Eggs: Disgusting??

My roommate and I are always having a disagreement about whether or not eggs taste good. I love the taste of eggs, but my roommate hates them. She isn't a vegetarian or vegan or anything, she just thinks eggs taste bad. I think she's crazy. I saw this article in the New York Times "Dining and Wine" section, and I thought it fit with this week's theme on taste. It addresses the eggs disgusting/tasty question. There are also some recipes.

1909: Eggs Eli
By AMANDA HESSER
Published: September 23, 2007
In the early 20th century, The Times ran a story on ways to cook eggs for breakfast on Easter Sunday. According to the unnamed writer, the challenge a cook faces in disguising the flavor of eggs “is a puzzle that adds years to his age unless inspiration or accident brings a happy solution.” He apparently never experienced the delight of truffles with eggs or, for that matter, of bacon and eggs. Three decades later, Marcel Boulestin’s book “Eggs” would put the supposed quandary to rest, and by 2000, eggs would become so revered that they would inspire Marie Simmons’s 464-page cookbook, “The Good Egg.”
In the meantime, a temporary solution was offered by John W. Keller, a former city commissioner. His “Eggs Eli” involved rubbing a chafing dish with a garlic clove, then scrambling eggs in it with a mash of Virginia ham and anchovies — just the kind of unfussy, robust dish you might find on the brunch menu at Prune in the East Village.
Among the story’s other overstrenuous tips for masking the flavor of eggs were poached eggs topped with a hops-scented béchamel, President Taft’s campfire omelet (fried trout, salt and pepper) and the Colony Club’s “Eggs Suffragette,” a twist on deviled eggs that incorporated anchovies (the dish, however, didn’t hasten women’s suffrage). Delmonico’s Restaurant, meanwhile, was dismissed as having “failed to evolve any novelty.”
Most inventive of all was Mark Twain’s “Eggs à la Canton, Williamsport, Trout Run and Way Stations,” which instructed you to: “Divest two genuine eggs of shell and claws, being careful to avoid breaking same. If you break ’em, begin again at the top of the recipe and proceed anew. Lay the plumage and cackle on one side, roll the remainder very thin, add baking powder and boil in a pudding bag over a slow fire for a week. Tie with baby ribbons and serve cold.”
It’s difficult to improve on a dish like that, or even one as blunt and tasty as Eggs Eli. I thought Charles Phan, the chef and owner of the Slanted Door in San Francisco, might be up to the task.
Eggs Eli reminded him not of a hearty breakfast after a morning of rowing but of lunches in China, where eggs are served as an entree. “If you told me you got this out of the 1909 Hong Kong paper, I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said.
In China, salted fish, like anchovies, appear at nearly every meal. “They salt the entire sea,” Phan said. For his modern recipe, he added: “I was going to do ground pork and anchovy, but everybody knows that dish — it’s too literal. I wasn’t working hard enough.”
Persistence led him to two dishes served over rice. For the first, finely chopped pork shoulder is mixed with fish sauce, browned in oil and smothered with spicy yellow chives and eggs. Anchovies and garlic appear in the second as the aromatic for sautéed gai lan, or Chinese broccoli. Into each bowlful, you spoon a little rice, then top it with the crisp pork and egg on one side and the gai lan on the other — fat and happy, lean and mean. Tie on some baby ribbons, and you’ll have a meal fit for Mark Twain.
•
1909: Eggs Eli
This recipe by John W. Keller, a city commissioner, appeared in an article in The Times.
Anchovies were a popular ingredient at the turn of the 20th century. It’s impossible to know what the quality of the average anchovy was then. A good anchovy now is plump and assertive but neither too salty nor too fishy. (And whatever you do, avoid the ones with capers.) Lots of cookbooks call for those packed in salt, but Agostino Recca, a common brand found in supermarkets, makes good-quality ones, already filleted and packed in oil, that are fine substitutes.
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
8 eggs, cracked into a bowl
1 tablespoon finely minced anchovy
3 tablespoons finely minced
Virginia ham, or other smoked ham.
Rub the inside of a large skillet with the garlic clove. Place over medium-high heat and add the butter. When it’s nice and foamy, pour in the eggs. Sprinkle the anchovy and ham over the eggs, then begin scrambling them, stopping when they’re done to your liking. Keller, a Yale dropout, adds: “Serve on a Yale blue dish.” But any dish is fine. Serves 4.
•
2007: Crisp Pork With Scrambled Eggs and Yellow Chives
By Charles Phan, chef at the Slanted Door in San Francisco.
You can substitute green Chinese chives for yellow Chinese chives (which are available at Asian markets), but you will lose some of the spiciness.
3 ounces finely chopped pork shoulder
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon canola oil
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper
2 tablespoons yellow Chinese chives cut into 1-inch strips
4 eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt.
1. In a small bowl, combine the pork, fish sauce, oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.
2. In a nonstick sauté pan set over medium-high heat, brown the pork until crisp and no longer pink. Add the chives and cook 1 minute more. Reduce the heat to medium, add the eggs and stir them around the pan until the eggs set. Accompany with white rice and gai lan with anchovies. Serves 2.
•
Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) With Anchovies
1 pound gai lan, rinsed and trimmed
2 tablespoons canola oil
½ teaspoon minced garlic
8 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons rice wine
¼ cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons Vietnamese fish sauce
Cooked white rice, optional.
Split the large stalks of gai lan in half lengthwise. Place a large sauté pan over high heat and add the oil. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the garlic and anchovies and cook, pressing on the anchovies with a wooden spoon until they dissolve and the garlic lightly browns. Add the gai lan and toss in the sauce to coat. Pour in the rice wine and let it reduce for 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and fish sauce, bring to a boil, cover and steam until almost tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Uncover and cook at a lively simmer until the gai lan is tender and the sauce has evaporated slightly. Serve with white rice and the crisp pork with scrambled eggs. Serves 2.
From: The New York Times

