← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Walter Yannis
Thread ID: 16766 | Posts: 17 | Started: 2005-02-14
2005-02-14 21:01 | User Profile
[URL=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050214/ap_on_he_me/fit_southern_staples]Southern Diet Frustrates Health Officials [/URL]
Mon Feb 14,10:35 AM ET Health - AP
By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer
DECATUR, Ga. - Amid a national obesity epidemic and the South's infamous distinction as the "Stroke Belt," health officials have been trying to get diners to flinch, at least a little, at the region's trademark fried and fatty foods.
But nutritionists have found it's hard to teach an old region new tricks. How can Southerners give up delicious staples fried chicken, fried seafood, fried green tomatoes and cornbread slathered in butter?
Even at the Atlanta headquarters of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leader of the nation's anti-obesity campaign, the cafeteria serves up such artery-clogging regional favorites as biscuits and gravy.
CDC nutritionist Annie Carr said the agency is working to get its house in order by pushing the cafeteria to serve popular foods in healthy ways. The broader goals of the anti-obesity campaign are to educate people to cook with less fat and sugar and to promote the idea of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
And for the South, that doesn't mean vegetables and greens flavored with bacon and meat drippings.
"I don't think anything is wrong with the kind of vegetables we eat in the South ââ¬â it's the way they are prepared," said former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, the interim president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, who grew up eating traditional Southern staples on a farm in Alabama. "We need more fruits and vegetables in our diet."
When Becky Cleaveland is out with her girlfriends, they all pick at salads except for the petite Atlanta woman. She tackles "The Hamdog."
The dish, a specialty of Mulligan's, a suburban bar, is a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a hoagie bun. Oh yeah, it's also topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries.
"The owner says I'm the only girl who can eat a whole one without flinching," Cleaveland said proudly.
Health officials' concerns with healthy eating in the South date back to 1962, when the CDC noted a large concentration of counties with high stroke death rates in the coastal states of North and South Carolina and Georgia. More than three decades later, the high stroke rates in that region seem to have shifted west to counties along the Mississippi River Delta.
Health officials have spent thousands of dollars on grants to promote healthy eating, including sending nutritionists into community centers and churches. The food experts introduce healthier cooking practices, such as alternatives to frying and methods that reduce the fat in gravy and sauces. But those efforts have found resistance from some cooks who say the healthier recipes alter the taste of their dishes.
"Flavor is a big issue ââ¬â when you modify Southern cooking, then you lose a lot of the flavor," said Laurita Burley, a clinical nutrition instructor at the Morehouse School of Medicine. "The reputation of the Southern cook is at risk when you begin to modify it."
Much of the South's traditional foods date back to the days of slavery. Frying was preferable in the region's hot climate, since it didn't take as long as baking and didn't heat up a house as much. Plus, Burley said, workers didn't have all day to prepare meals; they had to get back into the fields to work. Lard was also plentiful. Today, frying still is popular, especially in poor areas of the South, because it is also inexpensive.
While it's quick, easy and adds flavor, frying loads ordinarily healthy foods with calories and fat.
"One of the common things in the South is that you fry everything," said Dr. Nicholas Lang, chief of staff of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock. "It's a major grease-transport mechanism ââ¬â there's no idea how much calories you get when you get that."
Other research has found that frying, grilling and smoking certain foods can cause chemical reactions within the food that can increase the risk of cancer.
"The best advice is to fry less and to eat their meat medium rather than well-done ââ¬â and do like their momma said and add vegetables," said Lang, also a professor of surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Back at Mulligan's in Decatur, owner Chandler Goff is quick to point out that the bar also offers healthy alternatives, such as salads and sandwiches that aren't deep-fried.
But he acknowledged that the "Hamdog" and the "Luther Burger," a bacon-cheeseburger served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut bun, are what draw attention.
As for Cleaveland, she says she doesn't think about cholesterol. "I probably should, but I do not. I'm only 25, maybe later." For now, she's able to maintain her 5-foot-7, 115-pound physique without regular exercise.
