February 24–March 2, 2000

cover story

Eat the Rainbow, part 2

	Try some, buy some: Kauffman (left) and Kielblock of Arnold’s Way with employee Star.

by Vance Lehmkuhl

photographs by Trevor Dixon

Wake Up and Smell the Diversity

Connie Holt is the president of the Philadelphia Dietetic Association, and is on the nutrition subcommittee for Fun, Fit and Free 2000. She explains why the promotions will not be talking about "heart-healthy" foods: "If you think of ‘heart-healthy’ people, you think in terms of what they can’t have. Our approach is taking off from the USDA pyramid — if you look at that, it’s about all these different options."

Fortunately, one thing Philadelphia has is food options. Our town is rich in ethnic restaurants and food stores where authentic dietary traditions are maintained. Eating all the colors of the rainbow is not difficult in Center City, although you may have to walk a few yards farther than your usual route.

Michael Granato, who joined Street in eating vegetarian cheesesteaks back at the seminal Dec. 29 press conference, agrees that there are plenty of choices under our noses: "Look, in terms of cuisine, Philadelphia’s as diverse a city as any in the country." he says. "Even New York is not more diverse. Sure, they have a higher quantity of different ethnic restaurants, but we have the same variety. The only thing they have that we don’t is a Swedish restaurant." Ironic, since the first "settlers" here were Swedes.

But if we can live without Swedish meatballs, the healthy-choice scales may even tip toward Philly. That’s the opinion of Jim Oswald, who heads the Institute for Plant-Based Nutrition (IPBN) — a nonprofit agency in Bala Cynwyd — and has been researching alternative food venues in our area for a comprehensive guide.

"I’ve traveled all over this country," says Oswald, "and I am willing to bet you that this is the only metropolitan area in the world with six vegan Chinese restaurants, four of which are kosher!" For the record, those are: Kingdom of Vegetarians, Singapore, Cherry Street Vegetarian, Harmony, Singapore II (Cherry Hill), Evergreen (Cherry Hill) and Su Tao (Malvern). South East restaurant, Oswald points out, almost belongs on the list as well, as they are "92 percent vegan."

"Where else will you find a Mexican Cantina [12th Street Cantina] with vegan entrees, run by a Jewish girl from South Philly? Or what about Ma Pattison’s over by the Social Security building — she likes it smoky in there, but I’m telling you, you never had such a Southern-style chicken-fried steak. Vegan, of course." He adds that Ma makes meat dishes as well for a full variety.

For those times when you’re on the go, more people are getting used to the fast-food buffets, often run by Koreans, which have become fixtures along Chestnut and Walnut Streets. Here again, the watchword is variety, with upwards of 50 different items of different colors to mix and match from day to day.

Granato admits that "the buffets do a very good job in what they do — in fact I had lunch in one of them on Friday when we got out of our committee meeting.

"But," he adds, "one problem in those places is that people take larger portions of some of the things that aren’t good for them than they would get otherwise. We’re making portion size a big issue in this initiative."

Portions of what, though? "We do tour groups," says Granato, who owns Bistro Romano off Head House Square. "People come [to his restaurant] from around the world and they’re amazed at the portion sizes. They might be used to seeing a four-ounce cut of steak and here everybody serves an eight-ounce or ten-ounce cut. And the problem is not with that one meal, it’s that when people go home they’re also eating a ten-ounce cut."

When pressed, Granato admits, "If you’re getting a salad, you know, you can eat a salad as large as you want. People don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables."

And they don’t do enough adventuring in their own back yards. Pennsylvania State Rep. Babette Josephs relates, "I go to Reading Terminal Market and buy yuca [a sweet potato-like tuber] at the Iovine Brothers’ produce stand. That’s just one example of something to try. Twenty percent to 30 percent of the world’s population lives on it — it’s a staple for hundreds of millions of people — and here we’ve hardly even heard of it."

But Josephs finds that even when they do take a stab at healthy eating, many people won’t persist. "One of my colleagues in Harrisburg," she says, "was trying to eat healthy and she said she was giving up on whole grain pasta. ‘It tastes bad,’ she told me. ‘I’m gonna have to switch back to the unhealthy stuff.’ I told her no, you should try another brand, or try another grain. You can’t just give up after trying one alternative."

