Pandemic sees resurgence of family meals, but much of the food we eat makes us sick

McDonald's, Pringles, SPAM and other processed and junk food are featured prominently in the illustration that ran with the article on how we eat in the August/September 2020 issue of AARP The Magazine.

 

AARP article salutes

 rise of industrial farms, 

processed food, multicookers

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The only upside to the Covid-19 pandemic is that Americans in quarantine or lockdown began to cook again and "the family meal -- long threatened -- returned in earnest."

That's the upbeat conclusion of a sweeping review of how we eat by Ruth Reichl, a cookbook author and onetime restaurant critic for The New York Times.  

But in "The Changing American Table" for AARP The Magazine, Reichl acknowledges that Americans' obsession with baking and desserts pushed the percentage of us who are overweight or obese to about 72 percent today, compared to only 10 percent in 1950.

She discusses the rise of factory farms, the widespread use of human antibiotics to make farm animals grow faster, salmonella outbreaks, processed food and even a best seller, "The Can-Opener Cook Book."

Eating is learned behavior

Reichl, who has written about food for 50 years, acknowledges her own articles about eating fewer carbohydrates, exercising more and drinking less or not at all.

"The real answer, I think, is staring us in the face," Reichl says. "Eating is learned behavior, and from the moment our children are born, we began teaching them that the most delicious foods are filled with fat, sugar and salt."

Organic farming

Although Reichl is one of the most respected food writers in the nation, her AARP article is weak when it comes to discussing the benefits of eating organic food, and the harm of pesticides and the antibiotics used to raise poultry, meat and farmed fish.

"People who care about the environment ... have driven the cause of organic farms, whose numbers have doubled in the past 10 years," she says, adding:

"But the most revolutionary changes in food production revolve around meat. Research has shown that a meat-based diet increases the risk of heart diseases and cancer."

Excerpts

Here are excerpts from Reichl's article for older Americans, and I think you can assume that the "average Americans" she mentions aren't eating pricier organics, antibiotic-free food, wild-caught fish or 100% grass-fed beef:

• "The food on my table -- and yours -- does not resemble in any way what our ancestors ate."
• "Food prices have come down so dramatically that average Americans spend a mere 7 percent of their budget on it -- less than people spend in any other nation on earth."
• "Three-quarters of us are overweight, and 6 out of 10 of us suffer from chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma and hepatitis."
• "Does our cheap food have anything to do with that?" (Her answer is yes.)
• "After the war [World War II] ended and the Cold War began, our government decided that growing bigger, better and substantially more food than the Soviets ... would be a great way to spread democracy."
• On family summer road trips, regional specialties were replaced by fast food.
• "By the mid '50s ... housewives filled their freezers with three iconic foods of that moment: TV dinners, fish sticks and Tater Tots."
• "Instant mashed potatoes, freeze-dried instant coffee, Pop-Tarts, Tang and, of course, Carnation Instant Breakfast began to line our cupboard shelves."
• "Mom bragged she could get dinner on the table in 15 minutes flat."

The coronavirus

"The coronavirus disrupted the American food supply, and it changed the way I shop, cook and eat," Reichl says.

"Indeed, across the country, people in lockdown began to cook again" and "many who had never before put their hands into dirt planted gardens ...," she says.

"People like me, who live in rural parts of the country, began buying our food straight from the farm, just like my mother once did," Reichl adds. "I know I'll be doing that for the rest of my life."

To read Reichl's piece in its entirety, click on the following link:

A foodie reflects on 50 years of change

Shopping for organics

During most of the year, the closest my family and others in northern New Jersey get to the farm is Whole Foods Market in Paramus, where I buy as many organics as possible.

Costco Wholesale in Teterboro and ShopRite supermarkets also are good sources for organic produce, organic pasta and other organically grown food.

I grew up in a kosher household in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the family meal was sacred, and I've been cooking all my life, both when I was single and after I married.