Mapleview Milk

I realize half of the class was not at our first meeting. However, at our first class, we did a taste test of milk. Before it's identity was revealed, I chose Mapleview milk as the tastiest and also as the one much different from anything I'd tasted. The milk is bottled at Mapleview Farms in Chapel Hill and is available at almost every grocery store in Durham (Including Wholefoods and Kroger on Hillsburough). Last week I purchased a bottle for the first time. Not only was it the same price as the other brands (1.99), but I returned the glass bottle to wholefoods yesterday and got $1.30 in return for it. I couldn't believe it! So, if I was charged the proper amount both times, Mapleview milk costs only $0.69. So, if you really enjoyed it too, it is local, green, AND cheap :)

People Eating by Themselves

Hey y'all.

So, a couple weeks ago in class we were talking about how we feel the urge to look "busy" while eating opposed to just sitting there enjoying our food in peace without a book or the crossword puzzle or sudoku or something in front of us. I have eaten breakfast twice in the last 5 days, so Thursday and today (Tuesday) and both times I have seen quite a few people sitting there just eating there food. Their backpacks were closed and on the floor. There were no books, no Chronicles, just them and food. It was cool to see. One girl was def jamming out to her iPod and smiling. She looked content. In her own world and could care less. I thoguht it was great. The other few kids I saw were also just doing there thing. Two of the dudes were kind of watching other people. The other guy was faced away from people so that it seemed like he was trying to have his own space even while all the swimmers were at the tables in the middle. Oh, and both times I had breakfast I also made sure to make a conscious effort to not have anything in front of me to keep me "busy". Just food. It was actually quite nice. I totally recommend if you get the chance. I had kind of forgotten what it was like. Ta ta.

Ann Drea

Food and Religion

The discussion in the readings this week was really interesting regarding the Eucharist and whether or not it was considered truly transformed in communion. The tie between the food (bread and wine) and religion (the observance of the belief in Christ's sacrifice) is rather unique. I don't think I ever thought about the fact that the bread and wine are really food before.
Anyway, I thought it was very interesting that the Duke Chapel bulletin from the Sunday service yesterday included a discussion about what is taking place during communion. The explanation, which was on the back of the bulletin, outlined what the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Zwinglian, and Anglican tradition faiths believe is happening during communion. The reading focused mostly on a Roman Catholic perspective, so it was interesting to note the differences between faiths.
Although I found the reading interesting, I was disappointed that it did not explore more the fact that the Eucharist is indeed food. The reading focused more on the question of whether or not the food was actually being transformed into Christ's body through the blessing.

Yummy food... religious ties

Hey guys! This is an article I wrote for the Chronicle two weeks ago, and I know I've mentioned it in class before. I absolutely love the Refectory, its so tasty, and it does fit into our food and religion theme this week as it is in the divinity school, and I always see people from different religions there if they have just come from chapel or something.

