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Friday, February 5, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
"Food Rules" with Michael Pollan
Just found this article in the New York Times this morning. It's a delightful interview with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both of which I have mentioned in previous posts. His new book, Food Rules, comes out soon. I'm very much looking forward to reading it, and from what it looks like, you should be, too. It's apparantly a humurous and easy to approach distillation of his most salient arguments about food, food culture, and eating. In particular, he provides 64 rules for how to eat so you don't go about screwing yourself over by blindly consuming processed foods and shoveling it into your face without so much as a teensy amount of enjoyment. Rules like, “It’s not food if it’s served through the window of your car" and "It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language" (think Coca Cola, Big Mac, and Skittles) are both cute and helpful.
So, if you've never read anything of his before, this might be the one for you. But... still... read the other books, too. Just sayin'.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
jewelry.fetish.
Check it.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Food
We know I love it. We all know I eat tons of it...
Food.
Or at least I thought I did.
After reading Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food, I have come to the shocking revelation that, in fact, I am not in love with "food." Nope. And... I don't actually eat tons of "food." Actually, Pollan makes a fairly convincing argument for the idea that I, along with most of the dominant American population, eat mostly food-like things or processed food substances. Not food. Furthermore, I'm kind of in love with this strange concoction brewed up, mostly due to government subsidizing of corn, called high fructose corn syrup. Again, not food. It's basically the product of some scientist's chemistry set. I remember the goo I produced in my beaker during chem lab in college. Gross...
I'll try to take you through a Reader's Digest version of Pollan's argument in this book. First, let me implore you to read it for yourself - it's pretty short, I promise, and you'll get the whole enchilada from him much better than I can synopsize (is that a word??) here in his blog. Here it goes:
Pollan believes, and I agree, that while we believe we eat food, what we mostly consume falls under the category of "edible foodlike substances." You know, foodlike things that contain processed sugar, corn, and the like that all come in fancy packaging. Most of the ingredients we either can't pronounce or are products of chemistry... but certainly are not things that were once a part of our earth in any naturally occurring fashion. Nope. Not food. This central argument evolves and branches out to touch on issues central to an "American" diet and the paradox that the most food-conscious and nutrition conscious nation is actually the least nutritious and healthy. Oops. How is that possible? Well, according to Pollan, it has a lot to do with the fact that we, as a culture, have thrown away traditional, cultural connections to eating in favor of viewing food merely as nutrient houses. We do not enjoy food or the culture of eating the way traditional cultures do. Thus, he admonishes us all to start eating food again to challenge the nutrient-focused ethos in our nation. Furthermore, he urges us to eat and not just feed our bodies. Eat. Savor. Enjoy! But eat unprocessed, real, well-grown FOOD.
As I said - that was the book in a nutshell - and Pollan also provides a laundry list of evidence to support the idea that eating real food - not fake food - is correlated (and may be causally linked) to the absence of heart disease and other fatal conditions that Americans suffer from at a significantly higher rate than most other cultures. Yet another reason to just say NO to the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Oh, and he also lays out a bunch of heuristics with which to approach what to eat - one of them being just don't eat HFCS. Read his other book entitled The Omnivores Dilemma for more on the evils of HFCS. It's as much a political thing as it is a gastronomic one. Anyway, I digress...
So, my point is simple - my whole perspective on eating has been changed in light of reading this book. I'm a little shocked that I have been going down this eating path, given that I'm incredibly healthy and have a husband that prepares home-cooked meals for me every night he can. And as a result of his efforts, I'm now, more than EVER, experimenting in the kitchen with new recipes, ingredients, and flavors. I even practice my knife skills :-) Jacob and I are some of the few young couples I know that save money to go eat (or make!) long, elaborate, precisely prepared meals. We know how to enjoy eating. We eat butter (not margarine - listen to Pollan on this one, too!). We like fat and carbs as well as brussel sprouts. But those darn processed foods are so ubiquitous that they're undeniably a part of all of our lives unless we make a concerted effort to subtract them from our daily food intake.
I, for one, am fully committed to eating real food. No more processed food items, if it can be helped. No more HFCS. No more shoveling the food in while driving in the car. And God help us... no more fast food! (Not that I was a big connoisseur of that crap before now...)
