Roots (? ) Or, is it Tops (?) Looking Back

JUICE CITY CHRONICLES

Travel with me back in time. The year is 1952. World War II is over, the Korean War has begun. Many advances in science and marketing have yet to exist. For instance, when it comes to automobiles, it's still possible for a shade tree mechanic to tune up his own car without professional help. If, say, he needs new points, he can go down to the local Western Auto store, buy them for a nominal fee, and put them in himself. But in the year 1972, the proud owner of a newer car will not be able to do this as easily. Soon, he may have to purchase an entire distributor for about $450. By 1992, he will have been technologically extricated from servicing all but the most trivial aspects for maintenance of his own vehicle. And for most of those tasks, there will be specialists, such as guys who just change oil, and they will offer alternatives to maintaining a car at a price just above the cost of doing it yourself. Slowly, our shade tree mechanic will have unknowing turned over the servicing of his own auto entirely to subcontractors. This arrangement will add a number of middlemen——who must be paid——to the process. And in so doing, it will create the delusion that specialization equals progress.

Also in the year 1952, the shade tree mechanic and his wife have a little garden in the back —— tomatoes, bell peppers, radishes, lettuce, parsley, chives, peppermint, rhubarb——and when they go to the grocery store together, they shop at the one that shares its space with a hardware store because it used to be a general store. And while there, they pick up whole grain cereal and bread and talk directly to a butcher, who can sell them inexpensive cuts of meat if they know what to ask for.

Fast forward to the present century. We busy, busy, busy people no longer need to cook, as long as we have a microwave or a hot plate. We can just take what the store sells us, warm it up and pop it into our mouths without even a second's notice of what's in those foods, and it's all just so convenient! Or even better. Say we don't have a microwave, since the process of even just heating up food has become too cumbersome, we can get the hot meal already prepared by the restaurant franchise or the grocery store and cart it home. This thinking permeates even our children's education! Ever since Ronald Reagan declared that potatoes and catsup were two vegetables, school cafeterias have been shifting rapidly from purveyors of balanced and healthful meals to "greasy spoon" slop chutes offering fries, burgers and soda pop! No wonder we're turning into an obese nation! We are told that, in order to become physically fit and healthy, we must join a health club, pay for a trainer, and embark on a rigid program of diet and exercise. And the same "advances" that made us subservient to the automotive specialists have given us highly refined and processed foods filled with additives that do nothing to promote our health. They now kill most of the beneficial living organisms in the product because dead food lasts a lot longer before they have to throw it away.

The reason I tell us this is because that's what I'm avenging: all those people who've been wedged themselves between us and the farmer, ourselves and our own health. People who've decided for us——whether we like it or not——what's "best" for us. They have added potassium sorbate, calcium disodium EDTA (a substance used in the nuclear industry to chelate radioactive nuclides), monosodium glutamate, Polysorbate 60, maltodextrin, citric acid, high fructose corn syrup and (you know I'm just scratching the surface here), et cetera! I'm talking about all those people whose major——and perhaps only——consideration is how long the product can be preserved before it goes completely bad and, therefore, can no longer be sold to an unsuspecting customer.

So that's who I am: the Juiced Avenger. I get personally juiced by exercise, by juicing raw fruits and vegetables, and by helping other people learn how easily they can do the same thing! If you want to see how I changed from being a mild-mannered consumer into a crusader for a more sane approach to health and nutrition, stay tuned for the next episode of --

THE JUICED AVENGER!