Refectory grows in popularity
By: Ashley Holmstrom
Posted: 9/13/07In the cozy lower floor of the Divinity School, increasing numbers of students have sought shelter in the homemade meals and the calm atmosphere of the Refectory Cafe.With music every Sunday night, daily lunch specials, nutritious meals and hot breakfast every morning, the Refectory fills a niche different from other on-campus venues. Opened in September of 2005, it has since transformed from a lunch counter catering to Divinity School students to a full-blown restaurant drawing students and faculty members from everywhere on campus."Refectory food is generally better than most food on campus," said sophomore Dazi Russell. "And it's homemade."Quality and freshness are key components to the Refectory's success, said owner Laura Hall. When she opened the Refectory, it was the first green cafe at Duke, using equipment and serving supplies from other campus eateries.Although the Refectory has been frequented by Divinity School students and faculty in the past, the cafe has found a new following, especially on Sunday nights for Simple Suppers-which began last year-said Jim Wulforst, director of Dining Services. "Last year the Refectory averaged about 150 to 175 students on Sunday nights, but this year, there were over 320 on opening night," he said.Hall added that Sunday night suppers are no longer solely attended by students leaving the Chapel. "Last week we were overwhelmed [by the response]," Hall said. "We've had beautiful nights, great food, and the people have just come out of the woodwork."Wulforst encouraged the Refectory to open on Sunday nights due to a lack of available dining options, she said."We're pinching ourselves," said Hall, who said she is overjoyed at the good responses she has been getting to the cafe this year. She was quick to credit her dedicated smiling staff and said she is proud of the special, unique menu. "I think the attitude of the employees is just extraordinary," Wulforst said. "They go out of their way to make customers feel comfortable and they have good food and top-quality ingredients."Customer feedback is important to Hall, who has a weekly e-mail list that students and faculty can join to receive Refectory updates and menu changes. Over the past couple of years, the Refectory has tried new dishes and now serves those dishes that garner the most positive response from customers. Indian dal, an organic lentil stew containing 90-percent protein, and vegan chili are two locally award-winning popular dishes. The Refectory's dal has been awarded the status of a near-perfect dietary food by the Durham County Health Department through the Winner's Circle Healthy Dining Program, in which the Refectory participates. In addition, their homemade chili won the Bull City Chili Challenge this summer.Hall said organic and locally-grown ingredients have remained important to her. The restaurant supports eight local food-providing companies, such as Durham's LocoPops and the Durham and Carrboro farmers markets. The Refectory now grows its own herbs in a sustainable herb garden on the terrace outside.It also prides itself on its ability to appeal to people with many different sorts of diets, Hall said. The cafe boasts many low-fat, high-protein nutritionally balanced meals and provides for special dietary needs-such as vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. Hall noted, however, that high-carb meals are also offered, such as lasagna, which often attracts athletes.All of Hall's efforts, and those of her staff, have not gone unnoticed by Dining Services, Wulforst said. He added that the Refectory is in the process of being supplied with an updated kitchen and new electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning systems. Once the kitchen is fully operational, Hall may choose to expand business hours if the response remains strong, said Wulforst, who has already asked her to consider hosting dinners for the Focus Program on Thursday nights."A place will be popular because students want it to be," Wulforst said.
© Copyright 2007 The Chronicle

Menu for next Monday, 9-24-07

Hey Everyone! So, on monday Ashley and I are going to attempt to make
bruschetta
chicken and asparagus
roasted potatoes
and
apple pie

So I think you will need to bring a plate, and another small plate or bowl, and a fork, knife, and a cup.
We think that the bruscetta and potatoes will be vegetarian/vegan, and the apple pie should be vegetarian and maybe vegan depending on what is in the pie crust (we are unsure yet).

I hope this is ok with everyone, we are very excited and will see you next week!

Food preparations across cultures

I thought it might be interesting to note that when doing research in an attempt to identify a culture (one alive today or an ancient culture) in which the men primarily prepare the food, I was unable to find one. I thought, after reading the Food and Culture Studies Chapter 8 section on feminism and traditional food preparation, that there must be some culture where men are the primary cooks. The assertion made by Levi-Strauss in the Chapter 2 section that men in the Assinibon plains culture boil things and women cook things on spits outside further encouraged me to look for such a culture. But it seems I was incorrect. If anyone has any information to the contrary I would be really interested to know about it.
I was, however, able to find out that in Thailand, in Mae hong son, one of the northern provinces, men primarily prepare the food for important festivals, usually religious festivals. Women still prepare the food on a day to day basis, but men are in charge of holidays.

Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy? (NYTimes Magazine)

New York Times Magazine
September 16, 2007 (Today)
Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?
By GARY TAUBES

Once upon a time, women took estrogen only to relieve the hot flashes, sweating, vaginal dryness and the other discomforting symptoms of menopause. In the late 1960s, thanks in part to the efforts of Robert Wilson, a Brooklyn gynecologist, and his 1966 best seller, “Feminine Forever,” this began to change, and estrogen therapy evolved into a long-term remedy for the chronic ills of aging. Menopause, Wilson argued, was not a natural age-related condition; it was an illness, akin to diabetes or kidney failure, and one that could be treated by taking estrogen to replace the hormones that a woman’s ovaries secreted in ever diminishing amounts. With this argument estrogen evolved into hormone-replacement therapy, or H.R.T., as it came to be called, and became one of the most popular prescription drug treatments in America.

By the mid-1990s, the American Heart Association, the American College of Physicians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had all concluded that the beneficial effects of H.R.T. were sufficiently well established that it could be recommended to older women as a means of warding off heart disease and osteoporosis. By 2001, 15 million women were filling H.R.T. prescriptions annually; perhaps 5 million were older women, taking the drug solely with the expectation that it would allow them to lead a longer and healthier life. A year later, the tide would turn. In the summer of 2002, estrogen therapy was exposed as a hazard to health rather than a benefit, and its story became what Jerry Avorn, a Harvard epidemiologist, has called the “estrogen debacle” and a “case study waiting to be written” on the elusive search for truth in medicine.

Many explanations have been offered to make sense of the here-today-gone-tomorrow nature of medical wisdom — what we are advised with confidence one year is reversed the next — but the simplest one is that it is the natural rhythm of science. An observation leads to a hypothesis. The hypothesis (last year’s advice) is tested, and it fails this year’s test, which is always the most likely outcome in any scientific endeavor. There are, after all, an infinite number of wrong hypotheses for every right one, and so the odds are always against any particular hypothesis being true, no matter how obvious or vitally important it might seem.

In the case of H.R.T., as with most issues of diet, lifestyle and disease, the hypotheses begin their transformation into public-health recommendations only after they’ve received the requisite support from a field of research known as epidemiology. This science evolved over the last 250 years to make sense of epidemics — hence the name — and infectious diseases. Since the 1950s, it has been used to identify, or at least to try to identify, the causes of the common chronic diseases that befall us, particularly heart disease and cancer. In the process, the perception of what epidemiologic research can legitimately accomplish — by the public, the press and perhaps by many epidemiologists themselves — may have run far ahead of the reality. The case of hormone-replacement therapy for post-menopausal women is just one of the cautionary tales in the annals of epidemiology. It’s a particularly glaring example of the difficulties of trying to establish reliable knowledge in any scientific field with research tools that themselves may be unreliable.

What was considered true about estrogen therapy in the 1960s and is still the case today is that it is an effective treatment for menopausal symptoms. Take H.R.T. for a few menopausal years and it’s extremely unlikely that any harm will come from it. The uncertainty involves the lifelong risks and benefits should a woman choose to continue taking H.R.T. long past menopause. In 1985, the Nurses’ Health Study run out of the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health reported that women taking estrogen had only a third as many heart attacks as women who had never taken the drug. This appeared to confirm the belief that women were protected from heart attacks until they passed through menopause and that it was estrogen that bestowed that protection, and this became the basis of the therapeutic wisdom for the next 17 years.

Faith in the protective powers of estrogen began to erode in 1998, when a clinical trial called HERS, for Heart and Estrogen-progestin Replacement Study, concluded that estrogen therapy increased, rather than decreased, the likelihood that women who already had heart disease would suffer a heart attack. It evaporated entirely in July 2002, when a second trial, the Women’s Health Initiative, or W.H.I., concluded that H.R.T. constituted a potential health risk for all postmenopausal women. While it might protect them against osteoporosis and perhaps colorectal cancer, these benefits would be outweighed by increased risks of heart disease, stroke, blood clots, breast cancer and perhaps even dementia. And that was the final word. Or at least it was until the June 21 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Now the idea is that hormone-replacement therapy may indeed protect women against heart disease if they begin taking it during menopause, but it is still decidedly deleterious for those women who begin later in life.

This latest variation does come with a caveat, however, which could have been made at any point in this history. While it is easy to find authority figures in medicine and public health who will argue that today’s version of H.R.T. wisdom is assuredly the correct one, it’s equally easy to find authorities who will say that surely we don’t know. The one thing on which they will all agree is that the kind of experimental trial necessary to determine the truth would be excessively expensive and time-consuming and so will almost assuredly never happen. Meanwhile, the question of how many women may have died prematurely or suffered strokes or breast cancer because they were taking a pill that their physicians had prescribed to protect them against heart disease lingers unanswered. A reasonable estimate would be tens of thousands.

[See the rest of this article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/magazine/16epidemiology-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin]

Epicurious.com

As I recently shared with you, my roommate, Annalies, is a fabulous cook. She recently introduced me to the website: http://www.epicurious.com, which is the best website for recipes that I've seen so far. If you are already familiar with it, I'm sorry! For those of you who aren't, though, it has thousands of recipes, including user reviews of each recipe as well, and very useful pictures. It also has many fun features including a Recipe of the Day, Food and Wine dictionaries, and various articles and guides. Enjoy!

Loco Like a Fox (News & Observer article)

Makes me want to go back for a second field trip!

Published: May 31, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: May 31, 2006 06:06 AM

Loco like a fox
Mexican-inspired frozen confections draw on local produce
Susan Houston, Staff Writer
DURHAM - The idea for LocoPops was, founder Summer Bicknell would admit, just plain loco. If she had submitted her plan for a grade in business school, "I would have flunked," Bicknell says. "I had a business plan that bore no resemblance to reality."
Yet here she sits on a sunny afternoon, on a bench outside her Hillsborough Road shop, as customers stream past and into the door. She doesn't advertise, doesn't have a Web site, doesn't take credit cards. Yet Triangle residents have gone loco for LocoPops, Bicknell's unique twist on paletas (pah-LAY-tahs), Mexican-style frozen treats on a stick.

Emily and Gail Vaughn of Raleigh are finishing up their second LocoPops outside the store (cookies and cream and strawberries and cream, respectively).

"The plan is you get two small ones ..." Gail Vaughn begins.

"That way you get to try more flavors," daughter Emily finishes.

Emily's sister, a Duke graduate, introduced the rest of the family to LocoPops. Now they are hooked. When her mother visited Emily in Mexico last summer, they sampled the local paletas.

"And she said, 'This is just like the place in Durham,' " Emily recalls.

Inside, a big whiteboard behind the counter lists the 22 flavors available today, evenly divided between paletas de crema (made with milk and cream) and paletas de agua (made with water).

There's also a hand-drawn globe with the slogan, "Blending the traditions of Mexico with the flavors of the world."

"If you want to boil down the concept of LocoPops, it's that," Bicknell says.

The "traditions of Mexico" are seen in the list of "regulars": creamy lime (like a Key lime pie on a stick), mojito, tamarind, hibiscus and mango chile -- a fruity, spicy favorite in Mexico.

"I had the mango chile in Mexico, and hers is just right," Emily confirms.

"The flavors of the world" show Bicknell's facility with flavors. There are two "FUNky" flavors each week (pear cardamom and rosemary lemon last week) and about a dozen "guest stars" such as chocolate chile, coconut ginger and pineapple basil.

And this year, many of the herbs used to flavor these unusual combinations will come from the Durham garden of SEEDS (South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces), a nonprofit group that encourages urban children and teens to get involved in organic gardening.

Nathan Baines, 18, a junior at Southern High School, is one of those teens. Through DIG (Durham Inner City Gardeners), Baines is already tending rosemary, lavender, peppermint, lemon verbena and several varieties of basil that will eventually flavor LocoPops. Spearmint and thyme will follow this summer, when Baines will intern with Bicknell at LocoPops, learning about the business and perhaps creating his own flavors.

His dream, you see, is to be a chef.

Before DIG, "I didn't have herbs and stuff to cook with," Baines says. Now, although he says "people at school, they be laughing" at the notion, Baines likes to grow herbs like rosemary and use them to flavor chicken.

And his herbs will flavor LocoPops. "At first, I said, 'Dude, that's going to be nasty,' " Baines admits. But now he respects the creativity behind LocoPops. "Nobody else is trying nothing like that," he says.

