Let Go: 5-Star Appetites and Fast Food

(3-minute read)

In the early years of being part of a film crew, I was wined and dined by “the best restaurants in the travel guide”. I would never have suspected the coming scarcity of real food in America.

Family picnic (1957)

Growing up in the late fifties and sixties, I was raised on garden vegetables and locally raised meat.

Yes, bacon fat was considered harmless (among other bad things), but we were taught about the importance of fresh fruits, vegetables and meat. I remember my mother’s disgust about “foolish frozen tv dinners”. It was the era before industrialized, government subsidized farming, factory meat processing, and ultra-refined food products.

Homecoming meal, with fresh fruit, turkey and all the goodies (1975)

My memory of the bloody scene behind the butcher window in our neighborhood IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance) store was that it was a reality. A fact of life. I knew the smell of fresh blood from carcasses of meat.

From time to time, my father brought in fresh-killed chickens. We gathered eggs from our chicken coop for our mother. Sweets were a rarity. Soda drinks never entered our fridge.

At the surprisingly bare “Dessert Table” with my grandfather at Christmas (1956)

By college, I sampled the normal junk food fare: donuts, pizza, too much beer, and dinners of ramen noodles, Big Macs, Whoppers and french fries. These were all “splurges". Money was scarce.

And then I joined the film team.

I’d had very little experiences with eating out. Luckily, the somewhat jaded crew members demanded 5-Star restaurant fare at the end of our long work days.

The crew was on the road long before daybreak. Fasting (or nibbling on granola bars) during the sunrise shoots, we’d return to nutritious breakfasts or late brunches. The key was to nurture our appetites for the big reward at day’s end: to sit down to an extravagant meal.

5-Course meal in Moscow with National Geographic crew (1989)

It was while on location in countries such as Italy, Vietnam, India, Mexico and Russia, that I realized how different American food had become. America touted “vitamin enriched” processed ingredients as a superior way to feast. But I tasted a difference in those faraway places. I thought it was just the spices, but actually it was the ingredients - fresh, local, and free from additives designed to preserve shelf-life.

After this shoot in the Italian Alps, I would feast on fresh truffles in a small restaurant (1995)

It wasn’t until nearly 40 years had passed that I realized what had happened to the decline of nutritious food choices in America. I began a new career in the medical field and saw patients suffering from chronic diseases caused by diets rich in salt, sugar, fat, and ultra-processed fillers.

“Food Hangover”

The migraines, physical therapy and surgeries to come were “just a part of getting older”. This was something that modern medicine would resolve for me, I told myself.

Read A Film Flashback Story Here: Win Broken (Recollection No. 101)