In 1995, I started my first real job and, around 2PM, I had my first real lunch break. I went down to the food court, to Sbarro, and ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza. For every working day of the following year, I went to Sbarro, and had a slice of pepperoni pizza. After a year of that, I switched to Chik-Fil-A's chicken strips. After that, I switched to a bacon cheeseburger from Frank 'N Stein. After a year of that, I went back to Sbarro. I don't put a lot of thought into eating. I enjoy food that tastes good, but generally I feel like eating is an unfortunately necessary waste of time.
This year, I've thought more about food than I ever have before. Earlier this year, Leslie started a new blog: Call Me Vegan. Having devoted such a large amount of time to studying Buddhism, I've long considered vegetarianism to be a noble decision. However, I have always thought that veganism was just showing off ("Oh, you think you're a better person for not eating meat? Well watch this!"). This idea was aided by the fact that the majority of vegans I've encountered are assholes.
Reading Leslie's blog (Les not being an asshole at all) opened my eyes a bit, and staying with her and Charles earlier this year really did. I'm a meat eater, big time. In my mind, food that is not meat only exists to accompany meat, and I have a hard time imagining enjoying more than one meal a day that does not contain meat. So three or so days living with vegans was a trip. Meal after meal, I was surprised that I was enjoying it. Even when the two of them didn't think it was very good, I did.
So that's what got me thinking originally.
The next thing was a book called Food Rules by Michael Pollan. It was recommended by a co-worker and sounded interesting. At $11 and 140 pages, I thought it was overpriced, but I also thought there are worse things to overspend on.
Meanwhile, Jenny and Lisha had been gardening the hell out of our back yard. We'd been eating salad out of it for a while, and by the time I started the book, we were eating spinach, broccoli, and potatoes out of it as well. Completely by chance, I found myself practicing what I was reading.
One of the things that really gripped me about Food Rules was the mention of evolution. When I think of evolution, I think of this lineage, this chain from single-cell life to today's fish and monkeys and humans. Homo erectus became Homo sapiens. Except that's not the truth of it. Some Homo erectus became Homo sapiens, and others became lots of other things that died. Evolution does not mean we, as a species, eventually graduate to the next level; it means that we all change, most of us die. Some things work, some don't, and the things that don't, kill us. That's the point Pollan makes in his introduction: the current Western diet kills us, whereas in his research he has noticed some things about other diets that don't.
He makes it simple (no chapter is longer than two pages; many are a single sentence) and amusing (e.g., #18, "Don't ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap," or #36, "Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk"). At the end, I decided that this little book was well worth more than $11. I recommend it.
The next food-thought-inspiring thing was Jamie Oliver's TED Talk. Take the twenty minutes now to watch it. It sounds like a good chunk of time, but after I watched it, I watched it again. Plus, if you're reading my blog, you probably have the time to spare.
In his talk, Jamie Oliver is compelling and he demands a revolution in the best way. A new favorite quote of mine: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I think Jamie Oliver accomplishes this in those twenty minutes.
...killing & cooking...
