February 17, 2004
Too Much Advice... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes."
I remember being pregnant with my first child. As happens with first pregnancies, I scoured every piece of information I could find. My husband finally tired of the constant discussion, and said, "Look - if anybody says not to do something, don't do it."
That stopped me in my tracks. You see, if I actually did that, I would be reduced to a daily intake of the carefully extracted insides of organic apples, two unleavened crackers and all the de-ionized water I could drink.
Somehow, I had to make to a decision. I had to decide who was right and who was wrong. I had to meld my doctor, the scientific studies, the baby magazines and even the admonitions of my mother - a cacophony of input, ringing in my ears. And as a first-time mother, I had not yet learned that the odds were this would all proceed to a successful conclusion, more or less without me.
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Ever since, I've been wary of any instance which presents a plethora of advice, and what we Americans should eat is a case in point. In fact, it has been for decades.
The 1960's birthed the pre-Atkins rage called "The Drinking Man's Diet." (You've got to appreciate the pre-politically-correctness of a man's diet, not to mention the social agreement that women either didn't drink or would want to diet in this fashion.)
Later, there was the USDA diet switch from judiciously spreading yourself across all five food groups to climbing a food pyramid. Not only was this anti-Atkin's, it turned out that alcohol wasn't even remotely a food group. And while we were loading up on the legumes - whatever they are - we were eventually inculcated with the idea we should be consuming eight glasses of water a day.
Have you ever tried to drink eight glasses of water a day? OK then, were you able to do it for three days in a row? Maybe, you're an athlete or live in a place that's hot, hot, hot, which works, because now a nationally-recognized nutrition panel has declared we need only drink water when we're thirsty.
Well, I'll be ...
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So, let's take a step back. The United States is a conglomeration of cultures. We eat Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, French, Thai, and the list goes on. Many time we don't even realize we're eating a direct descendant of one of these cultures, modified by modern cooking methods and saddled with adaptive ingredients. Just like America itself, our eating culture is young and untested.
And then there's science. It largely reduces human food intake into its microscopic components - vitamins and minerals, calories and carbs, fats and anti-oxidants. Then it adds these all up into a sum total picture of what we eat and tries to predict fat vs. thin, high cholesterol vs. low, blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and the rest.
There may be a scientific correlation, but the truth is - even armed with the truth, people don't live this way. Food is about life. Food is about enjoyment and friends and family. It's about our need to love and be loved. The dietary notion that we should and can separate food from love is - to me - senseless.
So, I say - without any scientific basis whatsoever - work out the best life you can - emotionally sustaining, positively supporting, engaged and happy. Either cook great food with great ingredients, or eat great food you can trust.
You don't need science to tell you, it's a heck of a plan.
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
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