Toledo Tin Chefs

I am so confused

// July 29th, 2010 // Blog

So what should we eat???  Really?

I just finished eating a tomato sandwich with arugula, mozzarella cheese, mayonnaise (made with olive oil), kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper on fresh Italian bread.  It was spectacular.  I bought the tomatoes at a little road side stand.  No matter how much I try, I can almost never find tomatoes that really taste good anymore.  Not like the ones I remember as a kid.  Not like the ones my dad and I grew in the backyard.  Why?

I bought some water melon today from the grocery store.  My wife Carolyn is a little peculiar when it comes to water melon.  She hates water melon.  Well, she hates American water melon, which in reality is probably from Mexico or some other far corner of the world.  But she loves Italian water melon.    Come to think of it, I am not sure I like “American” water melon either.   The stuff I bought wasn’t all that great.   A long time ago, I was in Naples, Italy working at the Naval Hospital there.  Carolyn came to visit and we bought slices of water melon from a street vendor.  His truck was parked between the US Naval Support Activity and the NATO base.  It was a big sweet water melon sitting on a huge block of ice.  He cut each of us a slice and collected sixty zillion Lira, which if I remember was about 30 cents American at the time.  It was incredible.  Although I would never admit this to Carolyn, she is right.  (I would hate to have to turn in my man card.)  Never the less, Italian watermelon is way better than anything I have had here recently.  So where has all the good food gone?

This also made me think about what we eat and what we should be eating.  As a cardiologist, people always ask what they should eat and how to improve their diets.  I have never really had a good answer.  It seems that everything that I have been told about food since medical school has been wrong.  Salt is bad for you, don’t eat red meat, eat this, don’t eat that, eggs will kill you.  The good news is all of the stuff that I refused to give up, because I was young and invincible, may have been the right stuff after all.

Back to the tomatoes.  Did you know that most tomatoes that you buy at the local grocery store are picked green.  They are then stuck in a room with ethylene oxide, which turns them red, but never really ripens them.  This way that will last longer to allow them to be transported and stored for months.  There is never time for nature to concentrate the natural sugars and flavors.  In essence you are eating a green tomato that looks red, but it’s not ripe.  I am not sure, but I bet that has something to do with watermelons as well.

Thinking about this further, I wonder what else they do to our food.  I have looked into this recently.  I am no means an expert, but I do know what good food taste like.  I go to our local grocery store every day and buy “fresh” produce.  They have an amazing selection of the usual stuff, as well as all kinds of exotic things I never saw when I was a kid.  And they have it year round!  But is it healthy, and does it taste good?

Our country has perfected mass farming.  If you drive around places like southern California, you’ll see miles and miles of fields mass producing produce.  There are huge trucks and tractors adding just enough fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to give a bumper crop that looks pretty, stands up to disease, and will last for weeks as it finds its way to your table.  Somehow I think we are missing something.  Growing healthy fresh vegetables requires more than water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.  There are all kinds of micro nutrients that are missing.  It’s just not the same as what I grew in our back yard garden.

Have you ever noticed that the Government will come out and say something like you need more beta carotene or omega 3 fatty acids or some other component or chemical in food to be really healthy.  Then, some health supplement company will come out with a jar of pills that will protect you from cancer, or improve your memory and make billions.  I have patients who come in with a list of 30 supplements that they take, who spend hundreds of dollars a month on these supplements, then croak from a heart attack.  It’s funny, but if they would eat a banana, it would be better for them and a hell of a lot cheaper.  Even vitamin C has become a victim.  I cannot think of one study that has shown that taking a chemical supplement has worked in our favor.  It doesn’t make sense, because we know you need vitamin C and all of the other stuff.  The problem is we can’t make or reproduce what nature has given us.  God put all of this stuff on Earth for a reason…  You need to eat fish, not a pill with omega 3 fatty acids.  You need to eat fruit, not vitamin C tablets.  It’s the micro nutrients or phyto-nutrients that we are missing, just like the mass produced produce we grow in this country.