Regardless of age, Lang doesn't recommend the Hamdog, even as a one-time snack.
"If you choke that down, you might as well find a heart surgeon because you are going to need one."
2005-02-14 21:09 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis] The dish, a specialty of Mulligan's, a suburban bar, is a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a hoagie bun. Oh yeah, it's also topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries. My mouth's a-waterin', ya'll.
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis] Regardless of age, Lang doesn't recommend the Hamdog, even as a one-time snack. How much harm could it do as a one-time snack?
2005-02-14 22:48 | User Profile
Let's see...America is uptight about:
:yawn:
2005-02-14 23:17 | User Profile
I will give up miy biscuits and gravy when they pull my fork from my cold dead fingers! :angry:
2005-02-15 02:55 | User Profile
I love Fried Chicken, Fried Seafood and stuff that's deep fat fried in fritter batter! I like to put French Fried Potatoes on my Burgers. Hey I am only 120 pounds. I had Fried Chicken and French Fried Potatoes for lunch today. Yummy! :lol: :cheers:
2005-02-15 19:26 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Faust]I love Fried Chicken, Fried Seafood and stuff that's deep fat fried in fritter batter! I like to put French Fried Potatoes on my Burgers. Hey I am only 120 pounds. I had Fried Chicken and French Fried Potatoes for lunch today. Yummy! :lol: :cheers:[/QUOTE]
I like meat.
I like roast pork with a generous dollop of horseradish. I also like lots and lots of red meat - beef and mutton especially. All grilled/roasted preferably, but I have nothing against a little deep frying when I'm in the mood.
I mean to say that while I appreciate these Southern fancies, none of them really scratch my culinary itch.
Chicken and turkey and even red fish are fine for little variety, but for me there really is no food but meat, no meat but pork, and no man but a Green Bay Belgian.
2005-02-15 19:32 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Faust]Hey I am only 120 pounds.[/QUOTE]
A buck twenty, Faust?!! Last time I saw a buck twenty was around 5th grade. :)
Sounds like you need to come down to Tomball, TX and try a chicken fried steak from Goodson's. :thumbsup:
2005-02-15 19:38 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis]I like meat.[/QUOTE]
I would have expected nothing else with your type-A personality, Walter. :)
2005-02-15 19:49 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]I would have expected nothing else with your type-A personality, Walter. :)[/QUOTE]
What does "A" stand for there?
No, wait . . .
2005-02-15 19:54 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis]What does "A" stand for there?
No, wait . . .[/QUOTE]
:lol: My father in law is exactly the same way -- Meat and potatoes, straight forward and full steam ahead. Irish, too.
2005-02-15 20:18 | User Profile
I mean to say that while I appreciate these Southern fancies, none of them really scratch my culinary itch.
You've obviously never had some good barbeque.
Black's in Lockhart, TX kicks some tail with its sausage. Stuff just melts in your mouth... :drool:
2005-02-15 21:15 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType]You've obviously never had some good barbeque.
Black's in Lockhart, TX kicks some tail with its sausage. Stuff just melts in your mouth... :drool:[/QUOTE] Oh man, this thread is making me hungry.
Pulled pork barbeque, fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, country-fried steak, fried okra, cheese grits, fried green tomatoes, country ham and eggs, cornbread and beans, a mess of collard greens with fatback, strawberry rhubarb pie... washed down with iced tea. Oh Lawdy!
The wife's on a diet, so that means I am, too. Oh, the humanity!
2005-02-16 00:17 | User Profile
For those in Texas, the Bacon King Cheeseburger at W&W Grocery in Hutchins (just South of I-20 and just East of I-45) is the ultimate -- about 8 strips of bacon on that baby.... Can't beat it.
2005-02-16 14:15 | User Profile
Southern-Fried Valve-Bustinââ¬â¢ Comfort Food
by Brad Edmonds
Several alert readers this week have sent me a Yahoo! News item praising Southern cooking. Okay, so the news item doesnââ¬â¢t exactly praise our cooking; indeed, many health experts are quoted to the effect that they want to change our eating habits. I wish them luck, as our habits are based on long tradition, and weââ¬â¢re a stubborn lot.