For her part, Bicknell is glad to be a SEEDS partner. Acknowledging that many of her exotic flavors would have to come from far away, she looked for ways to buy local when she could. The ice cream mix for her milk-based paletas comes from Jackson's Dairy in Spiveys Corner.

"It's part of our corporate strategy," says LocoPops partner Connie Semans of Durham.

The partnership with SEEDS is "in line with where I'd like to see the world," Bicknell says.

It was at the SEEDS fundraiser Art Grows in Durham last summer that LocoPops, which will celebrate its one-year anniversary Saturday, made its debut.

The year before that, Bicknell was doing "the corporate gig" in Nashville, Tenn., putting her MBA to use in middle management -- and feeling stuck in a rut. She wanted to do something else, but what? Bicknell confided her frustration to a friend visiting from Atlanta. At the time, they were sharing some paletas purchased from a shop in Nashville run by two sisters from Guadalajara.

"I bet you could learn how to make these," he told her.

"So it's his fault," Bicknell says.

She talked to the sisters who ran the paleta shop and did some research on the Internet. She decided she wanted to learn how to make paletas the authentic way, in Mexico -- even though all the Spanish she knew were the numbers from one to 20.

"My minimum criteria was that I was not going to cross the border until I had a name," Bicknell says. She got that name by e-mail from the publisher of an online journal who had mentioned a paleteria in Tlazazalca, a town in the southwest Mexico state of Michoacan.

Soon, Bicknell had sold her house in Nashville, packed up her two dogs and headed to Tlazazalca. She showed up on the doorstep of the paleta maker, "who realized I was sincere," and spent the next three months as a paleta apprentice.

"She taught me how to make them and let me live behind the shop," Bicknell says. After learning her trade, she spent the next three months learning Spanish.

She also thought about where she wanted to open her own shop. She didn't want to go back to Nashville and compete with the women who had inspired her. She narrowed the possibilities to states on the Eastern Seaboard, eliminating Florida because of its already burgeoning Mexican population.

On the drive through her target zone, headed to New Jersey, she stopped in Durham to buy gas. "And I agreed with myself to stop here again on the way back," she says. She stopped and she stayed, leasing a house and, a few months later, the shop where she would sell her paletas.

"It looks like genius now," she says of the location, about halfway between Duke's West campus and trendy Ninth Street. "But it was just providence."

LocoPops' success, like Blanche Dubois, has also been dependent on the kindness of strangers.

"Something you can't put into a business plan is good will," Bicknell says.



Food editor Susan Houston can be reached at 829-4863 or shouston@newsobserver.com

In Praise of Tap Water

Copyright New York Times Company Aug 1, 2007
On the streets of New York or Denver or San Mateo this summer, it seems the telltale cap of a water bottle is sticking out of every other satchel. Americans are increasingly thirsty for what is billed as the healthiest, and often most expensive, water on the grocery shelf. But this country has some of the best public water supplies in the world. Instead of consuming four billion gallons of water a year in individual-sized bottles, we need to start thinking about what all those bottles are doing to the planet's health.
Here are the hard, dry facts: Yes, drinking water is a good thing, far better than buying soft drinks, or liquid candy, as nutritionists like to call it. And almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands. Meanwhile, if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents.
Next, there's the environment. Water bottles, like other containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum. The Earth Policy Institute in Washington has estimated that it takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil to make the water bottles Americans use each year. That could fuel 100,000 cars a year instead. And, only about 23 percent of those bottles are recycled, in part because water bottles are often not included in local redemption plans that accept beer and soda cans. Add in the substantial amount of fuel used in transporting water, which is extremely heavy, and the impact on the environment is anything but refreshing.
Tap water may now be the equal of bottled water, but that could change. The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in maintaining America's public water supply. That would be a serious loss. Access to cheap, clean water is basic to the nation's health.
Some local governments have begun to fight back. Earlier this summer, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom prohibited his city's departments and agencies from buying bottled water, noting that San Francisco water is ''some of the most pristine on the planet.'' Salt Lake City has issued a similar decree, and New York City recently began an advertising campaign that touted its water as ''clean,'' ''zero sugar'' and even ''stain free.''
The real change, though, will come when millions of ordinary consumers realize that they can save money, and save the planet, by turning in their water bottles and turning on the tap.