Rep. Josephs’ words echo in my head as I take my third bite, smiling and nodding. It occurs to me that this strawberry taste, mixed with banana, isn’t as bad as the strawberries I remember disliking.

I can’t hear Arnold talking anymore, because Carl is running the blender, mixing up the lemon juice, bananas, dates and walnuts into the perfect texture of glop for the fruit and nut bars.

As Carl turns off the blender, a regular customer named Clay stops in for a smoothie. "I’ll get a banana-date today," he decides. "Large?" asks the counter person. "You know it!"

Clay, a lean, energetic 25-year-old, turns to Arnold and says, "I just rollerbladed to Valley Forge and back. What a kick!"

Carl pours the colorful glop into a frame which serves as a mold to fix the mixture at a uniform depth. After it settles, he removes the frame and brings the 12-inch square (it will make six bars) over to the "wall of dehydrators," a section of the store where 16 of the machines are hooked up.

While waiting for his banana-date drink, Clay checks the countertop basket and says, "Aw, no bars?"

"We had 180 on Thursday," Arnold says with more pride than apology, "and they’re all gone. People love ’em."

"I’m makin’ more," adds Carl.

Butter, Clarified

As someone who works out," Clay tells me moments later, "I see a lot of people who care about what they eat, but they think they have to eat meat or they’ll lose body strength. That’s nonsense. Look at me. I lift twice a week, and people ask me, ‘How do you stay so big?’ And it’s really just staying in tune with your body. I haven’t had any meat for a year and a half."

Sure, many of us will eat greasy, salty, high-fat food no matter how bad it is for us, but why do so many people who do want to eat right get discouraged?

Consider this analogy: A panel of people are trying to figure out how to access the Internet. Bill Gates is on the panel and he says, "You can only get on the Internet through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer."

Knowing his motivation, we easily see through this lie. If Gates says "the best way to get on the Net is through Internet Explorer," it’s a subjective judgment, but we still recognize it as based on his stake in the company’s success.

Now make it a panel of people (the USDA) trying to figure out how to get vitamins, and it’s the meat- and dairy-based panelists who say "the best way to vitamins is through meat and dairy products." What happens? Not only are these assertions not challenged, they’re incorporated into official government policy, and we wind up with the infamous "Basic Four" food groups: Meat, Dairy, Grains, and Fruits and Vegetables.

Today it’s almost hard to believe that this industry-lapdog model of nutrition was drilled into kids’ heads for almost half a century. Maybe the hard science really wasn’t there in 1956 to disprove it. Or maybe the "revolving door effect" played a part — industry chieftains jumping from corporation to regulatory panel and then back again.

Either way, by 1991, a new model was ready to go. The evidence had been in since the mid-’70s that two "groups" — Fruits and Vegetables and Grains — had much more to do with good health than the other two. This new model, the food "pyramid," relegated meat and dairy’s share of the "ideal" diet from half to less than a quarter.

The overall "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" are updated every five years. In the 2000 (fifth) edition, the pyramid is the same. The main change is in the wording of one of the central commandments: "Choose a diet low in fat" has become "Choose a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in total fat."

For those who don’t see much of a difference there, it has been clarified by Al Tank, chief executive officer of the National Pork Producers Council. "We believe it’s a real unfair implication," Tank told the Associated Press in January. "The implication is that you should avoid all foods of animal origin."

Thanks for pointing that out. Other animal products (along with palm and coconut oils) are the foods highest in saturated fat. Also, even the lowest-fat versions of animal foods come with cholesterol.

Some easy numbers to remember: 100 percent of animal products contain cholesterol; 0 percent of plant foods contain cholesterol. 100 percent of raw plant foods contain fiber; 0 percent of animal products contain fiber.

Americans are hungry for simple diet facts like these, not so they can all go over to the 100-percent or 0-percent side, but so they know which direction is actually improving their diet. But the outmoded animal-foods industry still wants a guaranteed front-row seat at every meal, and they’re taking up space that can be better used.

"Educating ourselves about nutrition is so simple, and yet so difficult," observes Dr. Negron. "Adults already know at some level that the information that’s coming to them as ‘education’ from these industries is really just self-promotion.

"But," she continues, "with the Dairy Council giving away ‘Calcium Crisis’ pamphlets to schools, if kids aren’t curious, asking themselves, ‘Who’s telling me this? And what do they have to gain by telling me this?’ they’ll continue to be confused."

