Good Food Tastes Good

[wosnes]

I stumbled across this while reading a blog last week:

http://nasw.org/users/twoharts/GFTGweb.pdf

Looks interesting and like a good companion for Michael Pollan's books.

[Jammin' Jan]

Looks like fun! I really like Pollan, so I'll have to get this one next. Thanks!

[Mavilu]

This is very interesting.
I always enjoy reading about Nutrition and I have taken classes about it (even if mister Pollan tells me Nutritional Sciences are flawed!).
Understanding your food, I think, is another tool for healthy eating.
Thanks for posting this!.

[kccc]

Thank you - very interesting.

I have given up on "store-bought" tomatoes, and decided to grow my own. I looked at tomato plants over the weekend, and didn't know which plants to choose. I know what I want - a juicy, ripe tomato with a lot of flavor, one that would never be sold in a store. Anyone have any recommendations?

[wosnes]

I bought the book. I'm only on the second chapter, but it's interesting.

WHICH MEDITERRANEAN DIET?

Many nutritionists have urged us to mimic the traditional cultures observed to be at lower risk of heart disease and most types of cancer, compared with cheeseburger-and-fries eating Americans. The Asian diet and the Mediterranean diet have been the most common models advocated for eating better and living longer. Of course, any experienced restaurant-goer might wonder about the authenticity of these regimens. Does the Mediterranean Diet feature Italian, Greek, Provencal, Turkish, Syrian, Albanian, Egyptian, Libyan, or Moroccan foods? The healthy Mediterranean diet that is promoted by the Oldways Preservation & Trust is a prudish compilation and adaptation of traditional diets that were indeed rich in seasonal local fruits and vegetables but also featured lavish amounts of olive oil, cheese, and other whole fat dairy foods. The Oldways Preservation & Trust advises, for example, "Daily consumption of low to moderate amounts of cheese and yogurt (low fat and nonfat versions may be preferable)."

Mediterranean communities with very low rates of heart disease actually vary greatly in their diets. Most, though not all, are much higher in consumption of fruits and vegetables than the typical North American diet. Otherwise, there is no standard menu: some of these regions eat a lot of fish, some a lot of meat. It has been argued that these quite varied Mediterranean diets are not so much protective against disease as simply harmless, compared to the high-calorie and highly-processed of more affluent cultures that are burdened with an overabundance of cheap food and of spare-tire-producing spare time. Traditional diets generally accompany traditional lifestyles that include much higher levels of physical activity.

The peoples of traditional Greece, Provence, Italy and Crete did not have their foods chosen for them by nutritionists or marketers. They ate what was local, affordable, and appealing. Perhaps that is the lesson we should draw from their good health. No one told them they should avoid eggs or choose nonfat yogurt or low-fat cheese, if such abominations were even available. They ate rich traditional local cheeses -- feta, graviera, chevre, fontina - but in the moderation that comes with moderate means.

The same applies to the health benefits claimed for vegetarian and vegan cuisine in works like The China Study. Because these are population studies, it is very difficult to rule out the influence of other factors, including the complex socioeconomics of meat eating. Except where religious prohibitions apply, in traditional cultures people tend to eat as much animal protein as they can afford. Due to their relative poverty, the people who eat the least meat are generally consuming fewer calories overall and doing more physical labor. In any society, vegans and vegetarians will eat less because of the lower calorie density of plant food, compared to people who have a Quarter Pounder with Cheese for lunch and a slab of steak for dinner. As we shall see...eating less is the only dietary strategy that has been demonstrated to improve health and extend life expectancy. Mimicking a traditional diet is a good idea if you are choosing minimally processed foods and following time-tested recipes for pleasure as well as health. However, these traditional cuisines are unlikely to prevent disease if, when you come home from your desk job to an evening in front of the TV or the computer, you eat two or three times as much as that healthy, hardworking Mediterranean or Chinese farmer.

FOOD PRUDES
It is discouraging to read stacks of books and articles on nutrition and to find that no one seems to feel that the quality of ingredients might matter, or to remember that food should provide pleasure in addition to properly balanced proportions of fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Nutritionists comment on whether a given food or meal is satiating; no one seems to ask if it is satisfying. When our food is truly satisfying (beyond sating advertising-induced whims and cravings), will we overeat or mis-eat? All those nutritionists and health advocates who want us to eat healthily seem secretly convinced that we will not and cannot enjoy doing so. They offer us hope of immortality in a raw carrot, but Satan tempts us with a cinnamon bun -- and we fall.

When Puritanism was banished from the bed, it fled to the table. The cliches of American food advertising and popular food writing insistently equate gustatory pleasure with sin. Rich desserts are invariably described as decadent, wicked, forbidden, or sinful. Perhaps fast foods are eaten fast almost out of shame, like a furtive visit to the whorehouse. And how many people feel self-loathing, rather than satisfied pleasure, after succumbing (again the language of sin) to a craving for a fatty or sugary treat. One wonders whether our obsessive, moralizing, anti-instinctual attitudes towards the pleasures of the palate might have spawned the very perversities (binging, eating disorders, extreme obesity) they are intended to curb.

Ultimately, we should not let the food fights between health-righteous and industry-owned nutritionists distort or distract from what good food versus bad food really means -- or should mean. Whether fish, fowl, dairy, meat or produce, good food is fresh, unadulterated, and properly prepared; bad food is inferior quality, stale, heavily processed, and poorly prepared. A beautifully prepared meal is a miracle, and sometimes one ought not probe the menu for hidden saturated fats and sugars. Fast food is fast because the ingredients are cheap, stale, additive-laden and highly manipulated. We can't all dine in four-star restaurants. But it only takes a refrigerator, a hot plate, and a pan to prepare and enjoy good food.

Eating less (calorie restriction) has come up from numerous authors, including Pollan (eat food, not too much, mostly plants).