HEALTHY EATING
By KEVIN WILLIAMS
BEETING
JUDGMENTS
J
udgments, preconceived notions, assumptions, Fear turned to awe as I watched its deft ninjaand stereotypes all have negative connotations like movements, moving so quickly that it almost attached to them, but when we look deeper, appeared to be frozen, as it blipped from wildflower we see that, in fact, it’s just our brain attempting to to wildflower, bending space and time to access recognize a pattern. Patterns are how our brains the sweet nectar of the butterfly bushes that my operate. partner planted just for this moment. If I had One day while in our garden I saw a bee out of freaked out, run, or started swatting madly, an the corner of my eye, buzzing and amazing opportunity of hanging with a Pickled beets are making that fuzzy sound of tiny beating hummingbird would have been missed. wings, but it was only my brain that great for the die-hard Then I thought about the importance had decided it was a bee before my of bees. In Cooked, Michael Pollan says beet lover, but for eyes could confirm it. My fear of bees the world would shut down within is founded on a pattern. At a young the mild enthusiast two weeks of bees going extinct. After age I was stung by a bee on my ankle. taking a quick moment to revel in the or newcomer, It caused an allergic reaction that made roasting can’t be… fact that our garden was having a truly my ankle swell up so big I needed exceptional year — it’s important to well, you get it. crutches for a week. Combine this with enjoy the small victories — I thought the fact that my mother developed a severe allergic about how easily my fear transformed into elation, reaction to bee stings at age 50 and was rushed to the and how these two tiny souls, those of bees and ER as her throat closed. hummingbirds, are basically doing the same job. My fear, judgment and resentment of bees had for a Imagine my surprise as I looked up fearfully, second mistakenly turned that hummingbird into a wondering where my EpiPen was, only to see the bee in my mind. most beautiful, delicate hummingbird before me.
12 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2022
But our judgments don’t stop there. We are judging people all the time because our brains are trying to recognize patterns and keep us safe. They do this by scrolling through our memories until they find something relatable. In the garden, the memory chosen was the sting when I was younger and the memory of my mother in the hospital. In that moment none of the literature on how awesome bees are came to light. When meeting a new type of person for the first time, your brain, devoid of any real memories, will scroll through whatever “programming” you’ve seen on TV. If you’ve never met a Nigerian teenager, an Italian immigrant, or a transgender store clerk, your mind jumps to some episode of the Cosby Show or a cartoon you saw when you were five, and makes a judgment about that person based on a cartoon character. A cartoon character! — isn’t that absurd? — from Speedy Gonzalez to Foghorn Leghorn to the Black maid on Tom & Jerry. Have you ever seen a cartoon of a Chinese person created before 1980 — slanted eyes, long braided ponytail, Kung Fu robe and wooden sandals? It really doesn’t get much more racist than that. In the kitchen, beets are one of those poor veggies that everyone judges. They come covered in dirt and have a hairy tail. They stain your fingers and have a long cooking time. And yes, it’s true, they turn your poop red. The cultivation of beets began in Roman times for the greens and not the distinctive, rich, red root. It was known as a blood builder and prescribed to give strength. We now know this is due to the high iron content of beets and the nitrates that deliver oxygen to the blood. Beets are also high in the compound betaine, a mind relaxant that helps treat some forms of depression. In time, the superhigh sugar content of beets made them popular as a cheap sugar source. If you grew up in the 80s like me, you might have first met them in their most intense form — pickled — hanging out in the back of the refrigerator at Grandpa and Ma’s.
ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES
Pickled beets are great for the die-hard beet lover, but for the mild enthusiast or newcomer, roasting can’t be…well, you get it. A root vegetable medley is a good intro to beets. It gives you a chance to enjoy the amazing balance of flavors present in a roasted beet. At once earthy and sweet, roasting allows these flavors to sing on a level they would never achieve on their own. Turnips, kohlrabi, golden beets, rutabaga, and winter squashes all work great in this medley. Multi-colored carrots or potatoes are especially fun in this mix as their taste may be familiar, but a roasted yellow or purple carrot is a little harder to identify once its cooked. The natural sugars in these starchy root veggies make them kidfriendly, and playing a guessing game about which veggie you are eating provides an extra layer of Photo©nesavinov/123rf.com