No, thatââ¬â¢s not true; I donââ¬â¢t really wish them luck. Health experts are fine, as far as they go, but Iââ¬â¢d prefer to get my advice from people who love good food. Some of the most piquant notes from the news article:
*The Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), our nationââ¬â¢s prima donna of finger-wagging food nannies, serves high-fat deep-fried traditional Southern foods in its own cafeteria. Thatââ¬â¢s how strong Southern traditions can be.
*One suburban Atlanta eatery, Mulliganââ¬â¢s, serves, among other delicious-sounding fat bombs, what they call The Hamdog. The article describes the Hamdog as "a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a hoagie bun. ââ¬Â¦topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries." What an achievement! We all know itââ¬â¢s possible to produce a nasty food item using fat and highly processed animal-product-based ingredients (not easy, but possible), but it is also possible to put 1 or 2 or 10 such ingredients together in a way nobody ever thought of before, and arrive at something delicious. The Hamdog sounds delicious.
Other readers have alerted me to the existence of eateries that serve, for example, a cheeseburger topped with a fried egg; "livermush" (a North Carolina diner tradition ââ¬â liver sausage fried in butter); and hot beef or venison chili with eggs. And of course, there is no Southern town where you canââ¬â¢t get a meat-and-three at lunch time, with the meat being deep fried and the "three" being slathered in butter and bacon fat.
And when a vegetable isnââ¬â¢t cooked in butter and pork parts, itââ¬â¢s breaded and deep fried. See okra, green tomatoes, and squash for examples. Another great thing about breaded vegetables is that the breading soaks the hot sauce and high-fat gravy right up.
Whatââ¬â¢s just as good as the food itself, when considering such as The Hamdog, is the attitude: damn the nannies, full speed ahead; the single-minded pursuit of gustatory satisfaction; complete abandonment of oneself to some of the most succulent treasures the human form has the capacity even to sense.
There is a cost, of course. The South is known as the "stroke belt." Thatââ¬â¢s part of why exercise should be a big deal in your life. But frankly (and Iââ¬â¢m not a doctor, so ask one), the genes you inherited are probably the biggest player in your personal longevity. And consider: If you could live an extra 5 years with careful dieting; perhaps 10 with massive doses of drugs paid for with confiscated tax dollars, marked by a semi-conscious walk through life with little ability to sense the pleasures you gave up to live so longââ¬Â¦would you?
Iââ¬â¢m not advocating irresponsibility, just asking some reasonable questions. That being said, when my dad stayed in the hospital overnight after getting the inside of a major artery cleaned up, the hospital served him a breaded, deep-fried steak. With gravy.
Heart and coronary artery diseases are nothing to laugh at. You can feel great and be capable of anything one day, and be dead the next. Even excellent doctors can test you for everything they think they should test, and still miss something important. That being said, one of my regular readers, a surgeon himself, had bypass surgery a few years ago. After living on the Bypass Diet for a year, he decided that living on such a diet wasnââ¬â¢t such a blessing, and he resumed eating like most of us do. Heââ¬â¢s still doing fine.
Whatââ¬â¢s so comforting about comfort foods? There have been 1000 reasons proposed in the popular media, all of them ostensibly valid. The most plausible seems to be that comfort foods are those served us by our parents when we were small, so eating such foods reminds us of more innocent times when we werenââ¬â¢t so loaded with cares. Why are Southern comfort foods so high in fat? If you believe the Yahoo! news writer, itââ¬â¢s because our forbears were poor and our climate was hot. Frying was cool for the kitchen compared to baking, and it was cheap. So Yankees use Dutch ovens, and we use Fry Daddies.
Yeah, whatever. I think Southern foods are high in fat because Southerners are smart, and weââ¬â¢re good people. Likewise, some smart Yankees know, when they bake a chicken, to add a whole stick of butter. The French, say what you want about them, understand butter and fat in general. A day without oceans of delicious fat is like a day without sunshine.
