Dissecting a rat

My favorite philosopher, Alan Watts, once wrote that the moment you begin dissecting a rat it ceases to be a rat. For a rat is not an approximately X ounce creature with Y organs and skin of Z density. It is more then it's parts and it is more then what we understand enough to test, measure and calculate. So goes the carrot, the broccoli, the beef, the salmon and the shiitaki. And, of course, the homo sapiens. We readily admit our lack of understanding of certain complex human processes (how exactly does memory work?) but we are quicker to claim victory over digestion and nutrition. In truth, of course, you cannot put the beneficial elements of a carrot into a pill and digest the healthfulness of a carrot. For like the rat, a carrot is more then X percent water, Y percent vitamins like A and Z percent antioxidents like betacarotine. As time consuming and frustrating as it is to us wealthy Americans in such modern times, you just can't get the same benefits with a pill -- never. Sometimes it's because a pill gives you so much of a good thing it becomes a bad thing (it's hard to overdose on vitamines or antioxidents on carrots because you can only eat so many). Other times it is because we fail to appreciate how everything comes together. Yes, we need vitamin A, but is it also the presence of the fiber or something else (perhaps something we have yet to even discover) that allows us to absorb it properly? As Michael Pollan says in In Defense of Food, this is not a concern to the carrot eater. If there is one thing that is assured, it is that we will continue to realize our failure to appreciate the full complexity of food and digestion and as we continue to correct and alter our news stories, our supplements, our multi-vitamins (do we buy the ones with or without iron now?) we have to wonder -- why not just eat a freaking carrot? That's what the rat was doing before you started dissecting it.

Blueberries are good for you? Oh my!

I remember about a year ago standing in the elevators of the Sears Tower (it's still called that) and reading the little TV when a nutrition update popped up: Blueberries Are Good For You. Apparently they are high in vitamins, antioxidants and help reduce aging, improve urinary tract function, and a host of other things. How remarkable! Next thing you know we'll find out that bananas and apples are good for you too. How dumb are we as a country that we fall for this? That we are suddenly convinced that we had no idea blueberries were healthy and that now we know. You would be irresponsible not to eat them now I suppose. People may not ordinarily eat a lot of blueberries. They are highly seasonal and expensive in season -- very expensive out of season. They spoil easily. So now more people eat blueberries. One can only wonder who paid of this study. (A note on blueberries and pesticides: blueberries are actually one of the less plasticized fruits -- particularly berries -- and therefore if you're going to buy some fruits organic but not all you might skimp on these and get some fresh ones from Michigan. This isn't to say I wouldn't recommend buying organic (see more here). Pesticides associated with blueberries include known carcinogens and have been linked to reproductive and developmental effects -- think of little Johnny. More on that here.)

The truth is, or course, that we know fruits and vegetables are good for you. We know they provide varied health benefits, and because we know this, the only recommendation that stands up is to eat them when we can and to vary our diet. (Again on pesticides, keep this in mind with fruit -- peaches and strawberries are the two worst. A quick list is here.)

Now you might say we need help with this because some foods are better for us then others. Well this isn't really true when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Let's take two quick examples: avocados and iceberg lettuce.

Avocados are humorous for being the focus of a short-lived diet encouraging people to focus on eating avocados. This was until people realized an average avocado has 30 grams of fat (by comparison, an average tomato has about 3/10ths of a gram). People then decided it's best to avoid avocados. But then we were told it's not that simple. The fat in an avocado is a GOOD fat. Okay, so we can eat them but not only them. It took a lot of science and a lot of time to come back to the obvious common sense approach -- eat fruits and vegetables when you can and eat a varied diet. I'll ignore for now that links between high saturated fat diets and health problems have pretty much been proven to be bogus. (Shocking, I know. More on that another day.)

Iceberg lettuce hasn't made avocados come back. I actually feel bad for him. Iceberg has no nutritional benefit, right? That's common knowledge now. Well it happens to be wrong. Iceberg contains high levels of fiber, iron, B6, K, A, C and others. Sure, a leaf of kale will kick its butt any day in a spectrogram but that's not the point. We know kale is great for you but how often do you eat it? The point is also not to sit here and lecture with food science. Quite the opposite -- to show that food science is bogus. If you think iceberg tastes good you'll likely eat more of it and you'll likely be healthier for it. As we all know, eating a varied diet of fruits and vegetables is the key to health. Who could dispute that? But allow ourselves to be tricked by media outlets flooding our senses with nonsense.

Just remember, iceberg isn't quite as healthy in the wedge salad where it's drowned in creamy dressing.