table talk / By Joseph Byrd

Crazy About Food

(May 22, 2008)  Are we obsessive about food? The popularity of Michael Pollan’s recent books (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, preceded by The Botany of Desire, and followed by In Defense of Food) suggests that we are. Pollan is a serious science writer and director of UC Berkeley’s program in Science and Environmental Journalism.

But science battles pseudo-science in the food wars: The continuing popularity of the 20-year old proto-vegan tract, Diet For A Small Planet, long discredited by the food-science community, makes my point.

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But the fact that I write, and you read, a continuing series of articles about food, in a small rural community paper, also makes my point. We care. We also have an awareness that what we eat is related to matters like world hunger, habitat destruction, depleted waterways, deforestation, rampant agribusiness and the preponderance in our national diet of processed, salty, unhealthful foods. It doesn’t take a proselytizing vegan to make that point.

So now you’re sighing, and gearing up for a rant on healthy, natural, “locavore” foods, right? Well, relax. Lighten up. Let’s talk about how crazy we can get about food. Let’s discuss food neuroses. You know, the weird way of eating that almost everybody has?

Except you and me, of course. Well, I’m not so sure about you.

Logically, of course, we should all eat like dogs. No human takes food as seriously as a dog. Have you ever noticed that dogs always eat “the good stuff” first? If you give them a bowl of Science Diet Lamb & Rice, with a few scraps of steak leftovers at the bottom of the bowl, they will burrow through the kibble to get to the meat first. Know why? Because you might die at any moment, and then you wouldn’t have eaten the good stuff. Nothing neurotic about that, it’s just common sense for carnivores.

But we don’t do that. We don’t begin with the créme brûlée, proceed to the pan-braised salmon and only then address the rice pilaf and the grilled vegetables. We have rituals. Even for those of us who don’t like to think that custom dominates our eating, we are slaves to our culture.

It’s true that Beni and I have broken out of the American Breakfast Culture (see “A Breakfast Odyssey,” Feb. 14, 2008). But generally, we dine on the same things as other omnivores: meat, fowl or fish, often with a simple sauce or condiment. We add a number of complex carbohydrates, which we attempt to vary as much as possible. For example, the genus Brassica — which includes cabbages, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards and Brussels sprouts, all high in vitamin C and trace minerals. We have evolved from a diet full of potatoes, breads, tortillas and pasta, to occasional splurges. We tend toward seasonal squash, sweet potatoes, dry beans and fruits. We eat salads as often as possible, a practice made luxurious by local farmers who supply the Co-op with baby greens year-round. When we have good cheese, we eat it twice a week, with one of our summer soups from the freezer, and fresh fruit. Beyond that, we have no rituals.

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