In the 1973 movie Soylent Green, Charlton Heston asks Edward G Robinson, “Why don’t you eat something?”
Robinson replies, “I’m not hungry enough yet. Tasteless. Odorless crud. You don’t know any better. You know, when I was a kid…food was food.”
Is food still food? What do you think?
Actors Edward G. Robinson and Charlton Heston in a scene from the movie 'Soylent Green', 1973. (Photo by Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images)
Food has been altered forever, it seems, but it's still possible to find wonderful quality and "real" food if we're only willing to look. I just finished eating a plate of yummy tofu sauteed with salt and pepper. I've just come out of a bone graft surgery and I cannot eat or drink too many things. At Sogo Tofu right by my home we can buy fresh tofu. Now I don't do this often enough, I realized. Hey, how long will it keep in the fridge, I asked the lady who runs the place. Eat it today, she said. That's really all it is, I guess. Find a good place where you trust the source and try as much as possible to cook daily and eat as fresh as possible. When I was growing up in India in the 60s and 70s we did that. We didn't even have a refrigerator until the mid-70s. That too made all the difference in how we chose to cook and eat. Great question, Kate:-)
Food hasn't been food for a long time now. Everything is filled with chemicals and "fillers" these days. I prefer to eat real, whole foods, but it's hard. So many things are tasteless. Take strawberries. They sit, large and bright red, in the grocery stores, looking delicious. But they have no taste, probably picked green and exposed to gas to "ripen." When I was a child, we'd pick wild strawberries that were tiny, but bursting with flavor.
Apr 21, 2022·edited Apr 21, 2022Liked by Kate McDermott
There is a meal replacement product on the market called Soylent. It’s soy-based. I think at this point they’ve been informed about three thousand times that their name is pretty hilarious. That said, I know folks who use it when they are just not able to eat due to debilitating trauma. In another scenario, some folks can’t afford the time or the money to buy organic, healthy, local, etc. It’s a both a long and short term issue for people, and it intersects with issues of food security, poverty, race and class, as well as mental and physical wellness. I believe Sustenance is what you can sustain. We all have different levels of that, at different times in our lives. What might seem like garbage or convenience food is, for some folks, what they can get.
Hi Kate! Off the topic but Soylent Green made SUCH an impression on me and my sisters when it came out. It still comes up occasionally as one of our favorite "horror" movies for teens, eeew!
As the computer programmers like to say, garbage in, garbage out. It all depends on what you put into your cooking. I buy the best I can for what I’m making and add love. Always comes out excellent, except for when it doesn’t and then it’s still a lesson learned.
Food has been altered forever, it seems, but it's still possible to find wonderful quality and "real" food if we're only willing to look. I just finished eating a plate of yummy tofu sauteed with salt and pepper. I've just come out of a bone graft surgery and I cannot eat or drink too many things. At Sogo Tofu right by my home we can buy fresh tofu. Now I don't do this often enough, I realized. Hey, how long will it keep in the fridge, I asked the lady who runs the place. Eat it today, she said. That's really all it is, I guess. Find a good place where you trust the source and try as much as possible to cook daily and eat as fresh as possible. When I was growing up in India in the 60s and 70s we did that. We didn't even have a refrigerator until the mid-70s. That too made all the difference in how we chose to cook and eat. Great question, Kate:-)
Food hasn't been food for a long time now. Everything is filled with chemicals and "fillers" these days. I prefer to eat real, whole foods, but it's hard. So many things are tasteless. Take strawberries. They sit, large and bright red, in the grocery stores, looking delicious. But they have no taste, probably picked green and exposed to gas to "ripen." When I was a child, we'd pick wild strawberries that were tiny, but bursting with flavor.
There is a meal replacement product on the market called Soylent. It’s soy-based. I think at this point they’ve been informed about three thousand times that their name is pretty hilarious. That said, I know folks who use it when they are just not able to eat due to debilitating trauma. In another scenario, some folks can’t afford the time or the money to buy organic, healthy, local, etc. It’s a both a long and short term issue for people, and it intersects with issues of food security, poverty, race and class, as well as mental and physical wellness. I believe Sustenance is what you can sustain. We all have different levels of that, at different times in our lives. What might seem like garbage or convenience food is, for some folks, what they can get.
Hi Kate! Off the topic but Soylent Green made SUCH an impression on me and my sisters when it came out. It still comes up occasionally as one of our favorite "horror" movies for teens, eeew!
As the computer programmers like to say, garbage in, garbage out. It all depends on what you put into your cooking. I buy the best I can for what I’m making and add love. Always comes out excellent, except for when it doesn’t and then it’s still a lesson learned.
Yes!