You are what you eat

Dear True,

EAT DEATH.

No, this is not a curse, or even a taunt from a vegetarian, although I am one. This is about eating nuked food. Yesterday I lunched with some special friends at the delightful Pie Place. While enjoying one another's company and the always fresh, always delicious food served up with friendliness in a gracious-home ambience, the subject of cooking summer meals came up.

I was bragging about how I could dish up a nutritious and delicious whole-grain bun Boca Burger with cheese and a side of corn on the cob in less than a minute in the microwave. High protein, high fiber, healthy food, yes? No, said my friends.

To backtrack a little, back in the early 1970's one of my yoga teachers who was also a homeopathic doc told us students that one day it would be understood by science how terribly damaging microwaves are. I believed him and for more than 25 years refused to have one of the darn things in my house. I changed my mind when my dad came to live with me because I could just nuke one of those frozen meals and he loved them. Still, I didn't cook with the dang contraption myself. It's only been in the last two or three years that I have lapsed. First, because I could so easily heat up tea and coffee without having it boil over. Then, just when I was in a big hurry, I might make a burrito with the touch of a button. Then, lo and behold, I discovered that tender vegetables can be achieved quickly and without boiling or stir-fry or steaming. And before I knew it I was a nukie junkie.

So, back to yesterday. My friends told me that recent studies have uncovered the horrible truth: microwaved food under Kirlian photography looks like a nuclear wasteland. Dead, in a horrible black shriveled shroud.

I believe them and I guess I really knew all the time that what looked so fresh and sweet really could not be, having had its molecules jiggled mercilessly with some kind of cosmic radiation. Shades of the desolate poisoned lands in Marion Zimmer Bradley's fantasy world, Darkover, left over from the Ages of Chaos where wars were fought with terrible weapons of mass destruction.

So. It's summer and yes, it is sometimes hot, even here on the North Shore. But it doesn't take a lot longer to cook your food on a grill, or stovetop, or even to roast your unshucked corn on the cob in the oven. Drag out the old crock pot for soups and sauces, or just simmer on the lowest flame on your back burner. Eat life-giving vegetables, fruits and plant proteins in all their summer bounty. Bon appetit!

Nancye Belding
Grand Marais