DINNER

“My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.” -- Orson Welles

MEAL PLANNING FOR US ALWAYS STARTS WITH RUMINATIONS on the composition of the big hunk of protein that will grace the middle of the plate. After that, we think about the sides. First the starch—potato, rice or couscous—then the vegetable—anything except Brussels sprouts, succotash or lima beans, which I love but my wife and family hate, or beets, which only my mother and mother-in-law like—and finally the salad, which is usually greens tossed with a homemade vinaigrette.

Actually, we think less and less about starch since I started on a low-carb diet to help keep my diabetes under control. That’s one of the many side effects of eating (and drinking) too well and too often in my earlier years. Suddenly—or so it seemed—my body developed the new killer triumvirate of the baby boomers—high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes aka the metabolic syndrome. So now it’s go easy on the carbs and bring on the protein (but watch the fat). Far too many rules to remember.

My next cookbook will be one for the rapidly aging baby boomers who are now facing or already have that deadly triumvirate. Medical literature tells us that the big three usually come together, particularly for well-fed men living the good life in the United States.

Some folks are trying to blame the fast food restaurants that we all love to hate. Personally, I blame the US government and its food pyramid and medical community’s obsession with low fat diets. Both place a heavy emphasis on food rich in carbohydrates. Maybe it’s the carbs we should be looking at. There’s something more than poor impulse control going on here.

And with the revelations in Michael Pollan's book, \"The Omnivore's Dilemma\" about corn and agribusiness, the government looks even more culpable.

Perhaps we should look back into the early part of the Paleolithic epoch when the emerging homo sapiens was eating a carnivorous diet. We did quite well as hunter-gatherers, evolving from our common mitochondrial Eve-mother, until we stopped our wandering ways and came together in farm-centered communities. Some folks who study the fossilized remains of our ancestors say that before we domesticated corn and rice and other staples, humans were about the size of a well-fed middle class American.

Once we settled down, there was an increase in disease and a decrease in the quality of protein. Also, since some of us were better at farming than others, a class system began to develop. Along with that came organized religion, nation states and warfare, soon to be followed by pasta, hearth-baked breads, bagels with cream cheese and lox, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, pizza and all of the other carbs that make living enjoyable.

It’s probably best that we did settle down. Einstein would have a hard time developing his theories of matter if he had to hunt for food every day and Michelangelo wouldn’t have had that great ceiling to paint, and Mozart… you get my drift. I just wish our bodies had evolved more quickly so that chicken fried steak and deep fried Twinkies could be part of a healthy diet.

As it is, the debate continues on what constitutes a healthy diet. There are studies that seem to bolster the claim of every diet—from Atkins to Ornish—so it would seem that the best diet is one that keeps your numbers (cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose) in line and one that you can stick to.

For now, the best advice remains the old advice to eat everything in moderation but with a new twist: go organic and local whenever you can.