That has continued during the pandemic.

I'm a pescatarian living with a wife, son and mother-in-law who eat meat and poultry, so we cook more than most families and find it challenging to order takeout once a week.

For ideas on preparing family meals, see my cooking and food shopping videos:

Victor's Healthy Kitchen

I'm getting tired of all this running around before Thanksgiving, other major holidays

SYMBOLS OF THE SEASON: Our white Christmas tree, above, and our menorah, made from Murano glass, that I brought back from Italy in 2010, below.

VENICE'S JEWISH GHETTO: I bought this menorah in a shop in what was once the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, Italy. I vividly recall a large display of wall plaques telling the story of Venetian Jews who were sent to the death camps during World War II.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The headline for this post could have been, "Shop too much, cook too much, eat too much."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I dashed out of the house a little after 8 this morning, skipping my usual big breakfast, and drove to Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

I was hoping to buy wild-caught lobster tails for our Thanksgiving meal before the surface lot off of Forest Avenue became packed and frenetic with shoppers, as it was before noon on Monday.

Meanwhile, my wife drove to the ShopRite in Englewood for an organic turkey to donate to the Center for Food Action, and to a Teaneck market for goat meat for her and the other meat eaters in the family.

Our Thanksgiving menu includes turkey drumsticks from the Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff that we purchased last week, and 3 vegan dishes I ordered online and picked up at Whole Foods on Monday.

I'm a pescatarian who eats only seafood after giving up meat and poultry nearly a decade ago.

Food shopping follies

Last year, I spent $88 on Alaskan Red King Crab Legs at Costco Wholesale, and made a salad with diced sweet peppers and onions, all dressed with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and cumin.

This year, I was planning to buy the crab legs on Tuesday, but gave up that idea after my wife, who made her weekly trip to Costco on Monday, reported the Teterboro warehouse was packed and there were no whole turkeys or the smoked wild salmon on our list.

We eat well all year around, including wild-caught seafood, antibiotic-free chicken and as many organics as possible, so all this running around for a special holiday menu seems a little ridiculous.

And we still have our Christmas dinner to shop for in a few weeks.

Dinner out for a change

With all of our Thanksgiving food shopping done, my wife, son and I splurged on an early dinner at Legal Sea Foods in Paramus, where prices and quality are both high.

I enjoyed oysters on the half shell, and all of us had jumbo lump crab cakes, scallops, shrimp, mussels  and lobster in a variety of appetizers and entrees, as well as a kale salad with diced sweet potatoes and ricotta salata, all washed down with white and red wine.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET: This morning, I went to Whole Foods Market in Paramus for wild-caught lobster tails, but also brought home cooked shrimp and cocktail sauce, below.

ORGANIC PRODUCE DELIVERY: On Tuesday, we received our second box filled with 10 pounds of organic produce, including radishes with their greens, from MisfitsMarket.com. We just started the subscription, which cuts down on food shopping, and get one box every 2 weeks.

MORE MISFITS: Organic bok choy and green beans, as well as an extra-cost item, organic blueberries, also were in the box, below.

Oprah's bacon-is-OK diet, halal chicken, sale on organics, Icelandic fish and more

This photo of Oprah Winfrey ran with a Dec. 22, 2016, story on People.com, reporting she lost more than 40 pounds on a Weight Watchers diet (she also happens to be part-owner of the company).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Have you seen Oprah Winfrey on that Weight Watchers TV commercial claiming "you can have whatever you want," even bacon, and lose weight?

I'm not the only one taking her claims with a grain of salt:

The billionaire media magnate bought a 10 percent stake in Weight Watchers International for $43 million in late 2015 -- netting an immediate $70 million profit from the resulting stock increase, according to one account -- and agreed to serve as a promoter of its services. 

Still, telling overweight viewers they can eat bacon is awful, given how much pigs suffer on industrial farms and how the vast majority of fatty bacon contains harmful antibiotics and preservatives.

