What Is Junk Food?
French-fries are junk-food, but roast potatoes are not; bread is a basic food-stuff, but biscuits are junk; wine comprises “empty calories”, but fruit juices are health foods; the sugar in cake is detrimental to health, but the sugar in honey and grapes is not. White bread is not “nutritious”, but cauliflower is, though it consists of 90% water, 5% starch, a minute amount of protein, and only traces of vitamins and minerals (other than potassium). What then is “junk” food?
And concludes:
“Junk-food”, we must therefore conclude, is any consumable prepared outside the home which children find delicious.
But not necessarily children. For example, serve 3 lbs of spinach in a bowl as spinach, and it’s wholesome. Use those same 3 lbs of spinach to make cream of spinach soup, or even creamed spinach (one of life’s greatest pleasures, provided one doesn’t overdo the nutmeg), and it’s no longer wholesome.
Or mashed potatoes. Make dull, uninteresting potatoes with nothing more than a bit of milk and salt, and they’re wholesome. Add butter (the more the better, of course) or gruyère, and they’re suddenly an indulgence, or “empty calories.”
I think the physiologist is correct about the palate, and just hasn’t noticed that it’s not necessarily children’s palates. If it tastes really delicious, it’s not wholesome. It’s culinary puritanism.
rightwingprof :: Jul.01.2008 :: Idjits, Food, Wackjobs :: No Comments »
