— Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, on soil fertility and the role that the ground our food comes from is just as important (or, more accurately, MORE important) than the food itself.
Having a very holy-crap-things-are-changing life week mentally. Haven’t really moved my butt since leaving the lake. Had dinner with the boys parents, went apartment hunting, hiding from the oppressive heat.
Been eating (mostly) well. The boy’s family likes to bake and then give us the results. Grrrrrreeeeeeeeeeattt. His cousin (whom we puppysit for) made chocolate-stuffed cookies & peanut butter brownies. His mom just gave us a tray of blueberry muffin. But I’ve been countering it with lovely light salads for lunch and only eating baby-sized portions of the goodies.
Also been reading Omnivore’s Dilemma. Here’s a few gems so far:
Today’s also been a career, life-path daydreaming kind of day.
Feed Me I’m Cranky posted some noted similarities between Thoreau’s theories of living “deliberately” and Michael Pollan’s “food rules.” Some quotes & her simplified translations:
“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.
“Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.” Translation: Ditto.
It seems to me that if these ideas have been true for this long they will continue to be true long after “nutritionism” has demonized/sanctified another set of nutrients taken out of context.
(Also, I own this book and have never read it. I might slip it in between finishing In Defense of Food (almost done!!) and Omnivores Dilemma.)
Eating dinner and watching a girl get liposuction… yup, I’m strange. It’s on my Netflix instant queue: Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat. These are some quotes that stood out to me and some of my thoughts/comments.
“Obesity is the terror within.”
“I feel very strongly about this: Obesity is a crime on the body.”
“And so when a hunter-gatherers encounters a rich package of nutrients they are programmed to eat as much as they can. Natural selection could never imagine a situation where a human would need to cut down on their fat intake.”
“People tend to eat based on the package or the size of their plate… that’s their guide.” Solution? Eat on “salad” plates (8”) & only buy tiny serving size containers of your guilty pleasure foods (see teeny, tiny ice cream tubs from yesterday).
“This must be an appropriate amount of french fries to eat or I wouldn’t have been given this many fries. […] You know what I love about this? Free refills..mmmm”
“Food is available EVERYWHERE. […] There are cues around us all the time that are telling us, ‘It’s time to eat.’”
“Why know from scientific evidence that the stress piece of the puzzle [that keeps us fat] is as important as the diet piece.” “One common reaction to stress is cravings for food.” (Due to cortisol.) I want to look into this one further and write some more about it. I think this has been a huge factor in my life and has contributed to my life-long weight struggles.
“I would just eat. And eat. Food’s my comfort. It still is.”
“Our problem around food is a cultural problem […] It’s a problem of not valuing it.” [Michael Pollan]
“What’s more important that what you put in your body?”
“Quantity became the key measure over quality. We’re willing to settle for lousy food as long as it’s cheap.” [Michael Pollan]
CORN IS IN EVERYTHING. Weird, so weird. Also, they mean super processed. Not the delicious corn I pick in the field in the summer. Mmm.
“20% of the fossil fuel we burn goes to food. […] For every extra pound of weight that the average American gains we are using slightly over 39 million additional gallons of feul.”
“40% to 50% of my students [high school gym teacher] look like they have not developed the motor skill of running.” My weight issues didn’t begin until I stopped spending my afterschool time outside and started spending it watching Breaker High with goldfish & diet coke every day.
“If you look at a school lunch menu it isn’t based on the nutritional needs of children, it’s based on what the surpluses are.” [Ralph Nader]
YES!! The UPS man just delivered my books from Amazon. Now the question is, “Which of them do I read first?!?”
Did anyone see Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pollan, and the founder of Chipotle on Oprah the other day? I didn’t, but I heard about it. In fact, one of my coworkers actually wrote down Pollan’s name to remind herself ask me about him (of course, I told her what a huge fan I was!). For the rest of you who missed the show, Annabel, of Feed Me I’m Cranky, posted a wonderful summary of the show (with her great comments) I had to share:
- Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself (Food Rule #39) – It actually takes a lot of effort to cook junk food from scratch. If you put in the time and effort, you can go ahead and enjoy it. (I don’t think poor Michael understands that my cranky tummy has no bounds and neither does my ambition, so if I truly believed I could cook and eat as much “junk food” without consequence, I surely would. But these hips don’t lie. They surely don’t!)
- Cooking is key. Pollan thinks cooking is key since it’s the only way you can take back power from the corporations (and restaurants) that use much more fat, salt and sugar than you would use yourself. Kitchen-phobic? Check out my “get in the kitchen” motivation here.
- We need a food revolution. As a result of federal agricultural subsidies, crops such as corn, soy and wheat are made cheaper to the consumer (and ever notice how soy is in EVERYTHING now?). The government doesn’t, however, subsidize fresh produce. Says Pollan, “we’ve made it rational to eat badly.” Because it truly is cheaper at the onset to eat a burger than to buy all the fixins to make a salad, we can rationalize eating poorly (I hear you if you think it’s like ya gotta choose to eat poorly or be poor).
- We all vote with our forks. Each item you eat, every meal, every morsel that goes into your body, is a choice that tells Big Brother and Agribusinesses what you want and what they should continue to produce for profit. I get it if you’re broke (holla!), but splurge a little less here and there on your Seven jeans and buy more organic foods, more foods from farmer’s markets and more fresh produce.
- If you’re going to eat meat, eat meat that has itself eaten well. Cows were meant to eat grass, not corn. Eat grass-fed meat.
- Getting out of the supermarket is key. Shopping at a supermarket is like walking through a maze of bad choices. At a few corners you might find something worthwhile, but most of the time you just end up lost, dazed and confused. Try venturing out to health food stores, farmer’s markets and even checking out food co-ops in your area.
- The average American eats fast food 4 times a week. While that number sucks, I thought it was worse (I’ve known people who eat out EVERY day…). Even cutting out one fast food meal a week will make a difference to your health and to “rockin’ the food vote” in the right direction.
I also like Pollan’s Real Food Q&A.
Loved Food Inc. and just ordered three of his books on Amazon.com. I cannot wait to read them. Watching the Oprah interview, these are a few quotes that stuck out to me:
“We all have to start paying more attention to what we put in our bodies” [Oprah]
In 1960 we spent 18% (of GDP) on food and 9% on healthcare. Now we spend 8% on food and 17% on healthcare. [Michael Pollan] — HELLO, REALITY TO AMERICA, this is what we call an inverse relationship. Look it up. We’re not ACTUALLY SAVING MONEY by buying “cheap” “food.”
