THE ELITIST BITE

THIS ONE IS A BIT LONG SO GET COMFORTABLE: When I was little I had a serious overbite, and I still own that overbite. For some unknown reason my parents never saw the need for braces? They probably never noticed? I did. How I noticed is the key point. Regularly someone would ask me to "eat quietly please!!!", and interrupt my reverie and love of food. Of course, being the "Monkey" in Chinese astrology that I am I would chew even louder and continue on my way. Monkeys are mischievous by nature. So, not unexpectedly, food became a form of expression for me, and a fascination. How different cultures honored food was of great interest. The motto "Food is Medicine",a Japanese scroll illustration, made so much sense to me that what I ate became an important factor in my personal health challenges. I was a frail child, and later in my twenties struggled to stay strong while eating excessive meat, drinking volumes of alcohol, and smoking two packs daily. Somehow on this journey I was encouraged by a remarkable woman in New York named Marion Tanner to change my evil ways. She was in her eighties and teaching yoga, raising a child dropped on her doorstep, and caring for less fortunate souls than she. I was immensely impressed and took her advice to try a vegetarian diet for a few weeks. Immediately my energy improved, my health improved and I liked the food choices which were much more numerous than the traditional diet. It worked for me. Later in this journey I became part of a wonderful restaurant that featured an exciting vegetarian menu. This was not "hippy food", but rather complex, masterfully executed menu items reasonably priced that provided a hugh variety of foods. Nutritionally the menu covered an exceptionally wide spectrum of food sources. Our patronage was wide ranging,and after some time we had to tighten our load and jettison much of our early-on business down the road to the "OM Cafe" (really) where they specialized only in a brand of 'non-dairy' food preparations with a Japanese flair. I became the bad guy for pushing out the food fetishists who always tortured our staff with a multitude of questions about the preparation and content of our recipes. We were almost completely 'Organic' and divided our menu into two categories of "Dairy", and " Non-Dairy" items and a full "Dairy and Non-Dairy" special daily. Virtually, any diet could be accommodated through this menu, but still the food fetishists couldn't grok the idea. It seemed to me that food for them was some kind of interface with society that allowed them a 'special' status. It had the feel of a religion, and not a source of joy, but belief. It annoyed me, and my basic push was that I had 'bigger polenta to fry'. Actually, many of these zealots looked and acted in unhealthy ways. They were wan, overly thin, joyless, often angry, souls.
Enter the ENVIORMENTAL MOVEMENT. Finally, we begin to see a cultural awareness of the holistic connection of our way of life and planet Earth. We also begin to see where we are disconnected and unwise in our collective and personal ecology. Gradually corporate America began to clean up its act, but the private household sector still wanted to maintain their consumer power and lifestyle choices even at the expense of the general good. Personal habits drive the engine. Only a small population group want to eat differently and consume differently. Over a short time this new pattern of eating began to catch on with an emphasis on health. This is a start. We began to connect the dots through the agency of the Enviormental Movement which showed us our intimate connection with the earth,air,water,animal life,plant life,etc. New aspects of biological science begin to develop. Nutrition becomes an important player in this change, and advanced degrees are offered. Slowly progress is made for the common man in our fortunate society. Still,even now, the poor are without choices other than Fastfood and over processed food. HOW TO MAKE BETTER FOOD SOURCES AVAILABLE TO GREATER NUMBERS OF PEOPLE IS THE QUESTION OF OUR TIMES. WIDER AND HEALTHER PROTEIN SOURCES ARE NEEDED. As human nature would have it there is always a segment of all movements that holds dear an elitist model to shore-up their insecure sense of self. This is happening even within the health conscious food movement. Because the dairy industry has contaminated cows with so many growth hormones, and other chemicals an elitist minority of healthy eaters rejects dairy as a nutritional source. Ignoring the idea that science, with the political will, could clean up this industry. This has become known as Veganism. One argument is that cows milk is for cows not humans. True, it is for cows, but can be broken down and "prepared" for human consumption as many older civilizations discovered. To make an even more 'erudite' argument from thier paltry fund of information they have created this new category of eating. Veganism has developed as a specialized eating cult. Vegetarianism is considered "old school". Shades of an "Ageist" agenda begin to emerge. Previously Vegetarianism was the category that defined a diet apart from the killing of animals. Those in that category were generally divided in two groups: Dairy and Non-Dairy. Of course, there were variations of eaters mostly based on ethnic preferences or regional preferences. So actually Veganism (non-dairy) is not new, but actually a political child of the Enviormental movement. Another rarefied branch of this elitist cult is the Raw Food idea. Of course,this is also not new (the prehistoric gatherers). Some of the expressions of this type of food preparation are wonderful and delicious, but rarely is any follower happy following this path for very long. Our bodies or maybe our tongues seem to want foods broken down by fire periodically. There are other ways to break down food with citrus and salt, but we have become enamoured by fire. This extreme element mirrors our extreme choices in life and works well protecting us from food born illnesses (see film "FOOD INC.). We no longer live under the fabled Coconut Palm Tree. A complex partial source of nutrition for seaside dwellers. I would propose that we no longer have the luxury of elitist thinking when there is so much knowledge and real science available to us to use for the betterment of our society and the planet in general. "Do what thou wilt,but do no harm" is the wise magical dictum, but Love must first be there. Then the teacher gently begins to encourage the student to 'do what they want'. Otherwise, without the greater Love there will be harm.