Michael Pollan. In case you’re new to my blog, um, I heart Michael Pollan. Three news items on him:

• NPR did an “All Things Considered” segment on his Food Rules here (5 minutes audio).
• If you missed Pollan on the Oprah show, his segment will be re-broadcast on March 11.
• Food Inc. is up for an Academy Award on Monday. YAY!

In other good news, Native Foods just announced a new online take-out ordering system! Suh-weet! From the announcement:

• You pick the exact time you wish to pick up your order, you pay online and you even receive your Rewards Card points online!
• No waiting in line or paying at the front when you get to the Native Foods restaurant. Just go straight to the area marked “Online Order Pickup” and tell us your name—we’ll have your Take Order ready and off you go!!
• Don’t forget: Costa Mesa, Tustin and Aliso Viejo all have designated “Take Out” Parking spaces within steps of those Native Foods restaurants for easy and quick parking. [And Westwood has an alleyright next door to the Native Foods entrance!]
• As an added incentive to all existing Rewards Card members, we are offering 25% off on your first Online Order placed prior to March 31. YAY!

And, finally, being kind may actually indicate you have an evolutionary advantage — see here. Gives a whole new meaning to paying it forward. Ya hear that meanies?!

The New York Times ran a piece recently called, “In Obesity Epidemic, What’s One Cookie?” here.  Basically, the article discusses the merit of the adage that “little changes add up” when it comes to weight loss; so they really do consider how cutting out a cookie, for instance, can offer a change, but not necessarily a substantial one over time. From the article:

•  ”Bodies don’t gain or lose weight indefinitely. Eventually, a cascade of biological changes kicks in to help the body maintain a new weight. As the JAMA article explains, a person who eats an extra cookie a day will gain some weight, but over time, an increasing proportion of the cookie’s calories also goes to taking care of the extra body weight. Eventually, the body adjusts and stops gaining weight, even if the person continues to eat the cookie. Similar factors come into play when we skip the extra cookie. We may lose a little weight at first, but soon the body adjusts to the new weight and requires fewer calories.
• “Regrettably, however, the body is more resistant to weight loss than weight gain. Hormones and brain chemicals that regulate your unconscious drive to eat and how your body responds to exercise can make it even more difficult to lose the weight. You may skip the cookie but unknowingly compensate by eating a bagel later on or an extra serving of pasta at dinner.”
• “’There is a much bigger picture than parsing out the cookie a day or the Coke a day,’ said Dr. Jeffrey M. Friedman, head of Rockefeller University’s molecular genetics lab, which first identified leptin, a hormonal signal made by the body’s fat cells that regulates food intake and energy expenditure.
• My take: Um, what a narrow view of small changes. Weight as a change may certainly seem trivial. But think of how changing one habit like stopping smoking, can dramatically increase your life expectancy and quality of life! I say, think positive, and be kind (see above — it’s a sign of evolutionary advantage

Also, bad — apparently our children (yours, not mine — this baby doesn’t have babies!) are considered “Generation Snack.” Just another article in the NY Times here telling us how crisisy this obesity crisis is.

The Ugly

An article in Time Magazine called, “Putting a Pricetag on Food Unsafety ” sounds kinda yucky ugly. See here. An excerpt:

• “Illness from contaminated food, ranging from minor stomachaches and queasiness to life-threatening E. coliinfections, are a serious public-health threat in the U.S., resulting in 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). When tallied up, the consequences of foodborne illness — including doctor visits, medication, lost work days and pain and suffering — cost the U.S. an estimated $152 billion annually. That figure was reported on Wednesday in a new study by the Produce Safety Project, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trust.” Yikes, guys.

 Alright, gotta jet! Any of these news items strike a chord? Any news you wanna share with ME?!

<3,

The Cranky One

Ever since Michael Pollan and his books have been in the spotlight, I’ve felt fortunate that such important issues on food production, health and sustainable living were taking center stage.  It’s also meant that I’m now viewing my world with Pollanized eyes. In reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden for one of my classes, I couldn’t help but notice a similarity between Thoreau’s suggestions for living “deliberately” and Michael Pollan’s “food rules.” Here are some quotes I’ve stolen from Walden and my translations:

“There is a certain class of unbelievers who sometimes ask me such questions as, if I think I can live on vegetable food alone; and to strike at the root of the matter at once,–for the root is faith,–I am accustomed to answer such, that I can live on board nails.” Translation: When it comes to being vegetarian? I think I can, I think I can.

