GLUTTONY IS GLAMOROUS!

Something on TV the other night disturbed me, and I didn't know quite what it was. I wasn't watching the Sci Fi channel or the evening news. I was watching a cooking show. I found this revelation astonishing, and it made me focus on what I wanted to accomplish with this blog. After all, I'm not selling anything. No juicer, no cookbook, no juicer paraphernalia or tee shirts with catchy phrases. I just want to advocate for juicing and exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle and share information with other people who have similar interests. Suddenly, I thought myself as odd. I was drawing conclusions about the commonalities of the juicer community and I had no counter framework to illustrate the subtle advocacy for an opposite behavior which could be a bad health practice. Smoking came to mind of course, and all the covert and overt advocacy I had witnessed in my lifetime since at least a half century ago, until someone actually said it can kill you, which, of course, was kind of like the moment where the young child yells out, "The emperor's got no clothes!"

In order to convince myself I was wrong, I either had to locate a "fat juicers" advocacy group or identify a circumstance where a harmful health condition was being advocated for monetary gain or as a consequence of unquestioned social standards. It didn't hit me until I watched a string of cooking shows. These shows all seemed dedicated, in one way or another, to titillating the viewer's palettes at a very low end of the nutrition spectrum, promoting not sensible eating but gluttony. Repeatedly, and without reservation, these shows encouraged viewers to brine meats; that is, to further salt the already chemically saturated candidates for consumption, and ignore calories by advocating recipes that call for copious amounts of sugar and fat. I saw people in all shapes, colors and sizes promoting what could only be called gluttony. From the thick-waisted southern belle to the "BAM!" guy to the peroxide-headed elf with the spiked hair who travels around to diners and drive-ins, they all seemed to be advocating for fat, sugar and simple carbohydrates. In fact, I could not find a single show that appeared to be at all sensitive to people who must watch their caloric intake or restrict sugars or salts. And, the unwritten message of these shows was -- "It is OK to eat like there is no tomorrow!" It felt like one step away from "I'd walk a mile for a cheesecake!"

I found this tacit acceptance of unhealthy eating most unusual because only a small set of people in the audience actually could have eaten what was prepared. The truth is anyone over 40 is already on a path to an altered diet if they heed the road signs. Salt reduction is an expectation to avert heart conditions. Anyone seriously overweight has to restrict sugars or risk type II diabetes. There are other health considerations as well, such as not eating seeds if you suffer from diverticulosis. Some of these shows come across as a kind of porn for food addicts, hawking the benefits of the four food groups of gluttony: salt, sugar, alcohol and lard. Why, I asked, was the landscape of cooking shows dedicated to such an unhealthy life style? And, how did this stuff get through network executives?

Then it dawned on me. These shows were less about cooking than about telling people it was okay to be fat and gluttonous. They were there to support the poor souls who have turned to eating and risky health as a way of coping: for escape and entertainment, for emotional comfort and distraction. These shows, like the shows and movies of the 50's that communicated that it was cool to smoke, are there to promote the status quo: the food industry and all their middle men specialists. I needed only to look to see who the advertisers were.

This all came to me as an epiphany! I was watching a show where a morbidly obese lady chef (about 300lbs) spent an hour showing how to cook a main dish with more calories that a body builder would consume in a week. I began to loosely count calories and got overwhelmed when she made a base with heavy cream, then added six sticks of butter to the broth with a little olive oil, sugar and a few (low calorie) fresh herbs! With each addition, she smiled as the waves of fat rolled over her arm while stirring, smacking her lips just in case we missed the idea that this stuff was "gooooo-oooood!" Contrary to popular opinion, it is not OK to be fat if you happen to be a chef. The truth is that an obese chef probably should be in a twelve step program somewhere. My next thought was that she should not be allowed to "smoke" in front of all the overweight kids in the audience, and then I got my bearings. This lady and what she represented was what was being sold on the show. She was a role model, the Michael Jordan of the kitchen, if you will.

According to network research, she must have been what the audience wanted or she would not be on the air. The program was the opposite of what a program for compulsive overeaters should be. Its theme song could probably be "Say it loud; I'm fat and I'm proud!" Its design was to promote gluttony like everything in the 50's was geared to promote smoking. What was so stark was the absence of concern for one's fellow man. They should have been telling the viewing audience what they already know: "Eat like this, and it'll kill you!"

I then saw why I was less than an inspirational speaker about juicing. People juice to feel good (Like George Carlin's monologue about baseball versus football. Eating right and taking care of yourself is like "gooooooooing hoooooome!" in baseball. Comforting. Reassuring.) And, as a result, we realize nutritional benefits. Juicing is not entertainment, nor is it glamorous like smoking used to be or dining is now, for those ascribing to the "cooking show life". It is but a tactic which can be used to habitually live and guide a healthy lifestyle. In fact, it is the ideal first step to a new way to cook, a new way to think about food and a new freedom from "the middle man". I have more to say about this topic, but that's in another episode of:

THE JUICED AVENGER!