The beauty of high-fat cooking, combined with the natural, cantankerous disobedience of Southerners with respect to "experts" and "higher authorities," is probably what determined the nature of Southern cuisine. Travel to the South, and enjoy our cooking before the government attempts to penalize you for it or legislate it away. Youââ¬â¢ll be glad you did.
February 16, 2005
Brad Edmonds [send him mail], author of the new book Thereââ¬â¢s a Government in Your Soup, writes from Alabama.
Copyright é 2005 LewRockwell.com
[url]http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/edmonds243.html[/url]
2005-02-18 19:51 | User Profile
And on a related note:
University Officials: "Mr. Politician, we need more money to continue our ever expanding edjewmacation system"
Politician: "Why yes, how much more should we extort from the sheeple?"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [url]http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1108535590261040.xml?starledger?nmx[/url]
Rutgers bans some sandwich names Wednesday, February 16, 2005 BY ROSA CIRIANNI Star-Ledger Staff
The "grease trucks" at Rutgers University in New Brunswick are famous for offering a variety of artery-clogging sandwiches, like the gut-busting "Fat Blunt" made with cheese steak, egg, pork roll, mozzarella sticks, French fries and mayonnaise.
But it's not the unhealthy fare that has some people bellyaching.
The names of certain "fat" sandwiches, as they are appropriately called, have been deemed offensive by the university, which leases the parking area to the grease trucks.
After receiving complaints from students, the university last week ordered the truck owners to cover up the names of the offending sandwiches.
"Licensed vendors must agree to abide by various regulations intended to best serve the Rutgers community, as well as the public," Rutgers spokeswoman Sandra Lanman said in a statement. "Their contractual obligations include providing copies of posted menu items; showing respect to all students, faculty and staff; and operating in a professional, courteous manner."
Sam Algar, owner of Mr. C's, said he received a letter directing him to change the names. He and the owners of the other two food trucks parked in a university parking lot on College Avenue promptly covered them up with silver duct tape.
"It's not like it's a bad thing. I'm not trying to discriminate or anything," Algar said. "It's extraordinary. It's funny. People drive from all over the place, from Philly, to say give me the 'Fat B*tch'."
Not everyone sees the humor.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a statewide gay and lesbian political organization, said he finds the sandwich names disgusting, grotesque and offensive.
"What's going on here is not just giving harmless names to sandwiches. This is how hate crimes begin," Goldstein said. "This is serious stuff. I'm alarmed."
Others, however, see it as the latest example of political correctness gone awry.
David French, president of the nonprofit Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said while it may be the university's prerogative to ask the owners to change their menus, it raises some constitutional concerns.
"It strikes me as silly and sort of systematic," French said. "It's kind of a piece of this larger problem that if someone is offended, colleges are awfully quick to pull the trigger."
Amy Bigge, who graduated from Rutgers in 1999 and who now works as a benefits specialist in Somerset, said she remembers when it was just the Fat Moon or the Fat Cat sandwiches. When the 30-year-old heard about the other names during lunch Monday, she said she agreed with the university's position.
Some students at the RU Hungry? grease truck said university officials and their classmates are being too sensitive, while others said they are glad the names will be dropped.
"It's just a sandwich," said Jakora Holman, 19, a student from Asbury Park who lives on the College Avenue campus. "No one thinks about it. How can anyone be insulted when (people) are ordering a sandwich?"
RU Hungry? owner Hesham Habib said students love the names, which are uniform between the trucks and a few area restaurants such as King's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria of New Brunswick and R.U. Grill & Pizza, both on Easton Avenue.
"If you put it on the menu or you don't put it on the menu, people know and they keep ordering them," Habib said.
The list of fat-named sandwiches has grown over the years and so have their popularity. Maxim magazine named the "Fat Darrell" from R.U. Grill & Pizza on Easton Avenue in New Brunswick, the country's No. 1 sandwich in its August 2004 issue.
Joseph Elghoul, manager for R.U. Grill & Pizza, has "Phat Specials" printed on its menu. They include a few that the university asked the grease trucks to cover up and change.
"I don't see any offensive names," said Elghoul of East Brunswick. "It's the people that come here and name the sandwiches after themselves."
