NYTimes article on USian nutrition

[magid]

As compared to food, which the writer is definitely in favor of. I thought it was an interesting read (what's not to like when there are sentences like "But who knows what the hell else is going on deep in the soul of a carrot?")

Short form: eat real food, eat diverse leaves and produce, avoid majorly engineered foodlike products. (It still scares me that the nutritional value of produce has changed in recent decades as crops are bred for other considerations, like being shelf-stable.)

Comments

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

Michael Pollan is a wonderful writer. May I specifically recommend his book The Botany of Desire if you want your little gardener/cook's brain to explode in all sorts of nifty ways?

[(Anonymous)]

What a great article! Thank you for the pointer.

And yes, it includes many great lines and much great phrasing. I giggled at "the silence of the yams."

[magid.livejournal.com]

You may recommend his book. In fact, you already have, and I read it based on your recommendation :-).

Long enough back now that all the bits of exploded brain have mostly been cleaned up.

[magid.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

And I almost put in the yam line instead of the carrots...

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

Apparently, my brain is the littlest of all.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

That was a great read. Very informative, and I liked the author's style, too. I've heard a lot of good things about The Omnivore's Dilemma, his most recent book, and now I think I will have to read it.

I have often been stunned, walking around so-called supermarkets, at the vast quantity of non-food being sold as food. Just horrible.

[magid.livejournal.com]

No, no, J.D. swindles us all.

You did read those books, right?

[magid.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm a bit of an idiot: I have The Omnivore's Dilemma on my list of to-read-soonish, and didn't realize it's the same writer.

I realized that I don't go into conventional big-box supermarkets with any frequency any more, and when I do it's strange that there are whole aisles of almost-foods. I try to escape with minimal wincing, but it can be difficult.

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

Of course I did! I loved them (especially since I shared a set of initials with the main character).

[magid.livejournal.com]

I was just rereading some of them a couple of Shabbatot ago, wondering why no one ever just ignored the talk and beat the tar out of him...

(It fascinates me, the view into small-town life in Utah that long ago.)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Even Wild Oats and Whole Foods (and Harvest) have aisles and aisles of processed stuff. I know things like pasta and canned tomatoes are scarely in the same category as Frosted Sugar Flakes, but still. It's certainly given more floor space than the fresh fruits and veggies.

[magid.livejournal.com]

True enough, but I think Pollan's take on processed stuff is that if there's a minimal number of recognizable ingredients (plus a lack of zippy health claims), it's still "food" rather than "nutrition in foodlike form." So pasta, fr'instance, or canned tomatoes, would still be food, as opposed to the Frosted Flakes or strawberry yogurt granola bars, etc.

(I also think Harvest has a higher ratio of food : foodlike stuff than many supermarkets, just because they've got limited space and more interest in providing bulk stuff.)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yes. Good points. I guess it just boggles my mind that places like my local Wild Oats (which is bigger than Harvest, but not nearly as big as most Whole Foods) still has most of an aisle devoted to chips and soda. As does Harvest, come to think of it, though I think part of that aisle is chocolate.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I hear that. Depending on the kind of chip, they can feel a bit closer to food; soda almost never is.

At least a third of one side of that aisle at Harvest is chocolate. Good chocolate, too :-).

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

It is hard to argue with a wide selection of chocolate. It always wins.