I belong to the earth

Robert H. Lustig: What’s wrong with the American diet? March 29, 2010

“Let food be your medicine” -Hippocrates
“We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun.” -George Orwell

I’m stubborn about what I eat. Food for me is not just fuel for the body but health, sentiment, pleasure, culture and an entity whose production & access continues to guide politics throughout the world.

I refuse to eat all processed food that contains high fructose corn syrup and I try to avoid dairy products because I think they mess with my hormones (and milk is for babies!) I also try to avoid soy because I don’t consider it a “healthy” alternative to meat or carbohydrates…. it’s just a cheap filler used in processed food. My ancestors did not eat soybeans so chances are that my instinct that I don’t digest them properly is correct. So my staples are: raw salads, fruit, nuts, oils, bread, butter, and occasionally potatoes, rice and fish.

So when I go out there’s always a personal dilemma I experience about what I’ll eat. But talking about my diet has always discomfited me. It seems so obvious that people should eat whole foods that when I try to explain my reasons I am overwhelmed by an ineffable and steadfast fanaticism. And so here is a speech by Dr. Robert H. Lustig about the ill-effects of high fructose corn syrup, the misguided obsession over fat and ill-health, and the political intrigues of the 20th century that transformed the way we eat in America….