“Health food” as a path to dietary salvation has long flourished in America, going back to John Harvey Kellogg’s legendary sanitarium in Battle Creek, where Americans paid to have yogurt administered to both ends of their alimentary canal. A somewhat more hedonic version of health food appeared in 1950s Los Angeles. “Health seekers” could find fresh unprocessed foods “still charged with their life force” at restaurants like the Aware Inn, the Health Hut and, a bit later, the Source. (It was on the patio of the Source on Sunset Boulevard where Woody Allen broke up with Diane Keaton in “Annie Hall” after ordering a plate of mashed yeast.) These were restaurants with gurus, and they introduced Americans to such culinary novelties as juicing, alfalfa sprouts and the late, unlamented chocolate substitute called carob.
I just finished the book. It does a good job of describing the transformations of the '60s and '70s. I was there–in my freshman year in college in 1975, I moved out of the beer-soaked dorms (the drinking age was 18 in NY then) to a household of amateur Buddhists. From deep-fried cafeteria food I found myself getting produce from a buying club and whole grains from a food coop. Ripe avocados, cut in half with a sprinkle of salt were a revelation. Brown rice and stir-fried veggies and tofu with soy sauce were staples, and I confused my parents by asking for a wok for my birthday. I still have the wok, over forty years later.
His description of the political turbulence around food, especially at the coops, was spot on. There were hours of tense meetings about whether to sell meat and fish, or only organic produce, or whether to serve only the hippie crowd or the surrounding, mostly African American, community.
One thing he mentions only briefly is the influence of foreign travel among young people in those days. I did a year in Paris, and was floored by the variety of produce in the markets and the freshly baked goods. Another revelation was the intense flavor of pears and peaches there, something that we didn’t find here until the appearance of farmers’ markets much later.
