Balance of Food

RIP Lean Plate Club

There were many good possibilities for a topic this week, but getting blindsided that this was the last week for the Lean Plate Club blew everything else out of the water.

Yes, The Washington Post, like most major U.S. newspapers is offering buyouts to its "seasoned" employees. Perhaps I missed Sally Squires from the list when the WaPo buyout list was sent out.

I figured at least that the paper would continue the feature, given how much it helped and well, clearly, there was an audience for the feature. And the newspapers across the country that were carrying her column are also left without material.

Not to toot my own horn, but I hope the Balance of Food can be helpful to that audience.

The weekly discussions were very helpful to see what issues people were dealing with. And, of course, the columns were usually the launching pad.

When I was dealing with my transition, I looked to see what others were doing. At that point, I really enjoyed hearing from people who had success and continued keeping off the weight. They were inspiring to me at a time when I needed it.

I didn't always agree with Squires. We certainly have had our differences, especially on high-fructose corn syrup. And sometimes her background in nutrition could get in the way or not translate well. But you could tell that she was trying really hard.

But she also had a very non-judgmental attitude, something where her philosophy and mine are in syncopation. Squires liked to hear other people's suggestions, as long as they weren't working for the company involved.

I still haven't tried the famous black bean brownies. At some point, I will get up the courage to try.

In the meantime, Squires lives on in her past columns and discussion chats, along with her book.

California to ban trans fats in restaurants

Congratulations to California for banning trans fats in restaurants, becoming the first state to do so. Of course, New York City led the way.

The trans fats get a waiver for restaurant products until 2010, and retail baked goods until 2011. Packaged foods will be exempt.

Besides NYC, Philadelphia, Stamford, CT, and Montgomery County, MD have done away with trans fats.

Trans fats have truly become unnecessary, and we've seen proof of that. Though McD's fries aren't quite the same, it's still an overall positive move for all.

Tomatoes in, jalapenos out??

Confused as I am over what is making people sick. First, tomatoes took the blame for salmonella. Boy, the hysteria topped even the spinach/e-coli of last year.

So it wasn't tomatoes all along, but the jalapenos, maybe. At least they hope. This is a way to run food safety in the United States??

When I thought tomatoes were back, I ordered a BLT for lunch on July 13. I got a BL and ate part of it before I realized there was no T. I figured the cook forgot to put the tomato on the sandwich, but the other waitress (not our own) told us they weren't serving tomatoes.

This was a local restaurant, not a chain. I hate the paranoia from chains, but I figure a local restaurant knows its produce better than a chain. But when chains are serving tomatoes and a local restaurant isn't, something is dreadfully wrong.

The other waitress asked us if the first waitress had mentioned that they weren't serving tomatoes. My dining companion and I shook our heads "no."

I got a replacement sandwich, and had the meal comped, a nice gesture. I just wanted to know that they weren't serving tomatoes.

Let's hope for improvements in food safety. This is ridiculous — the world is laughing at us.

Eating food the way it used to be

I love all of these pushes for improved food quality: organic fruits and vegetables, cane sugar in soft drinks, grass-fed beef. The funny part of all of this is that these "improvements" are just a way of retrieving how food used to be.

For too many reasons to list here, we have let our food supply, our food mentality for what we even call food, in a horrible direction that has robbed us of taste, nutrition, and our health.

I don't know much about my father's upbringing, but I do have some idea of my mother's upbringing. Imagine going back in a time machine and being able to eat the quality they had back then. Beef and soft drinks without corn; no antibiotics or hormones; no fear about weird pesticides.

Then again, both my mother's parents were Type I diabetics, and my mother's mother was a rather large woman. And they probably cooked with lard.

A few years back, when I ate a lot of fast food, I would have daydreams of going back to the 1970s when fast food tasted better. I remember actually having to wait quite a few minutes for a freshly prepared meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Those 30 and under probably don't understand that last sentence. But it was worth it.

I sort of went back in time with a talk given by Bill Kurtis. Yes, that Bill Kurtis. When he's not chasing down investigations on TV, he owns a company in Kansas, his home state, that raises and sells grass-fed beef.

(Watching Kurtis was also a time warp for me, since I grew up watching him as a huge anchor for WBBM-TV in the 1970s. To bring those 30 and under back into it, Kurtis does the voiceover in "Anchorman," where Will Ferrell is trying to mock the anchors of the 70s. Kurtis was one of those anchors, except of course, a smart one.)

During the lecture, Kurtis took us through the history of beef in the U.S., how beef used to be grass-fed all the time. Then after World War II, corn slipped into the food for cows. Unlike grass-fed beef, corn-fed beef is fat with saturated fat. Grass-fed beef is significantly higher in Omega-3 than corn-fed beef.

Using surplus corn isn't helpful to our food system. At some point, for the sake of the health of the citizens of the United States, someone or something is going to have to decide whether the current policies of the U.S. are helpful to our health. We can't run away from the problem, but part of the solution might be running back in time.

Making food choices when you're tired

Vacation is supposed to be an escape; and many of us use it as an escape from food responsibility. This isn't to bash the occasional slip from the program — vacations can be a great release valve from the pressures we have to eat well.

But here is one sad but true story about taking the concept to extremes.

I was strolling along the riverfront in Portland, Oregon along the Willamette River, having a really nice casual time when the dinner bell struck in my stomach. I had been walking a lot and had not thought about what dinner should be. When I do a lot of walking around, sometimes I am so tired my choices become compromised.

That night, my encounter with the "everything burger" proved to be way too much.

I should have been fine with a nice sandwich, chips, and a pickle while watching the river. But instead, I picked a bar/restaurant that had the Sunday night baseball game on (from Chicago — it was the Cubs and White Sox, who could resist?).

But hey, an "everything burger" with a ballgame featuring the two hometown teams while being 2,000 miles away — doesn't sound that bad at all. And the burger sounded enticing. Here's how it worked: the menu listed several burgers in different combinations. At the bottom was the "everything burger": your option to get a burger with anything and everything in the above combinations. I didn't write everything down, but here is what I remembered:

bacon, blue cheese, Cheddar cheese, grilled onion, caramelized onions, French fried onion strings, BBQ sauce, red onion, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce and tomato.

I "settled" for bacon, blue cheese, caramelized onions, French fried onion strings, sauteed mushrooms with lettuce and tomato. I also ordered a wedge iceberg salad with pepper bacon and tomato.

Can fast food taste good and be healthier?

Fast food can taste good or be healthier, if done properly. And given where fast food has fallen, small improvements can make a much better picture.

If you are old enough, you can remember when burgers came off the grill, freshly cooked. You can remember when French fries would be placed in the container seconds before you got them. And service came with a smile, not the kind of smile you saw in the commercials, but pleasantry nonetheless.

Now you get pre-made burgers straight out of the microwave, fries that you have to touch to see if they are served cold, and something that might pass for service.

When I did my West Coast jaunt in December, I ran across much better tasting fast food. I remember being asked, "raw or grilled onions." I've never been crazy about raw onions, but I have become used to grilled onions.

But trapped in the Midwest, I wasn't sure if I could get that back. Though there is one place in Chicago that is trying to do something about that.

Vacation time

Off having food adventures, so I'll check in with lots of fun stories next week. Enjoy lots of great columns and essays from the archives.

Keep the balance of food, and I'll talk to you soon.