I don’t know why daytime news shows have a cooking segment. The news person is always horrified if the recipe calls for butter or cream. They wind up talking about calories and heart disease instead of food.
And it’s not just TV.
At a dinner I attended, the food spread before me was aromatic and I was hungry.
The hostess announced that the main course was cholesterol-free and offered us a choice of diet margarine or butter, “for those who can afford the cholesterol.”
“I can,” one of the diners volunteered, “my cholesterol count is 185.”
Later in the meal, another diner turned down delicious homemade apple pie because her “triglycerides are too high.”
I applaud that people want to take care of their health. But do they have to inflict that information on me? Do they have to make me feel guilty because I prefer sweet butter to that yellow, carbon-based substance going under the name of diet margarine?
You can hardly take a bite these days without someone warning about calories, cholesterol and triglycerides (whatever those are).
Doubtless, my triglycerides could use improvement. But, that’s my private business. I don’t tell people about my triglycerides. And I would appreciate it if they didn’t tell me about theirs.
Even the best of dinners tastes like charcoal if you are worried the next mouthful might be your last.
It’s only a matter of time before people start warning about other “harmful” hitherto pleasures.
“You’re going for a walk?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Oh, nothing, but six out of every 254 people who go for a walk get hit by a bus.”
Don’t scoff. In our self-absorbed quest for immortality it could happen.
All I ask is that you keep your fear to yourself. I have access to the same information about what is harmful as you have. If I choose to act on it, I will.
But let’s talk about something else, OK?
Or, let’s just do the civilized thing and eat in silence while we watch TV.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.
