“Is it real or is it fake” is one of my favorite games to play with my grandchildren. Here I am using it to pose a question about the food that you /we eat.
I had an out-of-town customer from California return to Springfield this week for the first time in 6 months. When he came into the Pub I was standing by a table talking with some regulars. His first words were, “Hi there, you’ve lost a lot of weight.” One of my regulars sitting at the table joined in, “Yes, Bill. You look great and so healthy as well.”
This got me to thinking, and I went back and checked out some old photographs and diary entries. The photographs I am keeping to myself!
The day we opened Farmers Gastropub (October 19 2009), I weighed 253 pounds. This morning on the same bathroom scales I weighed 185 pounds, a difference of 68 pounds.
Which diet plan have I been using? None at all!
In fact my other chefs think it hilarious that my favorite snack is a chip (French fry) sandwich, and they call one of my regular meals of sausage, eggs and chips eaten with bread and butter “Bill’s heart stopper!”
And, I get to sample everything we have on our menu by tasting every day.
My doctor would have to disagree about the “heart stopper” though; he has seen my blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels tumble along with my weight.
So how can this be? Without the latest diet craze, magic supplement, diet pill or diet shake, how have I lost all this weight and 10 inches off my waist?
The answer is twofold. First, I have a more active lifestyle than with my previous job. I am on my feet more and walk more, but the real kicker is that I only eat real food!
To quote Michael Pollan in his book Food Rules, “Eat real food not food-like substances.” http://michaelpollan.com/books/food-rules/
I eat in the Pub 80% of the time, and when we cook at home the ingredients come from the same farmers that supply the food to the Pub. Christina and I are regulars at the farmers market and Mama Jeans. I do drink lots of our house-filtered water along with the odd pint or glass of wine or two. We do have the occasional meal elsewhere, but I always feel yucky the day after, even when the food looks and tastes great. My body just rejects foods contaminated with hormones, steroids, MSG and other chemicals, and I feel lethargic and just plain yucky for about 24 hours.
The bottom line is that I am a dyed-in-the-wool foodie; I am passionate about food quality, not just in how it is served but also what is in it—that means knowing where it comes from. I pride myself on being able to tell all our customers where everything on their plate comes from.
When I watch the TV (not very often), I am shocked by all the ads for diet pills and prescription drugs. I am offended by the programs promoting health and beauty that promise a quick surgical or chemical fix, and I am appalled by the news reports on obesity or other illnesses with no reporting or challenging why the pandemic is occurring.
Yes, the information is out there but it isn’t being reported. You have to go looking for it.
When I talk to our local farmers they are worried about existing and coming legislation that favors industrial monoculture farming over their localized small scale and diverse cultivation model. They are worried about seeds that are GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), and if they have been fully tested to be sure there is no risk of devastating failure in our future. The meat producers are hampered by FDA rules that are different for the small producer and processor than they are for Cargill or Tyson.
I was born in England, have lived and worked in France, and traveled in Europe and beyond for both work and vacations, all the time pursuing my passion for food. I have eaten all kinds of food, but never without first finding out what it was that I was eating.
Being informed or educated about the food we eat isn’t elitist or snobbish. It is just plain good sense.
It isn’t hard to do; just ask questions—at the farmers market, in the grocery store, in the restaurant, especially in Farmers Gastropub, we will be happy to tell you what is in your food.
I, for one, will keep learning as much as I can about the food that I eat. Below is an excerpt from a European government regulation on GMO foods that I read this morning. You can read the whole thing at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/animalnutrition/labelling/Reg_1829_2003_en.pdf
It took me only 3 clicks on Google to find it and the first line struck me as very enlightening (“Acts whose publication is obligatory”). I have yet to find an equivalent publication for here in the US where deregulation seems to me to be more the way things are going.
Eat well, live long and prosper.
Bill
(Acts whose publication is obligatory)
REGULATION (EC) No 1829/2003 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 22 September 2003
on genetically modified food and feed
(Text with EEA relevance)
The new authorisation procedures for genetically modified
food and feed should include the new principles
introduced in Directive 2001/18/EC. They should also
make use of the new framework for risk assessment in
matters of food safety set up by Regulation (EC) No
178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general
principles and requirements of food law, establishing the
European Food Safety Authority, and laying down procedures
in matters of food safety (1). Thus, genetically
modified food and feed should only be authorised for
placing on the Community market after a scientific
evaluation of the highest possible standard, to be undertaken
under the responsibility of the European Food
Safety Authority (Authority), of any risks which they
present for human and animal health and, as the case
may be, for the environment. This scientific evaluation
should be followed by a risk management decision by
the Community, under a regulatory procedure ensuring
close cooperation between the Commission and the
Member States.
Bill! These are my thoughts EXACTLY. I’m not a large person. And while I do try to stay active, like you, I don’t “diet”. I also try to eat real food- and we eat well! We frequent Farmers but at home I buy all meat from local sources- either Farmers Market or Homegrown Foods. I buy as much produce as possible from local sources. And you are right- it makes a difference in how you feel. Our country spends more on diet programs and products than any other. All people need to do is eat real food and eat variety. Eat with the seasons! Eat as local as possible! It just makes sense and, in the long run, if you’re healthier, feel better, and are eating so well you really ENJOY your meals- how can that really cost more? It doesn’t. It’s absolutely a better alternative to paying less for food that is empty, full of chemicals and makes you feel lethargic, but more for pills and programs and such. Anyway. Here’s to Farmers and the entire local food movement sweeping our community! Farm to table- cheers!
Adie,
Thank you for sharing your comments, our local farmers need more appreciative customers like you, a huge well done for cooking at home. We are planning some from scratch cooking courses for the fall to help spread the goodness to be had from real food
Eat well, live long and prosper
best wishes
Bill
Bill, you DO look great! And the food at the Gastropub is fantastic.
I just had a recent experience with eating out at a breakfast spot here in town that I will not go back to. Interesting commentary you made about how you feel yucky the next day when you eat “not-real” food. My body didn’t have to wait until the next day! and I didn’t feel particularly yucky, I just had an intense half hour shedding of everything I ate for breakfast, within a very few hours of doing so. A word to the wise. Once you get used to real food, your body will probably not tolerate the unreal very well.
So a BIG THANKYOU! for providing me with a place where the waiters are friendly, the food is real, and I know I won’t feel bad later.