If you knew you would die tomorrow what would you eat today?

I have a meal in my mind and it’s not low-fat or vegan.

But what would you eat if you somehow knew you could have another 50 good years if you only consumed broccoli and tofu?

I can tell you that I would stick to the diet with a zeal unseen in my other activities.

I am now smack dab in-between these two hypothetical questions. Having survived a difficult illness I feel entitled to foods I enjoy. But my health is also more fragile and the importance of eating right has risen. So whence the barbeque ribs?

Further complicating this heady mix is a wife who wants to lose weight and two small children who eat only granola bars, toast, and hamburgers. I am the food person (procurement and preparation) and am often at a loss as to what to put on the table for any of us.

There are vegans in the NFL, and lots of vegan yoga instructors, but does veganism prolong life at the expense of not being super tasty? I have had delicious vegan food, but know it is beyond me and into the realm of alchemy to create such dishes. At the moment I am not a vegetarian because it is just too difficult to get the required protein on a plate in a form that is moderately acceptable to the assembled. I respect the low carbon footprint of these diets and all the usual moral and philosophical arguments. But I keep repeating this mantra, “Each place and time has a perfect food.” Therefore, I would eat a nitrate-laden hot dog at a ballpark, a deep fried razor clam at an Amboy, WA roadhouse, chopped liver at a bar mitzvah, haggis at a highland games tournament. Basically I will not rule out anything – whale flesh in Iceland? Who knows. I once heard a presenter on the food network say, “There are no bad foods, only bad portions.”

Yet still I long for the reassurance that what I eat won’t kill me. Because Andrew Weil and others are, for the moment, withholding this information, I continue to drift. I imagine our family will continue with our schizophrenic food orientation, eating the whole wheat macaroni with the organic cheese. The tipping point will probably come when the youngest weasel (3) finally develops impulse control. Or maybe not.

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