The Joy of Really Eating

I just came across this quote in a book I am reading by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, which, if you haven't heard of, I highly suggest you check them out.  They're featured in a number of documentaries and books, including Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, and they do some pretty awesome stuff that goes against the grain of everything in the industrial food system.  This quote from his book The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer hits it right on the money about the difference between ingesting food, which is what we typically do in American culture, and really eating.  Check it out:

Ingesting is what Marines do at boot camp when they have 10 minutes to inhale processed material.  Ingesting is what people do when they pop boxes in the microwave without talking to anybody and consume it while watching TV.  Ingesting is what most people do because they don’t want to take the time to eat.  The preparation, thoughtfulness, acquisition effort, and menu planning that eating require are meaningless to them.

Ingesting is really different than eating.  Eating conjures up things like appreciation, culinary skills, chewing, salivating, conversing, pleasant aromas, family and friends.  Eating is a social activity.  All cultures are defined primarily by religion, architecture, and food.  Eating is intricately tied to cultural identity.  When you think of American food culture, what do you think of?  Ingesting.

I try every meal to really eat rather than ingest my food, and I encourage you all to do the same!