The university has not contacted any of the city businesses about their use of the sandwich names.
"I don't think they should be covering it up. I don't think that has an effect on anything. It's just a form of expression," said Craig Matis, 20, a commuter from Flemington.
Graduate student Nichole Shippen disagreed.
"I absolutely agree with taking the names off," said Shippen, 27. "If it said anything about race, it would be taken off automatically. It's on university property; I feel like it should have to go by the same standards."
2005-02-18 19:56 | User Profile
Charley Reese on the "Edjewmacation System:
[url]http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20050209/index.php[/url]
For Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Real Freedom
There was a vulgar expression during the Vietnam War to the effect that if you control a certain part of a man's anatomy, his heart and mind will follow. Actually, if you can control his senses, his heart and mind really will follow.
Everything a human being knows comes mainly through the eyes and ears ââ¬â and, to a lesser extent, through the sense of taste, smell and touch. Our senses are our only connection with the reality outside of ourselves. Whether we are educated or ignorant depends on the data that have entered our brain via these senses and how our brain processes the data.
Unfortunately, today most of what people believe they know comes from television, radio, the movies and the Internet. We like to think that these are instruments of freedom, but, in fact, they are dominated by a few giant corporations. The vision of the world they present is remarkably consistent ââ¬â and often incomplete, out of context, confusing, contradictory or inaccurate.
I have never equated a certificate of attendance, whether it's in the form of a Ph.D. or a high-school diploma, with education. In fact, today institutional education has been so dumbed down that an eighth-grader in 1905 knew more than most university graduates know today. That's true. The one exception is the hard sciences, where reality keeps a check on academic manure. Otherwise, a college education today is the most flagrant example of consumer fraud in America.
To be truly educated, a person must have learned the basic facts of history, geography, science, math and language. Then the person must be taught the rules for clear thinking. He or she should also master at least a second language, and then must be motivated to continue the learning process for as long as he or she lives.
History is important because we are dropped through the womb into an already ongoing adventure. Unless we know what happened before we got here, we will be forever lost and confused. Geography is important because we are creatures of place, like other animals. Our environment has a great effect on us, both individually and collectively. It is because of climate, soil, water and resources that the United States is so developed, and it is because of climate, soil, scarcity of water and resources that the Middle East and Saharan Africa are much less so. Often for political propaganda purposes, people are praised or blamed for what is really a matter of geography.
There is no need to become a biophysicist or molecular biologist. The basic knowledge of chemistry, physics and biology is all that is necessary for most of us who don't plan to work in those fields. We need math in order to count, weigh and measure. We need language skills because a human being's survival and prosperity depends on communication. To me, it is appalling to see young people with 16 years of formal education who can't spell or use the grammar of their native tongue properly, much less speak or read a second language.
The point is, the more ignorant we are, the easier it is for others to manipulate, dupe and cheat us. Whether your life and your labor accrue benefits to you and your loved ones depends in large part on how successful you are in frustrating manipulators and cheats. Our society is full of both ââ¬â commercial, religious and political. They spend vast sums to control our senses in order to assure that our lives and labors benefit them instead of ourselves and our families.
If I were advising young people, I would say learn to observe, to listen and to say "No." Our current society is actually geared toward persuading us to do things and to spend money for things that benefit others while providing little or no benefits to ourselves.
It is important to know what it is you are willing to die for and what it is you are willing to live for. You should not allow the cheats and manipulators to make those decisions for you. We have no right to tell others what to live and die for, and no one has a right to tell us. Living your own life for yourself and the people you love is real freedom.
é 2005 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
2005-02-18 21:06 | User Profile
I have no problem with discouraging vulgar names on university property. That said, however, this fag's outrageous overreaction is hilarious. [QUOTE=Blond Knight] Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a statewide gay and lesbian political organization, said he finds the sandwich names disgusting, grotesque and offensive.
"What's going on here is not just giving harmless names to sandwiches. This is how hate crimes begin," Goldstein said. "This is serious stuff. I'm alarmed."[/QUOTE] :lol: