As a septuagenerian I continue to enjoy the sort of foods that my mother and her mother ate right to the end of their lives, each spanning almost a century. Words like “vegetarian and vegan” or “mono or poly-unsaturated” never appeared in their culinary lexicon, but they knew how to fry their morning bacon, eggs and slices of milk and egg yolk soaked bread, in generous lumps of lard whilst above the fireside range hung a blackened kettle ever-ready to fill fist-sized mugs with what would have been teeth-staining tea were it not for the cream of the milk. As children our bed-time treat comprised slices of hot buttered toast annointed with lashings of beef-fat known as dripping. To run out of sugar would have us scurrying to the neighbours even though I now reflect that perhaps our childhood addiction to that ubiquitous white substance might also rival that of some of today’s offerings.

Personally I do not want to have to take my spectacles with me whenever I go to the local super market. Boxed ready meals with a laundry list of ingredients are not for me, neither are siilo-sized plastic bottles of diet drinks which weary, waddling, waist-bulging shoppers always seem to have in their shopping trolleys. But I do head for the cheese counter and here in the UK am fortunate enough to be able to buy unpasteurised French Normandy Camembert that when ripened smells like a postman’s socks. I also can purchase unpasteurised, full fat cheddar cheese with a tang that fights with your taste buds and always wins. Margarines and processed oils I avoid like the plague. Home made chutneys are always in my store cupboard for they lift the most mundane of fayre. Farmed fish has undoubtedly brought species such as salmon to the table of many of us and that is surely not to be decried, although my personal preference is for a sizzling sardine or a plump mackerel. I hasten to add that that preference, surprise, surprise, is predicated not by EPA or DHA but simply by TASTE.

I am fortunate enough to have a near-by source of pasture fed chicken eggs and might eat as many as a dozen, each and every week. To pile horror upon horrors, I also love fat-laiden, free-range belly pork, none of which, incidentally, has seen my dress size increase from a life-time size 8 nor any diminution in my ability to enjoy long country walks with a posse of long-legged lurchers.

The stress of modern life styles may well play an important part in the etiology of the diseases that seem to plague modern societies and we are all, for the most part, inescapably woven into the fabric of that society. Each era and ensuing generation adds to that weave but I do sincerely believe that some of the older versions are less threadbare than some of the newer ones.

Did it make you feel good to come in here and “enlighten” these people? Get a life.

Diets – specifically, diet composition – appears to have virtually no impact on life expectancy in the affluent world. The fried-junk and Kraft-dinner eating overweight Canadian males have higher life expectancies than olive oil and vegetable-downing Italians at the age of 60. Dairy-fat loving Swiss and Swiss live longer than Greeks and Spaniards. The differences in longevity in the affluent world are relatively minor, anyway, despite fairly significant differences in diet. Another reminder that access to a good doctor and clean water are far, far, FAR more important than what you eat.

Obesity – especially morbid obesity – does appear to be connected to shortened life spans, but otherwise, eating fast food daily while maintaining reasonable weight would be about as healthy as eating brown rice with steamed vegetables. Scream and holler with indignation all you like. Total mortality and life expectancy statistics speak for themselves. Butter-and-sugar people live longer than olive oil-and-tomato people.

Red meat is health food, and so is saturated fat.
A “vitamin” is just a molecule, identical in pills and vegetables.
Medicinal, health benefits of most “naturopathic” plants appear to be non-existent in placebo controlled, double-blind studies. Quite likely the same is true of the much touted “phytonutrients” in fruits and vegetables.

But by far the most important lesson is that food must be ENJOYABLE, fragrant, delicious, made with the best of ingredients and, hopefully, by the finest of cooking talent. It is unsurprising that America, the land of some of the crappiest food in the world, is also breeding grounds for all sorts of eating disorders, ideological food-related preening, and food neuroses.

You, unfortunately, are one of the victims – and, with this blog – perpetrators of eating disorders. Trying to exclude entire delicious food groups – like red meat – from your diet due to idiotic vegan propaganda or misplaced fears – shows me quite plainly that you CANNOT be a foodie. Gourmandise and food neuroses are quite incompatible.

Eat well, eat all the delicious things in the world with no fear, drop the delusion that you can possibly eat for health (apart from overeating), and enjoy yourself.

I’ve seen research about the selenium content in fish being protective against potential mercury. (Also, another great reason to eat nuts, right?) — what are your thoughts on this?

We may be reaching that point where americans start to live
healthier lives.