JWZ and the Paleo Diet
Oct. 19th, 2011 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsMark Bittman latest article is Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? in which he writes about the commonplace canard that "Junk food is cheaper than real food." He writes:
Jamie Zawinski has a famous quote: "Linux is only free if your time is worthless." His point is simple: it takes time to install and master Linux. Compared to the idiotproofing of a Mac, Linux has a learning curve. Making Linux work isn't free, but knowing it is a skill worth having, both personally and financially. It was for me.
I've been on a quasi-paleo diet, eating paleo meals much more often. Last night I subjected my family to shredded roasted brussel sprouts and pork chops, and I liked it, but the shredded sprouts were visually unappealing. I'm hesitant to use the shredded "cauliflower as rice substitute" because I worry we'll get the same effect. But here's the thing:
My value system includes the idea that cooking is pleasure. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy turning raw vegetables and meats into food. So much so that I'm willing to dedicated between one and two hours of my day doing that, every day.
(I disdain the raw food diet for the simple reason that, if the Paleos are correct, our guts are evolutionarily post-cooking: paleobiological data indicate that, after the discovery of fire, our intestines got shorter because fire prepares food for digestion and releases nutrients. It was a rapid and profound evolutionary change, but it was a change that happened pre-H. sap. We're animals that cook.)
Bittman's comment that "real food is cheaper..." only applies if you think your time is worthless. The fact is you have to calculate the value of real food, and the time and effort and experience of cooking, into your equation. I've made that choice. You may find that your long-term health (Hell, your short-term health; paleo effects are pronounced even after only 8 weeks) and your personal eating pleasure are worth the time it takes to learn how to cook, and to cook for yourself every day, and to learn how to optimize the periphery of the grocery store. I recommend it, but I won't force it on ya.
A typical order for a family of four – for example, two Big Macs, a cheeseburger, six chicken McNuggets, two medium and two small fries, and two medium and two small sodas – costs, at the McDonald's a hundred steps from where I write, about $28. ... Despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home. You can serve a roasted chicken with vegetables along with a simple salad and milk for about $14, and feed four or even six people.
Jamie Zawinski has a famous quote: "Linux is only free if your time is worthless." His point is simple: it takes time to install and master Linux. Compared to the idiotproofing of a Mac, Linux has a learning curve. Making Linux work isn't free, but knowing it is a skill worth having, both personally and financially. It was for me.
I've been on a quasi-paleo diet, eating paleo meals much more often. Last night I subjected my family to shredded roasted brussel sprouts and pork chops, and I liked it, but the shredded sprouts were visually unappealing. I'm hesitant to use the shredded "cauliflower as rice substitute" because I worry we'll get the same effect. But here's the thing:
My value system includes the idea that cooking is pleasure. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy turning raw vegetables and meats into food. So much so that I'm willing to dedicated between one and two hours of my day doing that, every day.
(I disdain the raw food diet for the simple reason that, if the Paleos are correct, our guts are evolutionarily post-cooking: paleobiological data indicate that, after the discovery of fire, our intestines got shorter because fire prepares food for digestion and releases nutrients. It was a rapid and profound evolutionary change, but it was a change that happened pre-H. sap. We're animals that cook.)
Bittman's comment that "real food is cheaper..." only applies if you think your time is worthless. The fact is you have to calculate the value of real food, and the time and effort and experience of cooking, into your equation. I've made that choice. You may find that your long-term health (Hell, your short-term health; paleo effects are pronounced even after only 8 weeks) and your personal eating pleasure are worth the time it takes to learn how to cook, and to cook for yourself every day, and to learn how to optimize the periphery of the grocery store. I recommend it, but I won't force it on ya.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-11-03 06:13 pm (UTC)I've read that porn of yours. Your description of Rome as stinking because they had no sewers … that sounds more like post-Western-Empire European cities to me. (FYI to any of Elf's readers: Even up until the 19th Century, most cities reeked during the summers, even in Europe. People just tossed their waste water (including chamber pots) into the streets. Sidewalks were originally invented so that the well-to-do could walk down the street without having to walk in raw sewage.) I was pretty sure that the Romans had sewers, or at least, decent drainage of the streets. If there's one thing that the Romans did very, very well, it was plumbing & pipes.
Mind you, the Tiber was utterly, utterly foul as a result of all of the sub-street pipes draining into it. But I thought the streets were clean(er), due to people dumping things into the drains rather than directly into the streets. I'll have to have another look at that Terry Jones program on Rome.