The Inescapability of Judgment

Mark Bittman sensibly suggests that a vegan diet isn't necessarily a health one:

Which brings us to the powerful person: Oprah. Ms. Winfrey, who has been on more diets than the rest of us combined, challenged her staff to "go vegan" for a week. Intriguing, except her idea of surviving without meat and dairy — no explanation given for why we should go from too much to none — is to fill your shopping cart with fake versions of both, like meatless chicken breasts and dairy-less cheese.

But the goal is not universal veganism, which is pie-in-the-sky; it's health and sustainability. And we get there by preparing real food, vegan or not. (Remember: Coke, Tostitos and Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs — yum! — are all vegan.) The answer is not fake animal products, whose advocates argue that they're transitional to a kinder-to-animal diet. Indeed, that's good, but a real food diet is better.

Bittman instead suggests we follow "Michael Pollan's ground-breaking slogan — 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'" Or as Bittman puts it "You want an acronym? Let's try ERF: Eat Real Food."

I like Pollan's books and appreciate what he's trying to say, but I think this concept of "real" food bears much less analytical scrutiny than its proponents tend to think. Tofu and soy sauce are both examples of processed foods, whereas french fries are "real" food. Or if there's something processed and unreal about french fries, it's the oil in which they're fried. But you can barely cook anything if you start to rule vegetable oils out bounds. It's true that the traditional peasant diets of mediterranean countries are very healthful, but there's nothing healthful about the traditional peasant diet of Ireland or Russia. Obviously, nothing in the Bittman or Pollan ouevres suggests they're unaware that an all-potato diet could be improved by introducing the occasional tofu stir fry. But I think this slogan captures less of what they mean than they think.