 0.04 mg
Vitamin B2 - 0.04 mg
and many more nutrients are found...

The table above proves that sunlight and heat helps in producing nutrients and good taste.

During the time when we were young, meats, seafood, vegetables, and fruits, were dried. Even leftover cooked rice was dried and kept as an emergency food.

Today, all my family lives the same way our grandparents lived. We cook with firewood collected from the farmland. We enjoy making dried sweet potato chips. You'll never feel that you are in a food desert!

Dried Fish
Dried Fish

Dried Vegetables
Dried Vegetables

Dried Meat
Dried Meat

Dried Sweet Potato
Dried Sweet Potato

You can preserve anything for years if you dry it. Before eating them, just cook it the same way you cook with water. They will turn as if it is raw and fresh. It will also be more delicious and nutritious.

Why do you have to worry living in a food desert? You can enjoy more without modern lifestyle.

You can preserve almost all kinds of foodstuffs whether dried or smoked for the whole year. These are healthier than canned foods or other processed foods in grocery stores—an eco-friendly solution indeed!

You can never be in a food desert with this way of living. You do not need any wide space if you really have the desire to do it. In the middle of Osaka city in Japan, where we have our small matchbox-style mansion, we can still live in this economical way. In the Philippines, where we have a wide farmland with bamboo house, where you can call the place a food desert, we can still enjoy our life better than in the cities.

You can now replace the good old adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, with this instead, “Dried foods every day, doctors lose their jobs”. And, with the use of PYRO-ENERGEN, you have no worries from a Hospital Desert.

About the Author:

Junji Takano, the authorJunji Takano is a Japanese health researcher involved in investigating the cause of many dreadful diseases. In 1968, he invented PYRO-ENERGEN, the first and only electrostatic therapy machine that effectively eradicates viral diseases, cancer, and diseases of unknown cause.
Click here to find out more: https://www.pyroenergen.com/
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