“What is the pill which will keep us well, serene, contented? Not my or thy great-father’s, but our great-grandmother Nature’s universal, vegetable, botanic medicines, by which she has kept herself young always, outlives so many old Parrs in her day, and fed her health with their decaying fatness.” Translation: Remedy up with natural stuff — just say no to drugs.

“I did not use tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food; but as he began with tea, and coffee, and butter, and milk, and beef, he had to work hard to pay for them, and when he had worked hard he had to eat hard again to repair the waste of his system.” Translation: Eating like crap has financial and physical tolls.

“No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does. The hare in its extremity cries like a child.” Eating no meat is best, but if you’re gonna — eat less and eat sustainably.

“The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live low and fare hard in many respects; and though  never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination. I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind.” Question what is “natural” in your diet. Eating less meat and less in general will make you smarter!

“Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.” Translation: Ditto.

I don’t necessarily agree with Thoreau’s food rules (dude, he advocates abstaining from wine! he also seems to advocate a sort of ascetic abstinence from food), but I do find he was way ahead of his time and, friends, I just plain appreciate his genius.

Do you feel that food issues are taking center state these days in a productive manner? Do you think the important issues are getting their fair share in the media lime light?

In the News

• Check out this article on epigenetics in Time Magazine called “Epigenetics, DNA: How You Can Change Your Genes, Destiny,” Jan. 06, 2010 here — Did you think the debate ended at nature vs. nurture? Did you think your genes were to blame and you had no control over it? Think again1
  
• If you’re interested in eating less meat, check out these “7 Painless Ways to Be an Almost Vegetarian” here — I fully advocate half-ass vegetarianism or veganism. Baby steps are way underrated!

Alright, guys — I’m off to finish some major assignments.

<3,

The Cranky One

So, The New York Times featured, yet again, a story on Michael Pollan’s Food Rules. Check it out here – it’s rad as per usual. I’ve written about Pollan, I dunno, like 3 times or more. Let’s face it — I’m in love with this whole literary journalism/literary science writing thing where lit. people get to publish books on science and culture and actually impart change instead of writing about people who do. It’s a very active and fulfilling career, from my standpoint, and after doing some deep thinking about my love for Pollanesque books and my new found love for my ecocriticism class, I’m thinking my senior thesis might be my own Pollan-like manifesto on culture, the environment and our waistlines. All you smarties out there who have book recommendations on American culture, food production, the environment and/or obesity, please recommend in the comments — I’d be so grateful! The thing I enjoyed most from this article were the following “Reasons to Change” — My notes are in bold text:

“Two fundamental facts provide the impetus Americans and other Westerners need to make dietary changes. One, as Mr. Pollan points out, is that populations who rely on the so-called Western diet — lots of processed foods, meat, added fat, sugar and refined grains — ‘invariably suffer from high rates of the so-called Western diseases: obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.’ Indeed, 4 of the top 10 killers of Americans are linked to this diet.

As people in Asian and Mediterranean countries have become more Westernized (affluent, citified (citified = more urban/city-like) and exposed to the fast foods exported from the United States), they have become increasingly prone to the same afflictions.

The second fact is that people who consume traditional diets, free of the ersatz (ersatz = artificial and inferior)  foods that line our supermarket shelves, experience these diseases at much lower rates. And those who, for reasons of ill health or dietary philosophy, have abandoned Western eating habits often experience a rapid and significant improvement in their health indicators.

I will add a third reason: our economy cannot afford to continue to patch up the millions of people who each year develop a diet-related ailment, and our planetary resources simply cannot sustain our eating style and continue to support its ever-growing population.” (Check out the book Diet for a Small Planet– it talks about our food choices and the sustainability of our resources). 

Frankly, I’ve still got one foot on the yellow-brick road to good health and the other on the concrete of despair. I still eat a lot of “processed” foods even if they are indeed healthy. For instance, I eat a lot of organic whole-wheat and brown rice, preservative-free tortillas and even though they only contain wholesome ingredients, I think they might still be considered processed. The lines get fuzzy and it’s hard to decipher sometimes when I’m being a food Nazi and when I’m genuinely acting in my best interest. Pollan, help me out! These food definitions can get quite nebulous. p.s. Dear NY Times, stop using fancy words that I have to look up because it really gives a blow to my English-master-student ego. Thanks.

I also have to wonder — do you think we’re demonizing the American diet? Do you think the description of the standard American diet rings true for those in your social circle? Or is the SAD (Standard American Diet) getting unfairly criticized?

How do YOU define “processed” foods?

<3,

The Cranky One

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