Friday, September 23, 2011

Food for Thought

I just finished Marcella Hazan's autobiography, and while I'm not completely in love with the book I liked what she had to say about American grocery stores and how the produce that is available affects what and how we eat:

At my local Publix or Whole Foods now, when I feel the rock hard peaches and pears, or I try to pick up a scent from the unforthcoming melons, when I bring home green beans or zucchini that have little more taste than the water with which they have been abundantly irrigated, not to mention the times that the musty smell of long storage forces me to discard what I have just bought, I think of the fragrance and juicy sugary flesh of the primazaro's fruits, of the concentrated flavor of his vegetables, and I wonder why we in America can't have better-tasting produce. Why aren't we showing the people who raise our produce how to be better farmers? Not necessarily organic farmers, or more efficient farmers, just plain old cultivators of good food. If our vegetables had taste and cooks were shown what they need to do with them, which is very little, everyone would eat more vegetables. Italians don't eat as many as they do because a government agency or the press tells them how healthy it is for them. They eat them because they taste so good. It is through irresistibly good taste - never mind "organic" or other fashionable categories - that food makes people happy and healthy.
As someone who likes to eat lots of fruit, vegetables, and fresh herbs but doesn't have the money to even shop at musty old Whole Foods, I am constantly disappointed by the mediocre quality of the comparatively inexpensive produce I buy. Sadly, even if I do spend a lot it rarely makes a difference, unless I am getting my produce from a local farmers' market. I find it really frustrating both that I can't get good quality produce, and also that eating healthfully has become so demonized in America. Eating healthy foods, lots of vegetables and fruits and fresh homemade meals is great! It tastes great and makes you feel great. If that's not good living then I don't know what is. (And I certainly don't think that eating a ton of really unhealthy processed foods all of the time qualifies).

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