‘Food’ Archives
June 2010 Food Obsession: No Waste or No Waist
by Jane Thomson It is criminal to waste food ”“ so thought my late husband, grandmother, and mother-in-law. My mother, on the other hand, said it was good manners to leave a little food on your plate. Surprisingly, so does Michael Pollan in his new book Food Rules (do not pay $12 for this book). I am in the middle on this issue: I know that gross waste of food is very wrong. I also think that cleaning your plate when you are already full is a double waste, first of the food and then of your figure and your health. The waste needs to be curbed earlier. Don”'t buy more than you can use or preserve and smell it later, rotting at the back of your fridge. At meals, don”'t overload your plate, as in “my eyes were bigger than my stomach” (eat it all, and soon they won”'t be). If you are at an “All You Can Eat” restaurant, load up on vegetables and protein foods. They are the most expensive anyway, so you will get your money”'s [...]
“Food Obsession”: IMBY Eating
by Jane Thomson We all know what a “NIMBY” is: someone who says “Not In My Back Yard” about having an objectionable facility near her home. But for some good, inexpensive and interesting eating, you might look to your back yard. If your yard is sunny, you might plant vegetables; but that is an article I will leave for a more knowledgeable person to write. You might have something yummy already on your property and not be aware of it. There are many mulberry trees in Phillips. Often the berries are left to fall on the ground and rot for most of the summer. The berries taste like (expensive) blackberries ”“ “better”, my granddaughter says. Pick all the berries you can reach; or use a sturdy ladder; or spread an old sheet on the ground and shake the branches with a broomstick. Also, you might have some rhubarb back there somewhere. It is a perennial and comes up untended for years. Or get some at the Midtown Public Market or at the Midtown [...]
“DEAR PARENT, YOUR CHILD IS FAT”
By Jane Thomson Above is the gist of a message that would have been sent home a couple of years ago in a harebrained plan to combat childhood obesity. Now, Michelle Obama is on the problem, and at least, she will do no harm. I was a fat child; it was not fun; and guess what ”“ my parents had noticed without being informed. When I was ten years old, after years of nagging, my mother gave me, as part of my Christmas present, a pocket-sized calorie reference book with a dial on the front to count my daily calories. The timing must have been right, as instead of hurting my feelings, the book intrigued me. I ate a lot of cantaloupe that summer, and Junket (comparable to today”'s instant sugar-free pudding mix made with skim milk). When I went back to school the following fall, I was no longer fat and clumsy, but thin and clumsy. What causes childhood obesity? I will add to the condemnation of junk food and soda advertising - cigarette companies are hardly alone in trying [...]
