BOSTON -- I am sitting at the breakfast table taking my medicine. This drug is a cup of coffee formerly identified by its native and urban origins: Sumatra and Peet's. But now it has been declared good for what might eventually ail me, if what might ail me is Parkinson's disease or colon cancer. Coffee has also been praised as a prevention for diabetes in Minnesota and cursed as a risk for diabetics in North Carolina, but I am in Massachusetts.
On my place mat is a bowl of Anti-Oxidants Formerly Known As Blueberries. These round little health capsules have been scientifically evaluated as a barrier against mental decline and cancer. Alas, they come from Chile, which is not good for my carbon footprint.
I am pondering an egg, which was once considered a suicidal act, death by cholesterol. Now it is praised for its carotenoids - lutein and zeaxanthin - essential for healthy eyes.
These healthy eyes are needed to read the newspaper stories in front of me full of the latest food health bulletins. The first dateline is New York City, which, you may recall, has joined the crowd in banning those evil trans fats that were once our salvation against those devilish animal fats. Now the city has also decided that calories of every dish should be posted in chain restaurants.
The second dateline is Seattle, which has predictably one-upped the East Coast. Its new law will list not only the calories but also the carbohydrates, fats and sodium lurking in the beurre blanc, creme fraiche and Big Mac.
How did it come to this? How did eating become a science rather than an art? How did food become conflated with medicine? We now have shelves full of boxes with bragging rights promising better eating through chemistry. Meanwhile, our uncertainty is growing as quickly as our waistlines.
Imagine what our ancestors would have made of a book titled In Defense of Food. They never would have believed that food needed a defense attorney. But one of the leading indicators of the fix we are in is how quickly Michael Pollan's manifesto vaulted to the top of the best-seller list. There it sits, proof of the transformation of the land of plenty into the land of plenty of anxieties.
Mr. Pollan's last book raised The Omnivore's Dilemma - what to eat. He masticated the meaning of four meals for people, the Earth and the agricultural industry. He single-handedly made "locavore" the word of the year for the New Oxford American Dictionary. Think global, eat local.
