Grease

August 10, 2020

I have mentioned that Melissa and I have changed the way we eat during the last eight months (yes, even before being locked down).  This includes eating more vegetables and preferring leaner cuts of meat.  We are also trying to cut down on fried foods.  When we do fry, we try to use a small amount of olive oil or even the olive oil sprays.  These are not only less calories, but I have read the vegetable oils are bad for you.  The unsaturated fats found in vegetable oil oxidize when they are heated, making them more dangerous to body tissues.  They can cause inflammation which is a known risk for making blood-vessel plaques unstable.  At times enough to cause a heart attack.

Since the closure of restaurants earlier this year we have been making most of our own meals and only eating out occasionally.   Often when we do eat out it is to return to the restaurants and the foods we used to love.  We dropped by one of these haunts on the way home for some Southern fried catfish.  They have been either closed or serving takeout only and are located 40 minutes from where we live.  Now the dining room is open, with masks and at half capacity.  I noticed another change in the updated sign along the street.  For as long as I can remember it read The Catfish -ole.  I guess they had time to put the “H” back on and repaint the sign.

I opted for the fried clams, but Melissa went with the small catfish platter.  This came with all the trimmings, dill pickles, sliced red onions, coleslaw, pinto beans, hushpuppies, and french fries.  Both of us had trouble with our stomachs in the afternoon.  I commented that I had also had problems after eating a fried Ruben last week, and Melissa said she can now only eat certain things without having problems.  We both realized what was causing the problem was the amount of grease found in the restaurant food we loved.  This used to be a favorite staple, but it now seems to come with consequences.

THOUGHTS:  In college I read an ethnologist’s book on the time he spent with the Inuit’s in Northern Canada.  They primarily subsisted on caribou meat.  The others lavished the fatty parts of this meat, but he stayed with the leaner cuts.  After living among the people for several months he found himself getting sick.  His friends took a can of caribou fat and melted it on the fire.  He drank this down ravenously and got better.  It seems caribou store vitamin C in their fat and in the frozen north, there was nowhere else to get it.  This is like the limes kept on old sailing ships to prevent scurvy.  Customs can be quite different between cultural groups, but when we listen and learn we often find there is a good reason.  Change is coming and it starts with you.