The process of clearing the confusion may be glacial, but there is movement. "In January," says Paul Schmid of the school district’s lunch menu, "we started dealing with so many students being lactose intolerant by offering 100-percent fat-free Lactaid at lunches. Now, can I say right now that veggie burgers are going to be on our menu in two years? Yes — as long as it’s acceptable to all our students. Because if they won’t eat it, the point is moot."

Grocery Chains

This concern for making a change "practicable," not scaring people away from good health, seems to be shared by members of the Fun, Fit & Free committee, and part of the idea seems to be that people should be able to have a say in their choices.

"Even at Bistro Romano," says Granato, "I’ve noticed that people are less hesitant about asking for modifications of menu items. They might say, ‘You know I’d love the salmon but instead of this cream sauce could I just have a lemon and vinaigrette sauce?’ and that’s fine."

But much of the inertia in our overall food systems is in the take-home food sector, with grocery store chains reluctant to shift distribution patterns without a strong indication of equal or greater profit.

When asked whether groceries will be encouraged to participate in the city’s initiative, Connie Holt says, "I think it would be a wonderful idea for supermarkets to capitalize on this — say, a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday dine-in special to go along with the Second Thursday dining-out events," in which local restaurants will offer healthy alternative dishes.

Meanwhile, Acme’s main in-store coupon section on Valentine’s Day is wrapped in a "Sweetheart" specials banner, of which the most prominent is a deep discount on 8-ounce cuts of FILET MIGNON! (The perfect way to tell your loved one, "Honey, I just took out a hefty life insurance policy on you.")

With such an ingrained food distribution structure (millions of U.S. tax dollars prop up the beef and milk companies, from water subsidies to school-lunch buybacks to cattle ranching on public lands), it can be hard to rock the boat. With two entire walls of every supermarket devoted to meat and dairy, customers must seek out healthy alternatives in "ethnic" or "natural" aisles. And when they find them, their purchases may not add up to much.

"A lot of stores," says Waxman of Essene, "will have a trial period. They’ll give some new bunch of foods a certain amount of space, see what sells the most, then slowly start limiting what they carry to the few items that move the fastest, then maybe the one item. For them it’s not an issue of the quality or health value of the food."

But even this capitalist process is far from scientific. At the Acme where I used to buy my lunch, the "Amy’s" microwaveable non-dairy burritos sell out quickly and the shelf sits empty for weeks. The customers who are unable to buy the product during that time don’t register on the overall demand for that line unless they complain. Usually they’ll just buy something else.

Babette Josephs suggests people be more vocal. "You gotta go up to the manager of your local grocery and say, ‘Hey, hown come you don’t have plantains, man?’"

Food producers are already beginning to hear the call for more alternatives. As more consumers become curious about the safety of pesticide-treated produce, the organic selection is growing (see sidebar), although the price will no doubt stay higher than conventional until a critical mass of demand is reached.

That day may not be far off. "There’s a growing population of people who are interested in natural foods," observes Waxman, "and consequently, most of the major health-food companies are being bought out by regular food companies. They see what the public wants, and want to get their foot in the door. But along with increased availability, overall quality of the food becomes a major issue."

With a new Fresh Fields set to open on South Street this year, Waxman will have some major issues to deal with himself.

"Yeah, they’ll cut into our business a little," he admits, "but we have our niche. We try to provide a better level of customer service. We’ll do special ordering of stuff. We’re more like a neighborhood store. I think that’s our strength."

"I mean, I’m happy that more mainstream natural foods are happening," he adds, "but they’re constantly splitting up the pie of buyers into smaller pieces."

And what if the piece gets too small for some stores? "You can’t do anything about it. Some people struggle all their lives, a chain comes in and, boom, they’re put out of business. It’s the American way."

There’s the American way, and then there’s Arnold’s Way. Arnold has a brilliant idea for Fun, Fit and Free 2000: "Why not Banana Whip Day? They could feed hundreds of people, these things are very simple to make with a few ingredients. And all people gotta do is taste it. It’s not a mind thing, it’s taste."

I look down. Maybe it’s the noise of the blender. Maybe I’ve been brainwashed by all this talk of raw foods. Maybe it’s the exhaustion of trying to hold so many radical ideas in one place at the same time. I don’t know.

But I’ve made it through my strawberry banana whip.

And I want another.