Why Cooking Is The Best: Part Three

Most Americans think of themselves as self-determined people. They talk about bootstraps and comebacks, minimized government and maximized freedom. Not all of us talk this way, but most of us have, hidden deep inside, at least a touch of American exceptionalism.

Yet we routinely let other people—faceless schemers in skyscrapers or industrial parks—determine what we eat. For some reason, there are people who will argue that it’s OK for the CEO of PepsiCo, for example, to decide what millions eat and to market his products to his heart’s content (or to the content of his bottom line). Yet these same people will also argue that trying to persuade the government to protect us from this manipulation and move our diet in the right direction is “nanny state-ism.”