Let me begin with the modest observation that there is no such thing as a poison. By this I mean that nothing is harmful to the human body in small enough amounts, and everything is harmful in large enough amounts. Different substances vary in potency, to be sure, so that some things will reach dangerous …
Though Some Died in the Process
“The human race discovered most of the home truths about nourishment before the nutritionists bored everyone silly” (Robert Farrar Capon, Food for Thought, p. 10).
A Stick of Butter on the Forehead
One of the great fallacies in the “food as medicine” mentality is the post hoc fallacy. That fallacy in full is post hoc ergo propter hoc — “after this, therefore because of this.” If B follows A, then A must, so the so-called reasoning goes, be the cause of B. And of course, since we …
The Chicken That Didn’t Get Scrawny
As Christians discuss the morality of their food choices, one of the most compelling arguments for opting out of the chicken-sandwich-at-Arbys lifestyle is that brought by those who maintain that large-scale factory farming is necessarily abusive to the animals involved. I want to write more about this later on, but wanted to state two guiding …
What We Long to Become
“Why do we marry, why take friends and lovers, why give ourselves to music, painting, chemistry, or cooking? Out of simple delight in the resident goodness of creation, of course; but out of more than that, too. Half of earth’s gorgeousness lies hidden in the glimpsed city it longs to become. For all its rooted …
Nothing Like Going Natural!
At a recent conference, I had said a few things about some of the unnatural things that we call natural these days, and during one of the breaks a pleasant and informed young lady let me know something about fat-free milk, about which I must have said something. I must have said something like “never …
And Tell Them We Are Men
“I wish you well. May your table be graced with lovely women and good men. May you drink well enough to drown the envy of youth in the satisfactions of maturity. May your men wear their weight with pride, secure in the knowledge that they have at last become considerable. May they rejoice that they …
The Shaman and the Chicken Bones
I once read a quip as a tag line on the bottom of someone’s email that was really quite profound — it said that if your pastor says that the wine in the Bible was really grape juice, then how can you believe anything he says? Whenever someone stubbornly clings to foolish and thrice-disproven notions, …
Pastry is Bread Transfigured
“Paradox is the only basket large enough to hold truth. It is the very simplicity of bread which provides the foundation for all the complexities that man has wrought with flour. The violin is an astonishingly plain piece of business, carried beyond itself by craftsmanship: Stradivarius, Guarnerius, and Amati have gone down in history because …
Rejoicing in Gluten
“There are few actions you will ever take that have more of the stuff of history in them. A woman with her sleeves rolled up and flour on her hands is one of the most gorgeous stabilities in the world. Don’t let your family miss the sight” (Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb, …