Gastropodiatry

Puzzling out the personal life of a famous food critic can be hazardous to your cherished impressions. I’ve just tripped over (I’m still not technically savvy enough to have “Stumbled Upon”) Regina Schrambling’s blog gastropoda.com, and it’s a little too revealing. I wonder if she’s obsessing sincerely about the sorry state of food journalism today, or bitter toward those who still have solid writing gigs at the major newspapers (I know I am), or whether she just hasn’t noticed how far she’s gone in the direction of the classic rant blog. Throughout, you can discern the deep frustration of someone who does her own homework and legwork, and sees less and less of that career dedication in a field she regards as intellectually worth the effort as the times roll on. Gastropoda is Schrambling’s “Howl”.

Thanksgiving Vegetariots, or, How Can You Have Any Pudding If You Won’t Eat the Meat?

The idea of vegetarians at the Thanksgiving table seems to throw everyone from newspaper food columnists to my mother-in-law and even Top Chef contestants way off their game, even in California. The world’s cuisines are full of good vegetarian protein dishes, and some of them are pretty easy to make on the fly. So maybe it’s time to feed the people and stop worrying about who eats turkey and who doesn’t.

Smart Choices Labeling Program Falls Apart

Smart Choices has been suspended only about two months after going live, and participants like PepsiCo have pulled out altogether.The great surprise for me is how little real effort it took to shut down the fantasy-laden program. Three or four years ago it might well have prevailed. Smart Choices is obviously a big and publicly important target, but on the other hand, it seems to have been exposed and skewered satisfactorily already by public reporting of the Froot Loops fiasco. The FDA can ride the crest and put the final touch on it, but it’s gotten a huge boost this time from public opinion.

Ag School: the New Farming vs. Big Agro

Threatening to withdraw a big-ticket donation just because Michael Pollan gives a talk at the university might not be the best way to convince the world of Harris Ranch Beef Co.’s intentions toward the public or of its ethical business practices. More importantly, it might not be the best way to present the beef industry to students at the Ag school. Ironically, big agribusinesses like Harris Ranch probably need the kind of fresh thinking and research on sustainable practices that Cal Poly-SLO and other agriculture schools are starting to produce. I wonder what would have happened if the chairman had looked at the university’s sustainability research as an opportunity rather than a threat.

The Case Against Bologna

In today’s Washington Post, columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget comments on Oscar Meyer’s claim that a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich has nothing on a classic bologna sandwich for health. Their contention is that the bologna sandwich is healthier because it has only 4 grams of sugar, and somewhat less total fat. Obviously Oscar Meyer is trying to play up its few nutritional points and hide its glaring weaknesses–most of the processed food players have been doing this aggressively for years now. We’re mostly inured to it, and frankly we expect bologna to be high-salt and kind of fatty. No big surprises there. So let’s get back to the main strangeness of this comparison and ask the key questions: How could peanut butter possibly have more protein than bologna? Isn’t bologna meat? What’s going on?

Food as Barometer

The past week has seen a number of shock waves go through the food world. Gourmet magazine’s announced closing yesterday is the latest and the one with the best PR. But Gourmet isn’t the most important food barometer, particularly because it represents a shrinking target audience at the top of the food chain, as it were. The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food supplement program has just changed to allow low-income participants to buy fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grain foods with the credits.

Can Better Nutrition Curb Violence?

Researchers have set up a large double-blind study at a prison in Scotland to test the possible effect of nutritional supplementation — vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids — on lowering the frequency of violence. If the study does show a real connection between malnutrition and violence in prisons, it may also have implications for school cafeteria food offerings and the fate of American civility under a massively processed diet.

The Meaning of “Tasty”

Everyone from food industry veteran Hank Cardello (see the Stuffed book review) to NYU nutrition professor Marion Nestle in What to Eat talks about fast food and junk food as “tasty”. Either they mean they find processed food tasty or they mean they think everyone else finds it tasty and irresistible–even if there’s something better to eat. That’s kind of defeatist, isn’t it? If everyone “knows” fast food is tastier than fresh produce, what hope is there for mainstream Americans to eat healthier than they do today? The ugly assumption they’ve bought into is that people who eat mostly processed food can’t change, won’t change, and most importantly, wouldn’t like fresh food if they tasted it. But no matter what you normally get to eat or what neighborhood you come from, if you can get out to an open air market, or grow something with your neighbors in a community garden, you’ll want to taste the produce. The fast-food version of “tasty” gets knocked aside in an instant for the real thing.

You want fries with that?

With the return to school, public debates over what children should eat have intensified. Nobody seems to have trouble zeroing in on french fries as the worst offender. Are fries really that bad, or just taking a bum rap? Can they be part of a balanced lunch at school, or are they insidious grease-and-salt bombs masquerading as a vegetable side dish? Thanks to the new New York City and California nutrition labeling laws, we finally have the tools to get their number.

Smart Choices Checkmarks–Corrupt Before They Ever Hit the Cereal Box?

The new industry-led Smart Choices nutrition labeling program, headed by a nutritionist with impressive enough credentials, has awarded healthy choice status to heavily sugared cereals like Froot Loops because, as she explains, they’re a better breakfast choice than, say, doughnuts. For sure. How could items like Froot Loops end up qualifying as a smart choice? Take a look at the Smart Choices program nutrition criteria.