desmond

Desmond Morris
Introduction:
Desmond Morris is most famous for his work as a zoologist and ethnologist (study about human behavior), was born on 24 January 1928. He has written a number of books and produced a number of television shows. He first came into attention in 1960’s as a presenter of ITV television’s Zoo Time. His studies mainly focus on animal and human behavior, explained from a zoological point of view. His famous works include The Naked Ape, The Human Zoo, Manwatching and Babywatching. In this essay he talks about his own mother and the people who lived during the 18th century who were least bothered about the health foods and diet regimes.
Morris’ mother in tune with 18th century: Desmond Morris talks about his own mother who was born during the reign of Queen Victoria, and she enjoyed the robust food pleasures (less importance to healthy foods, table manners), she ate with lots of gusto piling her plate with greasy, fatty, fried up grill foods without any anxiety about their possible bad effects. It is advisable to chew each mouthful of food thirty-two times before swallowing. Watching his mother in action, Morris wanted to match her appetite and he also remarked that if she ignores the words of health gurus and diet experts, she would die young.
Simple truth behind her mother: She lived the whole of twentieth century (99 years of age) without even giving a moment’s thought to know what was correct to eat. If it tasted good it was all right for her. Her lack of anxiety (worry) about the diet kept her fit. For a good digestion you need to be perfectly relaxed in what we are eating. Only then, the parasympathetic nervous system will help us in good digestion. We should never worry about our diet system when we start to eat. On the other hand if we eat in fear and tension body refuses to co-operate and would suffer from cancer which induces effects from the nervous system.
Modern Pontificators: Now a day the modern pontificators (one who gives their opinion) feels that, it is their duty to tell the rest of us about what we should and should not eat, as though thinking that they have discovered the secrets of the eternal life. Author feels that there are two flaws in their arguments. First, they keep on changing their views. Secondly, they over the fact that the human species evolved as an omnivore and hence require a bigger variety of food stuffs for the body to pick out what it needs and discards the rest. Only food, that keeps us different from our animal rivals.
Problems faced by human beings: So many people suffer from obesity, indigestion and various diet deficiencies. The answer lies in their lifestyle. They don’t realize that man needs a variety of foods for good health. In the urban, the living scenario is too indifferent since they suffer from various anxiety problems and work tensions finally ending up in wrong digestion of food stuffs they eat. Food should be savoured (tasted), relished, enjoyed and digested at leisure.
Food taboos and totems: According to author, there are two reasons for the existence of so many food taboos (ban), namely totems (special respect to religious emblem) and poisons. People from ancient times chose a particular animal as a mascot a god-figure and tried to protect it. For example: cows are considered to be sacred for the Hindus. This protection included not eating it. Another reason was the deep-seated humar fear of being poisoned. This irrational fear makes people avoid certain foods and causes anxiety when we eat anything for enjoyment. Our ancestors had countered with a natural caution and it is this caution that can be exploited all too easily and some animals were treated as god they avoid eating them.
Conclusion:
Author feels that we should never consider the words of food experts or diet gurus. He also thought that he would die ten year ago and in mean time he would like to try out the food stuffs prepared by various cooks. Later he managed to live for another ten years since he maintained to disrespect the words of diet fascists who spoil our bookstalls, radio stations and news agents. So, we should enjoy all kinds of foods and need not worry about the advice of diet experts.
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