Food for thought

Food for thought
Eating well is the basis for our national success

November 22, 2001

American have countless reasons to be thankful today. None, however, is more basic or more overlooked than what is right under our noses. Today’s feast is more than a metaphor.

America’s material bounty, its liberty and culture, its historic and religious heritage are all represented by the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It serves to remind us of all that we have and of all we owe previous generations.

But the meal is also the message. America’s wealth, indeed its very survival began — make that begin — with food.

In his award-winning book, In the Heart of the Sea, author Nathaniel Philbrick delves into why. The book tells the story of the Nov. 20, 1820 loss of the whaleship Essex and the subsequent ordeal of its shipwrecked crew.

The story of the Essex was, in part, the basis of Herman Melville’s classic, Moby Dick. The ship was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale just south of the equator 1,500 miles west of the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.

The crew were experienced seamen equipped with whaleboats — stout craft, but not rigged for sailing into the wind. As such they had few choices. Closest, at 1,200 miles were the Marquesas. Next, at 2,000 miles, was Tahiti. Both were downwind, and both would likely have been safe harbors. Instead, the whalers, fearful of what natives they might encounter, decided on a longer, more circuitous course south and then east to Chile. The survivors were at sea for three months, and in that time they starved.

In recounting his tale, Philbrick explains much about hunger. Most telling is a discussion of a study done during World War II at the University of Minnesota.

To learn more about treating hungry refugees, volunteers were systematically starved until they lost 25 percent of their body weight. They were given meager, but otherwise healthy rations of the kinds of foods refugees might encounter. What they experienced says much about us.

As the men lose weight they became irritable, lethargic and weak. They lost the ability to concentrate, all initiative and creativity. Philbrick quotes an observer saying, "Many of the so-called American characteristics — abounding energy, generosity, optimism — become intelligible as the expected behavior response of a well-fed people."

We have all heard that we are what we eat. Perhaps it is more accurate that we are what we are because we eat well.

Let’s give thanks for that.