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The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Action newsletter may have out-Ann-Arbored Ann Arbor with its endorsement of Mother Nature’s Goodies brand pie shells, which contain only whole-wheat flour, canola oil, “purified water” and sea salt. Why are we posting this? Because we’re out of town and bored. Does anyone else find CSPI’s “food porn” designation for products that don’t meet its nutritional standards to be emblematic of the puritanism that pervades their movement? Have we lost everyone yet?
The thing I find so funny/odd about the food puritains is that they usually don’t eat very healthfully. They, like most Americans, don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables and eat way too much fat, even if it’s not animal fat. They indulge their urge to eat well by not consuming pesticides but escape the need for self-discipline by violating pretty much every other principle of healthy eating (e.g. organic s’mores). Very Ann Arbor.
posted by Anna on December 31st, 2003 at 3:04 pmWhat I find funny is that neither the “food puritans” or their detractors (like Anna) seem to understand that food is eaten by real people, most of whom generally enjoy having healthier choices but also like indulging in stuff they know is bad for them (s’mores, of whatever variety).
posted by js on December 31st, 2003 at 4:33 pmVery few people are truly fanatical about this. And I say that having worked at a bastion of the Lesbian Food Fascism Front, the People’s Food Co-Op (where actual fanatics exist).
js
I object to joyless, parched, strained, over-seriousness in any movement, and it seems this nutrition newsletter is guilty of same. Food is one of the greatest pleasures in life; that includes wonderful (fatty) cheeses, succulent (fatty) meats, and exquisite (much-maligned) treats like a sip of really fine Scotch or a rich red wine. Silly to make a humorless fetish out of food…anyone who does is sentencing themselves to a shriveled, incomplete life stripped of the wonderful richness of delicious foods out there.
posted by Laura on December 31st, 2003 at 7:33 pmOh “food porn” is a bad thing? I just assumed it was good.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on December 31st, 2003 at 11:28 pmGASP! Are there are food fanatics in A2?
posted by cheese nacho gusto on January 1st, 2004 at 10:16 amlet the lesbians have their damn organic pie crust… just don’t buy the organic deodorant, it doesen’t work, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
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posted by elise on January 1st, 2004 at 3:44 pmOdd, out-of-place question, but this seems like the best place I know to ask it. Does anyone know of pubs in this town that underagers can go into in the evening (other than Good Time Charley’s)? I am going to have a little birthday get-together and it’d be nice if some of my underaged friends could attend also.
posted by Brandon on January 1st, 2004 at 8:46 pmActually, fuck the little kids. We’ll just go to Leopold’s– the seating situation there makes the most sense not knowing how many people will show up. Plus, I haven’t been there for like 6 months.
posted by Brandon on January 1st, 2004 at 11:45 pmI, umm, subscribe to Nutrition Action. It doesn’t affect what I actually end up eating, but I figure it’s nice to give some thought to nutritional matters once every month or so. The hope is that I’ll eventually progress to paying attention to such issues in general and eating healthier food. Ya gotta start somewhere…
I’d agree that CSPI sometimes goes overboard on the rhetoric, but I’ve seen worse. On the whole, the newsletter does a decent job of assembling and laying out the nutritional facts of whatever sort of food is being focused on in that issue. I’ve found their position to be less that the healthiest choice is always the best choice (they do skew towards recommending that way, but their reviews do take taste into account, too), and more that one ought to be able to make a fully informed decision, even when indulging. And that there ought to be better healthy options out there. All of which appeals to my liberal, marketplace-of-ideas sensibilities.
They’re also not completely out of touch with the public. The most recent “Right Stuff” approves of McDonald’s (test-marketed) Go Active Happy Meal and Burger King’s Lite Combo Meals. I don’t have the impression that this is because these options are nutritionally stellar in any context other than fast food joints, but, as they put it, “At least both chains are trying.”
I’m not really sure why I’m jumping to their defense here, but there you have it.
posted by Shmuel on January 2nd, 2004 at 2:56 am2 things puzzle me about this post:
posted by Nick on January 2nd, 2004 at 12:38 pm1) Ann Arbor generally has the most horrible food I could have imagined, so it’s hard to imagine anyone being fanatic about their choices there. For me, a healthy eating option in AA is anything that won’t give me a bacterial infection.
2) AAIO, you’re out of town and bored? Good God, get out and enjoy yourself - break will be over soon and you’ll be back in AA. You have to make the most of the time away from there, since God knows grad school doesn’t give you a lot of it. Now excuse me while I go out and eat French food and hear bands play.
