On Eating If you walk along any middle aisle of the supermarket, the bright colors on boxes and cans will spring at your eyes in place of the smells that could reach your nose, if only these foods were not so constrained by their packaging. Once in a while, some product you've never noticed before probably stands out from the shelf and strikes you as ridiculously overprocessed: some sort of nacho-scented string cheese in a nonrefrigerated Ziploc bag, for instance. You wonder: why? And how did this get here? How many people were involved in the making of the nacho scent in a chemical plant in New Jersey? How many involved in the factory farming of the cows—the raising and confinement of the female cow, the administering of growth hormones, the incessant impregnations, the thrice-daily milkings, the removal of the calves to slaughter, the combining of the antibiotics and pesticide-laden grain mixtures fed daily, the movement of E. coli-laden wastes into the local waterways and surrounding agricultural fields, the eventual early slaughter of the cow as milk productivity declines? The processing of the cow’s milk into something vaguely resembling cheese, not in a kitchen but in another factory? The formulation of the plastics that are sealed directly onto the cheese-like tubes? The shipping of all these elements, and then the final product, thousands of miles? The design of the cartoonish text and images on the plastic? The marketing of all this as a healthy snack, a good way to get calcium? If this kind of recognition has ever happened to you in a grocery store or chain restaurant—the realization that this thing you’re being offered to eat has been processed beyond recognition (often with good measures of worker mistreatment, animal suffering, and soil, water, and air pollution), any and all nutrition and flavor drained from it and then chemicals added to it to simulate tastiness—you may have just shaken your head at the bizarreness of it all. But now consider all the events that lead up to the foods that are common to you, the ones you eat every day. Zoom out from your musings on this one product and begin to consider what happens when you multiply all those actions by the thousands of products throughout the store. If you’re living in America today, it is difficult to look at the facts of how your food is produced. Why? First, because if you read about or see how it happens, you’ll probably begin to change how you eat in some ways, because you care about:
Second, it’s difficult to look at the facts of how food is produced simply because very few people can get inside factory farms and slaughterhouses. They tend to discourage visitors who may be critical of their practices, and they don’t want consumers seeing the events that lead up to the point of eating a burger or chicken sandwich. But there are some sources for information about these events. Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and John Robbins’ Diet for a New America are two good books, and Michael Pollan writes well-researched and readable articles. Since we don’t get to see inside the actual factories and warehouses that “process” live and dead animals, vegetables, and chemicals, what is it that we do see? Think about the information and stimuli you get about food all day long. Where does it come from? Who reaches your eyes and ears and nose most frequently every day? Large companies that operate chain restaurants, run fast food restaurants, and sell the processed foods in the grocery store. They advertise on television, billboards, magazines, along almost every business street in America, and sometimes even right inside school and corporate cafeterias. Think about the number of times in a day you are told that it would be a great idea (for everyone involved) if you ate something that could be assembled for you in a matter of minutes from parts that were produced months ago and stored since then. Now consider how many times in a day you’re told it would be a great idea to eat something that was recently grown but could take you a half hour to cook. Who would tell you that? The “5 A Day” program from the Produce for Better Health Foundation is the likely candidate, but their budget is $6.4 million, of which only 20% goes to “motivating consumers.” Their budget is bean-sized in comparison to the gigantic marketing budget of just one burger joint. And even this tiny foundation consists mostly of corporate members whose idea of five fruits and vegetables a day consists of the most highly processed forms of fruitiness and vegginess. Now, I know this will come as a surprise, so brace yourself. Food advertising lies. It lies harder and faster than any one individual liar has ever lied, because it is group, mass lying. The copywriters are lying, the layout people are lying, the actors and models are lying. These people lie by what they call necessity, because