Barnard - Pure food: a chefs handbook for eating clean, with healthy, delicious recipes

I was 24 years old and working as a sales rep for my familys printing company. Our office was in Seattles Fremont neighborhood, way before it was hip. At that time, back in the 80s, we shared the area with light industrial businesses and marine stores, which meant the lunch options were no great shakes. There were a couple of crappy delis and a fish and chips shop. And then there was a Chinese restaurant. It had a dimly lit dining room with an orange shag carpet and Naugahyde booths, and an attached cocktail lounge where there were always a few heavy drinkers nursing screwdrivers and tequila sunrises. This was the sort of place that served all the usual staples of Westernized Szechuan cuisine: Kung Pao chicken, beef lo mein, fortune cookies, and my personal favorite, hot and sour soup. There were probably a thousand just like it scattered across the U.S.

One day I detected the beginnings of a nasty cold, and I got it into my head that hot and sour soup would be the best thing for it. Like most people, I thought of soups in general as wholesome and nourishing farethe stuff of Jewish grandmothers and Campbells commercialsand I had this idea that garlic and hot pepper might have some kind of curative properties for a cold. So, off I went to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant for a big bowl of hot and sour soup.

When I woke up the next day I felt even worse than I had the day before, like someone had taken a jackhammer to my head. Again, at lunch, I went for a bowl of hot and sour soup, hoping that another helping of the warm, comforting broth would do the trick. Again, the following day I woke up feeling worse. Five days into my hot and sour soup cure, I felt like I had a brain tumor. I couldnt even be near light. It was at that point that somebody I worked with innocently asked the question that I now realize should have been so obvious to me: was it possible that I was allergic to MSG? Because, well, there was probably MSG in the soup.

I didnt even know what MSG was, much less whether I was allergic to it. It was the first time in my life I considered the idea that food could be bad for you.

Its hard to believe now, when there is so much healthy skepticism over where our food comes from and whats inside, that I could have been so naive. But I grew up at a time when it was virtually unthinkable that big companies, under the U.S. governments watch, could give you anything to eat that was bad for you. Those were the days before the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War backlash cracked the armor of trust in American institutions, and these were our most respected establishments. If the federal government deemed something fit for consumption, well, then, it must be safe to eat. I dont remember any discussions during my youth about health and food, aside from the ones pertaining to weight loss. There was positively no skepticism on the subject of food additives and what they might be doing to us.

I dont remember any discussions during my youth about health and food, aside from the ones pertaining to weight loss. There was positively no skepticism on the subject of food additives and what they might be doing to us.