Anyway, if I had had to give you an outline of what I thought the book was going to be about, I would have been totally off the mark. I thought it would be mostly a manifesto of what you should eat, not what you shouldn't. So instead of an entreaty to grow vegetables in my backyard and support local farmers (which would have been fine), it's actually a very thoughtful and biting critique of the entire development of nutrition science.
Well if I had known that I might have read it even sooner. It actually does get into what you should eat but the 150 pages I've read so far are about how we've managed to radically shift away from centuries of eating tradition, what the health effects of that shift are, and how industry, government, and "science" have helped the process along.
The health effects he discusses are all conditions (diabetes, heart disease, etc.) that have shown up in my family and that mother has strongly warned me about, so I take a keen interest. I feel like I am kind of halfway through a journey of remaking my diet and lifestyle and that this book will help inform me, or at least motivate me, down that path. So it had me reflecting on how I want to eat:
The model diet of my life is how I ate when I was in Russia. I lived in St. Petersburg for a month and I was in a homestay where the family left breakfast for me and cooked me dinner. I can't remember everything I ate, but I remember always feeling really good, energy-wise and intestine-wise. Breakfast was definitely a carb and dairy fest but I also always had some juice. There must have been something else but I can't recall.
Dinner was always amazing - usually some kind of small meat cutlet with a starch and some green vegetables and tomatoes. Also, everyone in the family ate several cloves of raw garlic with dinner and insisted I do likewise. I grew to really like this.
What I liked about that diet was that it was simple and very attainable. The 2 parents and one adult son in this family were all very busy professionals on a budget. Most of the food they bought was either picked up daily at small stores on the way home from work or was grown at their dacha. America doesn't have old ladies selling fresh produce outside of subway stations, but otherwise the basic tenets of this way of shopping and eating should be feasible throughout the US. And actually, I haven't only experienced this kind of eating in Russia. All of Europe seems to leave my stomach feeling the same way - satisfied. Of course, those are my roots so it shouldn't surprise me.
So that's part one of my food plan - eat like a European (when said European isn't eating at their local Pizza Hut). The other thing I would really like to do it get more food for free, either by raising it or hunting it. Neither of those are literally free but you know what I mean. Right now, this part isn't going so well. The only thing I am growing right now is hops, though I do intend to drink them this year. And hunting is a problem because I don't have a rifle (nor could I even keep one legally anywhere in my county) and I don't have anyone to hunt with. I wouldn't mind going alone except I could use a few pointers, especially in the field dressing department.
The third part of my plan is to eat a wider variety of meats and a wider variety of cuts from meat I already eat. This is going a little better. I have ready access to goat and buffalo, two of my favorites, from our local farmer's markets. I've yet to try Hugh-Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for tail and tongue of beef with rich red wine sauce though, and that's where I'd like to head next.
Well that's where I'm at after reading half of the book. We'll see where it goes from here.
Back to the book, I had a funny lightbulb go off last night. I was reading some salon.com article on raw milk and it mentioned Weston A. Price, a Canadian dentist who wrote about nutrition. Only then did I realize that this Weston A. Price, who Pollan talks about extensively, is the same one whose foundation's website I read a lot last year. I remember it because, altough it's a great organization that produces a lot of sensible information, they need a serious makeover. When I first went to their website, I thought they must be affiliated with the Dr. Bronner people but was pleasantly surprised.
Also, I found out last night that Michael Pollan is the brother of Tracy Pollan, Michael J. Fox's wife. Small world.
Finally, here's some reading to get you through your day:
- First a blog post: This is from my sister-in-law Darla's friends who live in Montana. They describe (in both text and photos!) their first experience slaughtering their own chickens. I haven't met these people but I think they are really neat. You'll see why when you realize that the post entitled 'chicken butcherin' day' is immediately followed by one called 'the contemplative element of love.'
- Google is using goats as lawnmowers. Here's a Chicago Tribune article about it. I really need to get into this rent-a-goat business.
- Also from today's Washington Post Home section has a fun read about big agribusiness kind of freaking out about the White House's organic kitchen garden and the inconvenient message it sends to people about the need for fertilizer and pesticide.
- Yesterday's Post Food section had an interesting article on sourdough starters. But the really exciting article was in the Style section, about a trip to Polyface. Why they didn't put it in the Food section I don't know. I can't believe I haven't visited Polyface yet. It's a little bit far with a baby, that's part of it I guess. I am hoping Adam can visit sometime soon and I can take him.