But you never hear the government saying eat more apples or fish.  They say eat less saturated fats or hydrogenated fats.  Know why?  Why are we so focused on individual chemical substances in food as opposed to the whole thing.  It’s really a big government conspiracy.  Really, it is.  A long time ago scientist noticed that people that ate too much red meat seemed to have more health problems.  So a well intentioned politician from a state with a very large cattle industry came out and said Americans need to eat less beef.  Needless to say, he was voted out of office and his political career was all but over.  Politicians aren’t stupid, so they changed their tune to eat less saturated fat.  Pretty safe, but spineless.  And ever since we talk about chemical components of food rather than the whole thing, lest we offend someone.

With due respect to PITA, we need meat.  We need wholesome, fresh vegetables.  The good news is good food is finally back in fashion.  We are finally in an era when chocolate and wine are considered health foods.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

So what should you eat?  I have a couple of simple rules.  Start with the wine and chocolate.  Just additional proof that there is a God.  A glass or two of wine a day…doctors orders.  Beans- another great food, rich in protein and flavor.  I am not talking about canned green beans either.  Garbanzo beans and countless other varieties to enjoy and eat several times a week.  Olives and olive oil- a little every day.  In reality you can get by with two cooking oils, olive oil and canola oil.  Both are healthy and good for you.  Don’t forget fresh fruits and vegetables, eat lots of them.  These are most of the key ingredients in the Mediterranean diet by the way.  I am not saying anything new- it’s been around for thousands of years.

I am starting to buy more and more organic foods too.  It’s not that I am worried about what’s in the fertilizers that are used, but really what’s not in them.  We need those complex phyto-nutrients that I believe we are missing in the local grocery store.  Same with the massive chicken breast that are pumped full of steroids and antibiotics, just stay away.  I guess I’m a small breast guy after all.  Nuts, again another nature’s super food- a few servings a week.  And then there is meat and seafood.  It’s OK, in moderation, it’s not a problem.  Just make sure that you eat all of the other stuff.  I know the organic stuff is more expensive, but you really get what you pay for.

Equally important is what you shouldn’t eat.  Stay away from processed food.   If you stay on the outside perimeter of your grocery store you will stay out of trouble.  Think about it, that’s where the produce, fish and meats, dairy and other fresh foods are located.  Watch CNN lately? Now the government is out for salt.  Salt taste good and improves the flavor of a lot of food.  It’s been used for millions of years and man can’t live without.  The problem is in our mass produced society, huge amounts of salt are added to processed food.  Just stay away from it.  Use low salt (sodium) products and add salt to taste.  And don’t waste your money on sea salt.  It’s no healthier for you than plain old salt, despite what the Campbell’s Soup guy says.  Salt is salt with one exception- the colored sea salts.  They are very expensive and contain sediments from the region they were recovered.  That sediment gives an added flavor and provides the color.  But the salt part is still just salt, good old sodium chloride.  I like kosher salt- same stuff with bigger crystals, so it’s crunchy and the flavor burst in your mouth.  But it is just salt.

So, visit your local farmers market, try to buy fresh produce, organic when you can.  Grab a glass of wine and cook dinner.  Cook good food, add a pinch of salt and enjoy life.  One final thought.  The French are famous for their cooking and foods.  It’s rich, delicious and filled with all kinds of “unhealthy” things like cream, butter, eggs and salt.  The French also smoke like fiends- yet we Americans have a much higher death rate from cardiovascular diseases.  I am not condoning smoking, but I am condoning eating well, enjoying life, drinking wine, avoiding processed and fast food and living a long healthy life.

DISCLAIMER:  I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to PITA, the mega farms and farmers, fertilizer makers and sellers, the fast food industry, the nutritional  supplement and vitamin makers and sellers, spineless politicians, Campbell’s Soup and the big guy banging on pans,  and anyone else I may of offended on the way.  If you are one of the groups endorsed by this posting, we are looking for sponsors, free food or anything else we can get, call me!  Tin Chef Chuck