The Seedy Sea

Hey Everyone,

Coffee is everywhere. Good coffee is harder to find. It was this week when I went to three places, each, to redeem the piror for supplying me with a disappointment in a paper cup. Before I got a good pour, it was already time for cocktails, and the bigger buzz I felt was that of frustration with the time and money, so far wasted.

Dinner didn't get better.

I sat down for my 25th anniversary with the Mrs. Naturally, we should have been in Belize, or on the shores of a Thailand resort with Walton Gogins and the girl with the teeth from White Lotus. Instead, we were in Lexington, KY. It's no all-inclusive resort, but it's a fine city if I've ever seen one.

At dinner, we sat down at one of the nicest places in town. Potentially, anyway. It was decorated artistically, and the menu screamed first class. Nicer restaurants can accommodate my wife's celiac disease, a wheat gluten allergy, which, if triggered, can ruin an evening, or more likely a week if you're not careful.

We spared no expense. We ordered with abandon and added the extra appetizers. Let's just say if it were a McDonald's, we would have supersized. If it's a Wendy's, we added the Frosties.

It was nicer than all of the above on the surface. We ordered the half chicken. It took a minute, which I thought nothing of until our waiter told us why. The kitchen had dropped part of our chicken. They would be bringing us "part of the chicken," and bringing the additional chicken bits shortly after.

Weird, but fine. You won't be getting that Micheline star, but we'll eat the chicken. Can I get another cocktail, too? Preferably, all in one glass, but if you need to deliver it in stages, I'll deal. The baked feta was delicious, by the way. If I'm judging by comparing one creamy thing to another, at this point, I had a feeling this was going to outperform the Frostie, despite the delivery issues.

When the chicken came to the table, portioned onto two plates, we clicked forks, tucked our napkins into our collars, and got started. It looked small but mighty. My mouth watered just fine. A new cocktail was coming behind it.

I was maybe two bites in when the waiter came back and insisted we stop eating right now. His timing isn't award-winning, as we're both sinking our teeth into a bite, staring at the sauce on the plate like we're about to make love to it.

"Stop!" he repeated. "The kitchen has informed me there may be some gluten contamination on the plate."

We did our best to be kind as we thanked him for letting us know, as we waited for the kitchen to remake the dish with proper adjustments. We were already at the table, and there was nothing we could do but finish the meal. He was right, it was contaminated. I'm receiving daily reports, and now, days later, the inflammation continues.

I won't be making dinner recommendations for you in Lexington.

While on this trip, we did some driving and started a book. The book, Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food, talks about the proliferation of food produced by science. For years, people believed that food and chemistry worked the same way. That precisely 300 calories of sugar, salt, fat, and starch is just that. 300 calories, and perfectly measured nutrients. Science can't seem to validate this claim. Not unless the packaged food industry funds it. Ultra-processed foods, basically any food that has a logo, a label, or any marketing, are associated with a global rise of obesity, chronic disease, and all-cause mortality. This includes everything from noodles to “healthy” protein bars.

For many of us, it's too late. We've already sat at the table, and we're not sure if we can bring ourselves to get up. For our generation, the damage started when we were young, when we could "eat anything." It caught up to us over time. For our children, it begins now, and studies find that 60% or more of their food is ultra-processed food. And it's laying the foundation for their future health.

When Robert F. Kennedy took his post as head of Health and Human Services, his supporters were optimistic that he would make America healthy again. Based on his Senate hearing yesterday, his politicking and what he's done so far, I'm not optimistic. I'm not sure he has the power. It would take congressional-level intervention in the multi-billion-dollar food business and the healthcare industry to change how we treat diseases and what is legal to feed people. It will take a revision of the commonly held beliefs about 60% of our diet, rather than the distraction of removing toxic dyes in an effort to sterilize our poisonous foods.

We'll not only have to trust the science, but we'll also have to continue to review it. We'll need to revise previously accepted views—that a calorie is a calorie. A view that continues to yield health conditions that hardly existed 150 years ago.

Most of all, it will take all of us. Perhaps if we realize the ways we are harming our bodies and our children's, one tasty bite at a time, maybe that will change things. Change will require all of us to wake up.

I'm not confident we're going to do it.

That's it for this week.

Remember: The Lorem Ipsum is better with friends, so please share widely.

Have a great weekend!