they are trying to sell you food that is more expensive than, yet less tasty and satisfying than, whole foods. By whole foods, I simply mean food that is not highly processed, wrenched free of its flavor, texture, and nutrition, and then pumped full of chemicals to disguise what’s missing. If you do manage to look squarely at the process of food production today in America, and you decide you must act on this knowledge, and you choose to reduce or eliminate animal products from your diet, eat more locally grown and organic foods, and eat fewer highly-processed foods and more whole foods, then you will face certain challenges in finding where to get these foods and how to prepare them. If, in addition to caring about the elements listed above, you also care about the flavor of your food—that is, if you consider eating to be a pleasure rather than a duty—these challenges will be daunting. This is not to say that food without animal products and additives is not tasty; in fact, it is much more satisfying than most foods that contain them. However, what we need to acknowledge is that most of what is available around us in America, inside the grocery store, along the streets of one’s city or town, and along the highways, is food that involves the flesh and secretions of animals, has been processed until it loses its flavor and can be shipped for miles and stored for months, and then has been further processed to mask the loss of flavor with chemicals. And these foods are not just “around” us, passively waiting for us to notice them, but rather they are aggressively marketed and advertised to us as not just okay for us but actually good for us, in the sense that we will feel happier and healthier for eating them. Count the number of advertisements you see and hear in one day for processed foods, and then count the number of advertisements you see and hear in one day for whole foods (fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, whole legumes). Most of us have points in our days during which we must eat outside the home. For some of us, it is almost every meal. I currently live in a small town in the Midwest, so I know what waits for me outside my house—locally grown and organic and unprocessed and fresh are mostly unattainable except at the farmer’s market and a small section of the supermarket—and the most I can hope for anywhere is one or two vegetarian options. (Lest you think things are vastly different elsewhere, they are only different by degree: When I visit cities, I am always excited to have access to less-processed and more-and-varied-vegetable-based foods in restaurants and delis, but I have found that even in NY, LA, and Chicago, I must plan ahead. If left to chance, one’s lunch in any city will still, just via probability, be overly processed and lacking in flavor. The opportunities for good, healthy foods are there, but they must be sought out among all the blech that passes for food anywhere.) When stuck in a typical eating-out venue, if there are one or two offerings—in a fast food joint, a restaurant, a cafeteria, or a processed food grocery store aisle—that do not involve animal products, usually these options consist of the vegetable “condiments” designed to supplement the meaty offerings, and sometimes there are meat “substitutes” to go along with those. Think, for instance, of the standard “veggie” sub or sandwich: cheese, iceberg lettuce, pinkish tomato, maybe black olives or sliced button mushrooms or green peppers. So, if you are stuck in one of these locations, you will feel rather…deprived. Oh, I suppose not if you fixate on food as something to punish yourself with—if you have that attitude, you may actually like the sad little pile of vegetable condiments you’re faced with. But if you want to be and feel nourished by your food, it is these initial encounters with standard non-meat options that can be most discouraging. The problem lies, first, with the degenerate nature of most of the food on offer to begin with. It’s processed to within an inch of existence. There’s no food left in that food. So, then, if you begin to look into the sad facts of the production of animal products—the treatment of animals and workers on factory farms and in slaughterhouses; the hormones, bacteria, antibiotics, pesticides, and herbicides that wind up in animal flesh and secretions; the pollution of rivers, lakes, oceans, agricultural land, and air caused by factory farming—and you decide that you want to participate in these horrors less, you now rule out 90-95% of the standard processed and prepared food available outside your home today. If that food, which doesn't offer much nutrition or tastiness to begin with, is most of what you've known throughout your life, then it’s no wonder you feel further deprived. Remember the joke about the guy who complains about a restaurant: The food was terrible—and there was so little of it! Well, the food out there is mostly unsatisfying for your body and your mind—but on top of that, now you’re limiting yourself to so little of it! I know several people who have tried at some point to stop eating meat, poultry, and fish, and have felt like they failed to thrive on a vegetarian diet, but this is usually because of one or two main reasons:
