talking back to graffiti

talking back to graffiti

The Species I Ate Today

In In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, Michael Pollan urges us to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." One of the points he makes is that since every plant has evolved its own chemical defenses (including antioxidants), the more species you eat, the better-protected you can be against various kinds of free radicals.

Just to give y'all an idea of how many non-animal species one can eat in a single day:

1. Button mushrooms (in an omelet)
2. Black plum (snack)
3. Red Anjou pear (snack)
4. Potato (in a potato-based "nachos")
5. Black beans (nachos)
6. Jalapeño peppers (nachos)
7. Wheat (tortilla in a wrap)
8. Portobello mushrooms (wrap)
9. Iceberg lettuce (wrap)
10. Tomato (wrap)
11. Red onion (wrap)
12. Broccoli (side of veggies)
13. Zucchini (veggies)
14. Yellow squash (veggies)
15. Cauliflower (veggies)
16. Carrot (veggies)
17. Cucumber (pickle spear)
18. Lime (with water)
19. Lemon (with water)
20. Pineapple (core, after I chopped up the rest of it)

Undoubtedly there were herbal infinitesimals and some sort of soybean or rapeseed oil in the vinaigrette, but these were all in quantities large enough for the average person to identify.

Probably I don't do nearly as well most days, but I'm pleasantly surprised at how many poor defenseless plants I'm murdering.  (And big ups to the anonymous cows and chickens whose milk and eggs, respectively, were involved.)