Thank you all for your thoughtful comments both here on the blog and in person, responding to Tuesday's post about In Defense of Food. I loved hearing what you had to say! American attitudes about food are really demented, aren't they? (Photo: Panorama Orchards)
This comment from Sandy sums it up pretty well, I think. She writes,
"I am allergic to cow's milk, and as such cannot have cheese, ice cream, chip dips, cream sauces, butter, and so on. Yes, I am thin. I cannot tell you how many times people have said to me, 'You are so lucky!' Really? That's not how it feels to me as I watch you eat cheesecake."
Right. It's as if Americans basically expect to be overweight, and anyone who doesn't have to worry about being tempted by "sinful" offenders like cheesecake is to be envied. Too often, our thoughts about food and health boil down to, Will this make me fat?. Close behind that is, How can I get a cheap, convenient meal and get it over with?, which is often at odds with the making-you-fat question.
It's a common misbelief that healthy eating is expensive. Money is on everyone's mind these days, often blocking out thoughts of anything else. I'm certainly guilty of that. In the past year, my husband has been making the transition from unemployment to self-employment. So money's been scarce, and in the meantime I was working six or seven days a week to make as much income as possible, which meant my free time was even scarcer.
As Anthony started to bring more money in, and the seasonal schedule at my job changed, I cut back to working five days a week at the end of July. To my surprise, one of the things I felt like doing with this extra free time was preparing meals. During those months when, between my jewelry and the shop, I was working 12+ hours a day, Anthony was doing almost all the cooking for us. Even on my day off, we'd sometimes treat ourselves to a restaurant meal, just to go out somewhere together. So the chance for me to actually prepare a meal for us felt quite decadent to me, and I ended up thinking about food a lot. :)
The other main reason I started thinking so much about food this summer was that last summer was, in a word, horrible. Anthony lost his dad. A month later he lost his job. And in between, a bunch of other stuff happened that was relatively minor but also stressful at the time (e.g., broken air conditioner during a relentless heat wave). So this summer, I was determind to focus on the pleasant things about the season, one of the main ones being delicious fresh produce. Savoring the flavors of summer was really good for me in a lot of ways. Finding ways to make food that's inexpensive, delicious, nutritious, and not time-consuming has been tricky, but I think we've gotten pretty good at it.
Let's keep this conversation going! How do YOU decide "what's for dinner?" Do you base your choices on taste? On cost? On convenience? On what will or won't make you fat?