As the New Year begins, what better "resolution" could one make than a pact to change the way you eat? You do eat at least three times a day and yet it's probably something you spend very little time contemplating or preparing for. Sure, by committing to eat real food I'm also committing to spending more time, money, and effort on my food and my meals - but if that means enjoying myself, my body, the earth, and my life more, then heck... so be it.
I close with Pollan's seven word call to rethink what to eat:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I will keep you posted on the food that I'm eating and enjoying... Happy New Year!
Food.
Or at least I thought I did.
After reading Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food, I have come to the shocking revelation that, in fact, I am not in love with "food." Nope. And... I don't actually eat tons of "food." Actually, Pollan makes a fairly convincing argument for the idea that I, along with most of the dominant American population, eat mostly food-like things or processed food substances. Not food. Furthermore, I'm kind of in love with this strange concoction brewed up, mostly due to government subsidizing of corn, called high fructose corn syrup. Again, not food. It's basically the product of some scientist's chemistry set. I remember the goo I produced in my beaker during chem lab in college. Gross...
I'll try to take you through a Reader's Digest version of Pollan's argument in this book. First, let me implore you to read it for yourself - it's pretty short, I promise, and you'll get the whole enchilada from him much better than I can synopsize (is that a word??) here in his blog. Here it goes:
Pollan believes, and I agree, that while we believe we eat food, what we mostly consume falls under the category of "edible foodlike substances." You know, foodlike things that contain processed sugar, corn, and the like that all come in fancy packaging. Most of the ingredients we either can't pronounce or are products of chemistry... but certainly are not things that were once a part of our earth in any naturally occurring fashion. Nope. Not food. This central argument evolves and branches out to touch on issues central to an "American" diet and the paradox that the most food-conscious and nutrition conscious nation is actually the least nutritious and healthy. Oops. How is that possible? Well, according to Pollan, it has a lot to do with the fact that we, as a culture, have thrown away traditional, cultural connections to eating in favor of viewing food merely as nutrient houses. We do not enjoy food or the culture of eating the way traditional cultures do. Thus, he admonishes us all to start eating food again to challenge the nutrient-focused ethos in our nation. Furthermore, he urges us to eat and not just feed our bodies. Eat. Savor. Enjoy! But eat unprocessed, real, well-grown FOOD.
As I said - that was the book in a nutshell - and Pollan also provides a laundry list of evidence to support the idea that eating real food - not fake food - is correlated (and may be causally linked) to the absence of heart disease and other fatal conditions that Americans suffer from at a significantly higher rate than most other cultures. Yet another reason to just say NO to the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Oh, and he also lays out a bunch of heuristics with which to approach what to eat - one of them being just don't eat HFCS. Read his other book entitled The Omnivores Dilemma for more on the evils of HFCS. It's as much a political thing as it is a gastronomic one. Anyway, I digress...
So, my point is simple - my whole perspective on eating has been changed in light of reading this book. I'm a little shocked that I have been going down this eating path, given that I'm incredibly healthy and have a husband that prepares home-cooked meals for me every night he can. And as a result of his efforts, I'm now, more than EVER, experimenting in the kitchen with new recipes, ingredients, and flavors. I even practice my knife skills :-) Jacob and I are some of the few young couples I know that save money to go eat (or make!) long, elaborate, precisely prepared meals. We know how to enjoy eating. We eat butter (not margarine - listen to Pollan on this one, too!). We like fat and carbs as well as brussel sprouts. But those darn processed foods are so ubiquitous that they're undeniably a part of all of our lives unless we make a concerted effort to subtract them from our daily food intake.
I, for one, am fully committed to eating real food. No more processed food items, if it can be helped. No more HFCS. No more shoveling the food in while driving in the car. And God help us... no more fast food! (Not that I was a big connoisseur of that crap before now...)
As the New Year begins, what better "resolution" could one make than a pact to change the way you eat? You do eat at least three times a day and yet it's probably something you spend very little time contemplating or preparing for. Sure, by committing to eat real food I'm also committing to spending more time, money, and effort on my food and my meals - but if that means enjoying myself, my body, the earth, and my life more, then heck... so be it.
I close with Pollan's seven word call to rethink what to eat:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I will keep you posted on the food that I'm eating and enjoying... Happy New Year!
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