Shifting food habits

I picked up this book at the library last week. It took only about an hour to read, but offered a hearty serving of, well, food for thought (sorry for that). My main qualm about his book was his rather vague and imprecise references to the “Western diet.” He praises Mediterranean diets–and his forbears’ Jewish diet–for being much healthier than modern American food habits; yet he continually castigates “the Western diet” for its flawed nutritionism and failure to approach eating from a holistic standpoint. I suppose he is equating the “Western diet” with the American diet, although obviously France and Italy count as “the West,” right?

I do think Pollan made some very useful observations about how we eat, however. His wholesale denunciation of food science–for example, infusing whole grains and protein hither and thither–was interesting in sight of my history of medicine course a few terms ago. We studied science-fueled fads like the glandular extract craze of the late 19th/early 20th centuries and the attempts of scientists to reduce food to its component parts (carbohydrate, fats, etc). I feel a little less cynical towards having the extra bit of fiber in my ice cream than he does, I suppose, but I can buy his point that meddling with food can make it less healthful for the human body.

These days, a la Pollan, I avoid processed foods as much as possible; I don’t eat chips, soda, frozen meals, that sort of thing. I simply feel better when I eat food that I have made from scratch (although I haven’t gotten to the point of baking my own bread!). I find that Chinese, Thai, and Italian food are the easiest for me to make. However, I do like a spot of white rice and non-whole wheat pasta here and there.

Plus, when making my own food, I can count the calories, which is essential to my weight-monitoring. I have been counting them more or less every day since February and March, and it has really made a difference in how much I eat, and what I eat. Worlds of difference in how I feel! I am not obsessive about calorie-counting, especially when it comes to stuff like baby carrots, lettuces, and so forth, but do my best to be consistent about dense, rich foods like meat, oils, pasta/rice, and sugar. So that’s my main tip-of-the-hat to food science and nutritionism: I count calories.

But I am contemplating a few more changes on how I eat, what I eat. I have noticed that many of my friends are eating differently these days, too: lots are vegetarians, or lacto-ovo-pescatarians, or some variety thereof. Basically, the main question is: what do you eat, how, and why?

Subissues are:

1. Every time I am in the grocery store, I stand in front of the produce and debate whether I should go with organic or conventional. In your opinion, is organic worth it? I think fruit especially tastes better when organic, but…it’s so darn expensive.

2. Meat. I like meat. I don’t eat a lot of it; perhaps 3-4 oz. twice a day at most, and then infrequently. I have lots of vegetarian days inadvertently, because I think meat is too expensive. I don’t really eat beef, simply because I don’t care for the taste, but I love pork. And seafood. I can leave the rest. Should I eat meat? How?

3. CSA boxes–I have been hearing a lot about these. Are they worth it, and how much are they? I think I would just end up with a lot of wasted produce.

4. Other food books to recommend? Not so much recipes or diet books or “domestic fiction,” but some thoughtful, provocative discussions of food? I’d especially be interested in books that made you change something about your eating habits.

And to close out, here’s a picture of a shared meal for Mr. P and I: a cup white rice each (340 kcal!! Ridiculous!!), bok choy with garlic, Chinese chives speckled with bits of bacon, and an egg-tomato-scallion scramble. (and also my toes, although those are not for eating).