Detroit (and by gross extrapolation AA / Ypsi) is now the nation’s fattest city (some Men;s Health stat).
posted by Leighton on January 2nd, 2004 at 2:22 pmIt is no revelation that here, there are no salad bars or decent places to get healthy, cheap food that doesn’t give bacterial stomach infections.
The best food we’ve had here for under $40 a plate was made in our house. Contrasting this with every other place we’ve lived and we weep.
One thing I’ll say about CSPI is that they stopped counting total fat grams as a measure of a food healthiness. I believe they used to do this. I’m also pretty sure that they never really admitted how outmoded an indicator it was, but maybe someone more familiar with Nutrition Action could confirm that.
The restaurants in A2 may not be particularly healthy, but that wheat-germ graham cracker recipe is pretty typical of a school of A2 thought that a whole-wheat pie crust takes to the nth degree.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on January 2nd, 2004 at 3:34 pmThere are assuredly some health food fanatics here, but it’s actually Ithaca that had (when I was there) THREE vegetarian restaurants in a city the size of Ypsilanti, with one of them being the insufferable national celebrity Moosewood, with food enjoyable only by fanatics. Ann Arbor, with triple Ithaca’s population, only has Seva.
Ann Arbor is a GERMAN town. When we moved here, there were three German restaurants downtown (Old German, Metzger’s, and Heidelberg). Long established places, waitresses with 25 years of experience, serving lots of meat and potatoes and heavy sauces. Restaurant faddism and healthy food fanaticism is all imported; it’s not authentic Ann Arbor stuff.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 2nd, 2004 at 4:49 pmAs a vegetarian I personally think Seva is a damned good restaurant, and even those who normally eat meat seem to think it’s good. In any case most every restaurant in this town makes it easy for me to eat– I’m not sure if it make me Annarbourish, but I’m sure I’d actually have a harder time in Ypsi. The restaurants in this town are one thing I do appreciate– the sheer variety as well as the vegetarian-friendliness. Where I grew up I’d never seen falafel or tasted curry, and I had to get by on french fries half the time when eating out. I can’t expect to have my dietary choices catered to, but I do enjoy it when they are.
posted by Brandon on January 3rd, 2004 at 12:14 amYou’re right, Nick - I’m back in A2 and wondering how on earth I could have been bored back in Chicago. No bands, but some good food while I was there.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on January 4th, 2004 at 12:49 amAAIO, don’t tell us Chicago is overrated???
posted by Boris on January 4th, 2004 at 11:37 amAnn Arbor (and by greater reasoning Ypsi) have good excuses for bad food choices because they are small towns.
posted by Leighton on January 4th, 2004 at 12:16 pmSeva and Dalat are trying their best for the slightly health-conscious. But it kind of defeats the purpose when you eat 5 fried spring rolls or 3 “macrobiotic” chocolate cakes.
I’d almost rather be fat in New Orleans or slightly skinnier (and broke) in San Francisco and at least have the benefit of good food. But AAIO could extrapolate to SFIO so easily for other reasons.
No criticism of Seva intended. And one of Ithaca’s veggie restaurants (ABC Cafe) was about the only place in that town where you could get food after 9pm. It was a favorite hangout among grad students for that reason alone.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 4th, 2004 at 12:31 pmFor a true picture of why AA is over-rated, try being a waitress at Seva. I liked being a customer there, but it was the worst place to wait tables in my long and distinguished food-service history. And not because of the management (they were cool).
posted by Anna on January 5th, 2004 at 10:11 amTo counter that, Anna, Seva is known for having some of the slowest, worst service in Ann Arbor, and has been for some time. Seva is vegetarian dining for those who take “slow food” literally.
posted by js on January 5th, 2004 at 12:44 pmjs
I don’t know what’s more absurd. The fact that I complain about a town in which I no longer live, or the fact that you keep posting the same insipid comments about my complaints.
posted by Anna on January 5th, 2004 at 5:26 pmHey, you’re not the only one who complains about former hometowns. I have posted plenty of gripes (here or elsewhere) about Chicago, East Lansing, Detroit and Ithaca.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 5th, 2004 at 7:08 pmThanks, Larry, I guess that answers the question, then.
And I suppose it is a good thing that I had a career as a professor to fall back on, since my career as a Seva waitress didn’t work out.
posted by Anna on January 5th, 2004 at 7:16 pmIt’s ok, Anna. The frenetic, super-charged world of vegetarian waitressing is not for everyone. It’s a glamour profession.
posted by Boris on January 5th, 2004 at 11:32 pmBoris- from eating at Seva’s, you’d think so.
posted by js on January 6th, 2004 at 10:21 am