Plus, the saturated fat in bacon has the potential to clog your arteries.

A page from The Costco Connection magazine, which is promoting a cookbook from Oprah Winfrey.

Maui and truffles

Another side of Oprah is shown in a cover story for The Costco Connection, a lifestyle magazine for members of the discount warehouse club.

"Oprah Winfrey dishes on food, health and life," one of the headlines says.

The article in the January 2017 issue reports her new book, "Food, Health and Happiness," contains 115 recipes.

Her favorite dish in the book, she confesses, is pasta with truffles, which only the wealthy can afford.

In photos, Oprah is shown on her ranch in Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands, shelling peas and serving lunch to guests in her vegetable garden.

Bacon isn't mentioned.

Just because a chicken is halal or kosher doesn't mean it was raised naturally. This halal chicken is labeled "all natural" and "hand raised on family farms," but nowhere does the label state it was raised without harmful human antibiotics.

At the ShopRite in Paramus, the whole halal chicken was displayed next to a Coleman Organic Chicken, right, and the first thing listed on the Coleman label is "no antibiotics ... ever."

Also at the Paramus ShopRite, I couldn't find a creole seasoning that is made without lots of salt, above and below.

Salt is the first ingredient in Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, and just a quarter-teaspoon contains 15 percent of the daily recommended intake of sodium.

Costco Wholesale in Teterboro is having a sale on packaged and bottled organics through Feb. 19. A 59-ounce bottle of Suja, an organic fruit-and-vegetable drink, was $6.69 after an instant $2.30 coupon.

The ingredients in Suja, a refreshing juice with a pronounced taste of ginger. The label says, "It's like a farmer's market in a bottle!"

Above, two 25-ounce bottles of Paesana Premium Organic Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce were reduced to $4.99. They contain no added sugar, unlike another item at Costco, Bertolli Organic Pasta Sauce, below.

A 64-ounce bottle of Organic Acai Juice is on sale for $5.99.

The ingredients in Sambazon-brand Organic Acai Juice.

Costco stocks two of Italy's great hard cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano, made from cow's milk, above; and Pecorino Romano, from sheep's milk, below. Slices of both aged cheeses are perfect with dried or fresh fruit for dessert.

Although the Kirkland Signature cheeses aren't on sale, Costco's price per pound is lower than at any other store I know. The Pecorino Romano label suggest coarsely grating the cheese over grilled vegetables, pasta dishes "and more."

On a snowy Tuesday morning, shopping at the Teterboro warehouse was a pleasure. Aisles were uncrowded, I didn't have to wait at a checkout counter and only one member was in front of me at the food court.

The Teterboro Costco also is a reliable source of fresh fish from Iceland, such as the skinless-and-boneless haddock fillets I picked up on Tuesday for $8.99 a pound, and prepared at home for dinner. Ingredients included Asian Indian spices, kale, enoki mushrooms, organic diced tomatoes, pitted olives, fresh lemon juice and grated Parmesan Cheese.

I started with a large rectangular pan lined with parchment paper and filled with triple-washed Organic Kale (a 1.5-pound bag from Costco was $4.79).

I drizzled the kale with Greek extra-virgin olive oil, above, and added a little salt, then followed with the spice-coated fish fillets and the other ingredients, squeezing fresh lemon juice over everything.

I put the pan into a preheated 400-degree oven and the Fish & Vegetable Medley was ready in 15 minutes.

A little over a week ago, I made another Fish & Vegetable Medley with fresh Atlantic cod fillets from Iceland ($7.99 a pound at Costco), and fresh spinach, below. You can buy a Fish & Vegetable Medley ready to pop into your oven at home at The Fish Dock, a shop that sells fresh Icelandic fish and other seafood on Closter Dock Road in Closter.