So, here are my suggestions, as I negotiate this path in various ways myself: Begin by exploring how delicious food can be when you make it from ingredients that are fresh and less processed than those you currently eat. By this I mean fresh vegetables and fruits, grains, nuts, and beans. Reduce the amount of animal products you eat each day by eating more meals that highlight produce and whole grains. Find your local farmer’s market. Put in written and verbal requests at your supermarket for fresh, local, and organic produce and grains. Frequent these areas more than the middle of the supermarket. If you are used to buying packaged foods at the grocery store or meals in fast food places or restaurants or cafeterias, these changes will have three main effects:
If you’re really pressed for time, you may want to start by finding whole foods that you like to eat that require a minimum of preparation: nut butters spread on whole-grain bread or on apples with a sprinkle of granola; vegetables and fruits juiced fresh by you; salads that require you to only make a simple vinaigrette and that include nuts, dark leafy greens, and variously-colored veggies and fruits. When you want a more complex meal, find recipes that start with whole foods and allow you to experiment. Let go of past bad experiences with vegetarian foods (the vegetable condiments of the corporate "veggie" options....the canned, frozen, or overcooked vegetables of childhood family dinners....). Vegetables and grains can be delicious. I, for one, would often rather have someone else cook for me than cook for myself. I’d rather they spend the time, yes, but also—let’s face it—sometimes it tastes better when someone else does the prepping and taste-testing and we’re just presented with a delicious finished product. However, there are just very few people whom I trust to choose ingredients and cook for me now that I know certain things. Minimum-wage earners in industrial kitchens and taste-testers in chemical factories are not on that short list. So I often prepare food for myself. Below you’ll find one recipe that has proven delicious and easily adapted to what’s on hand over the past few months. This is just one of many, many recipes you can try out and fine-tune on your own to your tastes, using fresh foods and less-processed ingredients. Don’t think that you will make some sort of superhero leap to an entirely different eating pattern in a day. In fact, don’t even try to make these changes until you've looked into the events that lead up to the moment that you put that next bite of what-passes-for-food into your mouth. Investigate the origins of what is sitting on your fork (and the research into the consequences of eating it) and consider those as you decide whether or not you wish to eat what is there once again. Read books and articles. Check for online videos and other resources. Don’t be afraid to look squarely at the details of how food is produced in this country; you can, indeed, do something about them. Yes, you will see and hear about some grotesque things, but only once, while in fact they are happening each minute of each day. If you decide that you want to make some changes, allow it to be a gradual process. How many times do you ingest food each day? Each time, make it a conscious decision, not a default one made based on what people around you are eating. We each need to see and to hear about what happens to animals, workers, rivers, and our own bodies in order to remain aware that the happy cartoon pigs on packaging and the smiling, slim people eating chicken nuggets in commercials are not just marketing, they are misleading. When you find yourself in an eating bind, stuck with options that are all distasteful, do your best. If possible, wherever you are--restaurant, cafeteria, lunch meeting--pleasantly request that fresh, whole food and vegetarian options be made available in the future (but don't assume that they will). Then find a way to prepare for or avoid that situation next time. No guilt, no regrets, just a resolve to make a different decision. There are so many ways in which we can act consciously or habitually, and it seems like political, social, and economic issues constantly compete for our time and money. But eating is not occasional, like voting, or petition-signing, or giving money to a charity, or even shopping for clothes and discretionary items. Eating you must do several times each day, and each time is a chance to reduce the harm you do to others and to enhance the enjoyment and energy you get from your food. Copyright 2006 Elizabeth Silas |
