American Pie: Do I Know What I Eat?
...Somewhere deep in my psyche is a closet vegetarian waiting to get out. Fruit and vegetables constitute a large proportion of what I eat. When presented with a plate of food, invariably the first mouthful I take is from the vegetables or salad, and desert is frequently fruit. Nevertheless, I relish meat of all kinds...
John Merchant serves up a seriously tasty column.
To read the column which John refers to in the first sentence of this article, along with lots more of his entertaining and informative words, please click on http://www.openwriting.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=john+merchant
And do visit his Web site
http://home.comcast.net/~jwmerchant/site/
My column on May 27, 2010, was titled “Do You Know What You Are Eating?” It was my take on a US TV documentary about the raising, processing and distribution of farm products. In one of the concluding paragraphs, I wrote:
“In the knowledge that livestock and crops are so adulterated by chemical food additives, genetic modification, pesticides, inhumane rearing and slaughtering, what is a concerned consumer to do? The immediate answer that comes to mind is to buy food only from organic and kosher sources, but then cost and availability become a factor.”
I refrained from disclosing my own personal modus operandi, only in the interest of brevity. At the suggestion of a reader, Jacqueline Finesilver, who lives in Hertfordshire, England, the following is my current thinking:
Somewhere deep in my psyche is a closet vegetarian waiting to get out. Fruit and vegetables constitute a large proportion of what I eat. When presented with a plate of food, invariably the first mouthful I take is from the vegetables or salad, and desert is frequently fruit. Nevertheless, I relish meat of all kinds. On visits to India, when asked if I would like veg or non-veg, the customary choice, I always requested both, much to the puzzlement of my hosts.
Only infrequently do I eat red meat, but I love an occasional steak, cooked rare. I also enjoy fish, chicken and seafood. The possibility of becoming a vegetarian crosses my mind from time to time, but when I consider it seriously, I’m deterred by the sheer difficulty of assembling an adequate diet, and the quantity of food I would need to consume to stay healthy. And no, I don’t like tofu.
Recently, I read an article about a “Super Marathoner,” one of a number of athletes who run marathons of 150 miles or more. This young man, I forget his name, takes one or more training runs of 20 to 50 miles every day. He also happens to be a vegan, someone who eats no meat, fish, dairy products or even eggs. The article showed a photograph of a table set with what he eats for one meal. One could easily believe it was dinner for six.
Well OK, so his food intake is obviously skewed by the amount of energy his sport must demand, but I doubt I could have consumed a quarter of what was on the table. Also, being a vegetarian, vegan or not, usually requires the consumption of several meals each day. At 77 years of age, my body has become so accustomed to three meals a day, that I think it would revolt if I changed my habits so radically.
I enjoy good health, and have done all my life, except for the usual, children’s illnesses. I attribute this principally to my mother, who was a farm girl, and knew all about healthy eating; and of course, good genes helped. Growing up with the food shortages brought about by World War II also was beneficial I think. Most of what we couldn’t obtain we were better off doing without anyway.
I guess my overall nutrition philosophy stems from the fact that early hominids were primarily hunter-gatherers, and, as such, most likely had a varied diet that included meat, fruit, shellfish and grains, with perhaps some honey on a good day. Also, they probably had to go without food for periods of time, a factor I suspect we could emulate to our advantage, as do some religions.
Having settled on an omnivorous diet, what do I do to avoid the deleterious aspects attributed to modern food sources? My strategy is to avoid hysterical extremes. I have yet to detect any harmful effects from the conventional food I have been eating, but will nevertheless try to obtain my meat and produce from the most trustworthy sources when I can afford them: local farm stands, and organic and koshered products for preference. Irrespective of the source, I will wash fruit and vegetables if am going to consume the skin – oranges, bananas, grapefruit etc. I won’t fret over.
If I were raising young children, I would be more rigorous in my selections, in the knowledge that their physiology is infinitely more vulnerable. In the end, food source selection involves an element of trust. In 1990, the US Congress passed the Federal Organic Foods Production Act, which called for national organic food guidelines. These included the certification of growers, and provided standards for organic food production, the monitoring of crops for chemical contamination, and livestock for living conditions.
The law was amended in 2004, but it remains unclear as to how well the guidelines are applied and enforced, especially knowing how frequently the existing US Food and Drug Administration laws are ignored or circumvented.
Undoubtedly, some producers will follow the guidelines with missionary zeal, but others may waver in the face of a potentially disastrous crop infestation, inclement weather, or their inability to make adequate profits.
The best hope for improved food sources is a groundswell of public opinion, enforced by discriminating purchasing. In the US at any rate, this seems like a forlorn hope, given the population’s preference for fast food and ready-to-eat meals.
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