A delicious Titan Roll from Maguro Sushi House in Rochelle Park is made with shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, cooked egg, avocado, cucumber and spicy sauce ($8.63). Maguro's sushi rolls, seaweed salad and other items are available in the cafeteria at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, both customers and employees shivered inside H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry, where it felt as cold in the store as it did outside. Workers wore coats, scarves or gloves to stay warm. I called the marketing department at the chain's Lyndhurst headquarters, were a woman named Sofia said the heat is turned down to keep produce on display as fresh as possible.

  

For past coverage of food shopping, restaurants and related topics, see: 

Do You Really Know 

What You're Eating?

ShopRite's antibiotic-free chicken gets new name, wine-cork recycling and more

ShopRite supermarkets have introduced a new name and label for the fresh antibiotic-free chicken that was sold for many years under the Readington Farms label. Wholesome Pantry Organic Chicken also is being introduced. The label says, "Hatched, raised and harvested in USA."

Wholesome Pantry is part of an initiative to remove artificial ingredients from products sold at ShopRite, the supermarket cooperative says. Click here to see those ingredients.

Although Perdue has introduced its own line of antibiotic-free chicken, the ShopRite at Route 4 and Forest Avenue in Paramus carries only the company's original low-quality poultry, above.

One of the great pleasures of the table is a glass of red wine with dinner. You can recycle corks at Whole Foods Market in the Bergen Town Center, Paramus.

If there is no shortage of corks, why recycle? "It's good for the environment," an employee in Whole Foods' wine and beer department said.

At Whole Foods, pricey wine from the wealthy Monmouth County town of Colts Neck, N.J., above and below.

At the Paramus Whole Foods, I gravitate to the many bottles of red wine for under $10, including Three Wishes Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot ($2.99 each), above and below.

Costco Wholesale in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center continues to add organic produce and other organic food. Organic Gala Apples were about $1.64 a pound last Monday.

But Organic Honeycrisp Apples were a pricey $3.36 a pound.

Conventionally grown Honeycrisp Apples were about $2.73 a pound. Unfortunately, Honeycrisp are my favorite apple.

Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti from ShopRite ($1.50 for a 1-pound package) dressed in a homemade sauce of organic diced tomatoes, anchovies, mushrooms, garlic, chopped black olives, red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, seasonings and dried Italian herbs.

Organic Sweet Potatoes from ShopRite ($3.99 for a 3-pound bag), mashed with extra-virgin olive oil.

In a covered pot, I boiled the sweet potato sections and peeled garlic cloves for about an hour, then drained them and returned them to the pot.

I added Kirkland Signature Organic Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, plus seasonings I had on hand, many from Costco, including curry powder, cinnamon, black pepper, red-pepper flakes, coriander and granulated garlic, then mashed the potatoes in the pot.

I made a frittata with whole eggs, liquid whites, grated cheese -- 3 cups to 4 cups of liquid in all poured into a preheated 10-inch non-stick pan with olive oil. As the crust set, I added slices of a large organic tomato.

After I removed the frittata from the oven, where it finished cooking under the broiler, I added Costco's Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and leftover Victoria Vodka Sauce, which is made without cream.

At the H Mart in  Little Ferry, above, workers are renovating the vacant half of the former Valley Fair building at 260 Bergen Turnpike, photos below, even though the Korean supermarket chain hasn't formally announced whether a new store and food court will occupy the space.

Seaweed rolls stuffed with rice, vegetables and a crab substitute, made from pollack, are a great appetizer.

I found five fat Finger Maki from Pinocchio, an outside caterer, in the refrigerated case with other Korean side dishes, opposite the fresh fish department at the Little Ferry H Mart.

Organic Carrots at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro are only about 70 cents a pound, if you buy a 10-pound bag, so to use that many carrots, we've started oven roasting them. We trim the fat end, cut the carrots in half, brush them with olive oil, add a little salt and organic no-salt seasoning, and roast them at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes to an hour. 

-- VICTOR E. SASSON