'I hate to eat healthy'

Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix is an important part of a healthy diet, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When I recommended this food blog to a lawyer I met yesterday, he immediately came back with: 

"I hate to eat healthy."

From his conversation with others, I guessed that his wife is not much of a cook and that the most he could expect at home that night was a warmed-up meal from a nearby takeout place. 

When he was growing up, did his mother put a delicious, home-cooked meal on the table every night, as my mother did, fostering a life-long appreciation for good food?

I would imagine he has never stepped foot inside a food store or looked carefully at labels on the processed stuff that passes for food these days. 

Does he know that most of the poultry and beef sold in supermarkets was raised in horrible conditions on factory farms, pumped up with antibiotics and stuffed with feed containing bits of dead animals? 

Or that most salmon served in restaurants is artificially colored? 

He doesn't seem to care.

When I looked at this man, who appeared to be in his late 40s and wore a standard-issue, off-the-rack suit and a boring tie, he didn't really look that healthy. 

At one point, I said I had forgotten his last name and he told me he was "Joe Shmoe." That said it all. He probably shoves any old crap into his mouth.

"I hate to eat healthy."  Isn't that a ridiculous statement? That lawyer is out of order. Naturally raised food tastes far better than conventionally raised fare.

A salad of organic greens is so far above what is served in most places these days, it is a thing of beauty. 

(Indeed, we sent out for lunch and I couldn't finish a Greek salad delivered by a local deli: iceberg lettuce, crappy sliced tomatoes, no stuffed grape  leaves.)

Finding healthy food in supermarkets and on restaurant menus is so worth the effort. 

The feeling of well-being when you sit down to a great meal -- dining in or dining out -- cannot be matched by blindly stuffing your face. 

And an added bonus is gathering family or friends around you for a daily celebration of life.

Food coverage in The Record

In the Better Living section of The Record today, on Page F-1, 2 and 3, a staff written story on Jewish deli maven David Sax and a so-called 15-minute pork-chop recipe from the Chicago Tribune fail to discuss whether any of the meat was raised on factory farms with antibiotics, growth hormones or animal byproducts (bits of dead animals and kitchen scraps), or whether the hot dogs contain preservatives linked to cancer.


The paper's food coverage rarely discusses these issues, whether in a feature story, restaurant review or recipe. I've always been in favor of reviewing supermarkets, rating them on price and how much naturally raised food they stock. But For The Record, that might jeopardize sorely needed advertising revenue.

On Page L-10 of The Record, in business news, there's no mention in the Start-Ups column of whether the sea salt being promoted contains iodine, a necessary nutrient.