THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 TAG: 9601170357
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
In a startling disclosure, researchers at the National Cancer Institute report that one quarter of all vegetables eaten by children are french fries. And the percentage goes higher with teenagers.
Even a casual observer of teenagers would conclude that, like some tribe in the Outback feasting on strange fare, they subsist on a viand easily obtained and consumed in a hurry. And then off they go, on their ritualistic way.
But a quarter of their diet! Of all the ways to eat potatoes, to take them french fried is least nourishing. Done that way, they are mainly grease and salt.
Cooked a dozen other ways, the potato is a noble, starchy vegetable, one that pulled the Irish population through famines.
Some vets can vouch for the potato's heartening effect. Once during World War II, after months of nothing but dehydrated foods, the cooks in our outfit got hold of a truckload of potatoes and served them baked. There was no salt, no butter, but throughout the mess tent rose a happy buzz of contentment as we devoured, like a pack of hungry wolves, those plain and ineffable potatoes.
We went back for seconds and thirds and would have gone for fourths had any been left.
We ate the skins, blemishes and all, and had anybody asked what meal in the service we cherished the most, we would have replied plain, baked Irish potatoes. A good baked Irish potato or sweet potato, with a chunk of butter, is a meal unto itself and we arise fortified.
But stringy, pallid little strips of french fries at fast-food outlets, even when doused with tomato ketchup, are a mockery.
Only one in five children eats five or more servings of fruit and vegetables a day, the Dietary Guide reported.
Too many grownups as well fail to eat vegetables, it said.
Children tend to eat what they see their parents eat, so if we want to nurture an eclectic appetite in them, we have to develop one for ourselves.
In my childhood, raw carrots left me cold and the cooked ones were too bland. But one day my father chanced to relate how a barrel of carrots was handy aboard the good ship Apache, the minesweeper on which he served during World War I. The armed services had been advised that carrots would enhance the vision of men on alert to spot mines.
The men ate them, crisp and raw, first for their health's sake, and then for pleasure.
And so it has been with me since hearing his experience. In fact, I'm among those who enjoy most vegetables raw - carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, just about anything, instead of having them served under all sorts of creamy disguises that drown what flavor they have. I know a fellow who even prefers to eat okra uncooked. by CNB