Articles, Essays, and Stories
 |
| |
 |
| For additional resources on food production in America, click here. |
| One Reasonably Quick, Tasty Dinner (with Many Possible Variants) what you need (see below for details): grain garlic olive oil beans greens water or broth spices This version feeds 2-3 people. 1. Start cooking a grain. I recommend starting with brown or white basmati rice. For brown: In a pot with a lid, pour 2 cups of water and 1 cup of rice, heat on high to a boil, stir once, and then cover the pot tightly and turn heat down to very low for 50 minutes. Then shut the heat off completely, leaving the pot covered for another 10 minutes. For white: In a pot with a lid, pour 1.5 cups of water and 1 cup of rice, heat on high to a boil, stir once, and then cover the pot tightly and turn heat down to very low for 20 minutes. Then shut the heat off entirely, leaving the pot covered for another 5 minutes. 2. Chop 3-6 cloves of raw garlic, depending on how much garlic you like. 3. Sauté chopped garlic (and shallots and onion, if using) in a few teaspoons of olive oil for a few minutes on medium heat, until translucent. 4. Rinse a 16-ounce can of beans. Start with cannellini (white kidney beans) or garbanzo (chickpeas). 5. Chop greens. Start by using baby spinach, spinach, or swiss chard, all of which are mild. Do not use frozen greens; buy the greens fresh and rinse them. (Rip stems off chard and put them aside to cook separately or throw away—they need to cook longer.) 6. Pour beans into the pan with garlic and oil. Add a few tablespoons of water or vegetable broth. Let the beans cook, stirring occasionally. Then spice the beans with a few pinches of cayenne, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and black pepper. Go easy at first, tasting the beans after a few minutes and adding more spice if necessary. This should all take 15-20 minutes. If the beans dry out, add a bit more water or broth. 7. Add the greens to the pan with the beans. Cook for just a few minutes, until the greens wither and you can stir them into the beans. (If you’re using a lot of greens, you may need to cover the pan so they steam a bit.) 8. Salt the beans/greens and the grain to taste. Add more of the spices, if you wish. Serve the beans and greens over the grain. Enjoy! |
| Do you have other favorite whole food, vegetarian recipes you'd like me to post for others to try? Email me by clicking here. |
| I know, I know, white rice is stripped of most of its nutrition and is far more processed than brown rice. However, this recipe is a transitional one—one to help those of us for whom 30 minutes cooking dinner is already a stretch. Brown rice takes a bit longer and takes some getting used to, so feel free to try both. When you're really pressed for time, try whole wheat couscous, which takes only 2 minutes. My favorite grain to use is quinoa, which is high in protein and takes about 15 minutes. |
| Do not use garlic that comes in a jar. (If you are stuck without fresh garlic to chop, then use dried garlic powder-- not garlic salt.) You may also wish to chop a few shallots or half an onion. |
| You can also try white navy, soy, or other beans. Once you’re comfortable with this recipe and are planning ahead, you can use dry beans, soaking them the night before, instead of canned beans. |
| After you've refined your version of the basic recipe, you may wish to try escarole, broccoli rabe (rapini), kale, or other greens. (These can be boiled in water for a few minutes to reduce bitterness before being sautéed.) |
| One quick alternate way to spice the beans is to use thyme and a few tablespoons of an organic "no-chicken" broth. This stage is crucial. Spice the beans to your taste, using flavors you like. |
| One great cookbook is Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison-- simple recipes for delicious vegetables. |
| Lori in Cincinnati also suggests Quick Vegetarian Pleasures, by Jeanne Lemlin. |
| Michael Pollan recently wrote a great article for the NYT Magazine, available online. |
| You can also flavor the grain with spices similar to those you used for the beans. Try adding toasted almonds to basmati or toasted pistachios to quinoa. |
| For additional resources on food production in America, click here. |
| Speaking of whole grains, I just have to note here that I have now sat through two separate lectures by registered dietitians who claimed that pasta and enriched bread were whole grains and also good sources of vitamins and minerals. No mention was made of what kind of pasta or bread, which, if you're in a supermarket, 90% of what you see is white, not whole. |
| Dawn's Vinaigrette: olive oil balsamic vinegar honey dijon mustard Experiment with the ratio of ingredients. Combine and shake; adjust ratio to taste. |