Posted on 12/02/2018 10:31:59 AM PST by SJackson
It may be the most strangely-timed article in the history of moveable type.
The New York Times has chosen the week before Hanukkah to publish a long article warning about the supposed health dangers of eating fried potatoes.
The article, though, doesn’t mention the word “Hanukkah” or the latkes, or potato pancakes, often eaten to celebrate the Jewish holiday.
It’s an article so clumsily timed it seems like a parody. Imagine the Times publishing an article warning about the health risks of turkey or pumpkin pie the week before Thanksgiving — but with no reference whatsoever to the impending holiday.
It’d be one thing to publish such an article out of concern for the health of Jewish readers, in the vein of, “Okay everyone, Hanukkah is coming. Don’t eat too many latkes or you might be spending the fifth through eighth nights in, heaven forbid, the cardiac care unit of the hospital.”
But, at least to judge by the language of the Times article, the newspaper manages to publish a pre-Hanukkah warning about the health risks of fried potatoes without anyone there even realizing that the holiday is coming. A newspaper once edited by Jews such as Abe Rosenthal, Max Frankel, and Joe Lelyveld, and once owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family that had Jewish origins, now writes about fried potatoes the week before Hanukkah and discusses as possible toppings “ketchup” and “mayonnaise” and “aioli” — without even a nod to time-honored latke accompaniments such as applesauce or sour cream or brisket juice.
I emailed the author of the Times article, Christopher Mele, to ask whether the article had been intentionally published to coincide with Hanukkah. He didn’t respond to my inquiry by the time I filed this story.
The Times article comes off as either insensitively ignorant or as, maybe even worse, a subtle yet nonetheless unmistakable effort to throw shade at a beloved Jewish delicacy.
Even the science behind it is shaky. For its click-bait claim that fried potatoes are “a weapon of dietary destruction,” the Times relies on a study that, by the Times description, “found that, controlling for other risk factors, participants who ate fried potatoes two to three times a week were at a higher risk of mortality compared with those who ate unfried potatoes.”
But the study the Times cites wasn’t a randomized trial that took the same healthy population and fed one group fried potatoes and the other group spinach, or white bread, or pastrami, or hot fudge sundaes. Instead, it was an observational study that relied on participants to self-report what they ate. That is an exercise that, when French fries or potato chips are involved, is as hazardous and potentially unreliable as polling people about their plans to vote for Donald Trump.
The participants in the study were already in poor health — they were either obese or overweight, had knee pain, or had arthritis. Furthermore, the study acknowledges that the risk of mortality may not be caused by the fried potatoes — correlation, in other words, doesn’t equal causation. The study found, for example, “Many factors could explain these findings. First, French fries and fried potatoes typically contain high amounts of dietary fat (including trans fat) and added salt, which may increase the risk of death.” In other words, it could be the added salt on the French fries, not the latke itself, that is the danger. Or, the study says, “people who consume fried potatoes more frequently might have other unhealthy dietary habits, such as increased consumption of processed red meat, salty foods, and sugar-sweetened beverages, which may increase the risk of death.” In other words, it’s not the French fries that are so dangerous, it’s the Coke and the hot dog that are the rest of the meal.
The press critic of The Algemeiner is not a physician or a nutritionist. However, my own recommendation is that if we do our best to eat healthy during the rest of the year, a latke or two on Hanukkah is not going to kill us. In fact, this year, we may even be especially justified in enjoying them. It will be an opportunity not only to remember the miracle of Hanukkah, but also to demonstrate that no matter how hard The New York Times might try, we just aren’t going to let the newspaper ruin our holiday.
Dice up some good bacon, add green peppers and a jalapeno diced,4 eggs on top. Add 3 slices of cheese when done. Then fry some taters with the same peppers. Good breakfast I have every morning and I am 70.
Homegrown pork, eggs, taters and peppers.
What?
What do fried potatoes have to do with Hannaka?
Are not hash browns and fries secular?
Gluten-free, low-carb & Rapeseed Oil will all eventually be branded the true killers.
That sounds absolutely delicious!! What time is dinner?
I thought you would fight me! I agree, let’s eat latkes together instead!
I only fight with liberals. Besides, my Dad has been gone for many years now, 40 years to be exact, so I have had to live with my own cooking ever since, which ain’t bad. Still can’t make spaghetti sauce the way he did though. I think he fried the meatballs and sausage in bacon grease too. Plus, he used to throw fried pork hocks, and leftover fried pork steaks in his sauce. He wasn’t Italian, but was born in Holland, and made sauce every Saturday, and always cooked a big meal on Sunday for us.
I’m sure that’s been a while now!!
:)
I’m more afraid I might like it and I’m in the process of losing a million pounds so it doesn’t sound like the right time!! :)
Haven’t eaten after 7pm now for THREE DAYS
I go to sleep crying :)
But you guys enjoy!!
Besides I don’t know where to get this in NYC.
I virtually grew up on boiled potatoes-smothered in butter.(mother from Nova Scotia).
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Enjoy!! :)
Any Jewish deli-——but stay away if you’re dieting———and go for lots of walks,just plain old walks.
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Potatoes can be dangerous!
'Tis true!
Have to agree with you, but that also includes Knishes.
I’m having Latkes tomorrow.
And other delicacies.
5.56mm
:)
“Have to agree with you, but that also includes Knishes.”
Agree,and I adore kugel.
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WALKING!!!!!!!
BACK!!!!!!!!!! (holding up Crucifix!!)
Mears, the nurse told me 6 years ago that if i weighed what i did then at 50, i would be an old man by 50.
Now I can’t walk more than a 100 yards.
But since this board isn’t much for self pity, I will go walk that 100 yards now!
The NYT is so sensationalist it’s pathetic.
FRIED POTATOES ARE DEADLY the article says but in their online recipe database we have this:
All the Latkes, 21 Recipes
The potato isn’t the only vegetable that can be grated and fried up for Hanukkah.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/68861692-admin/717422-all-the-latkes-21-recipes
Then walk 100 yards-—————several times a day.
And keep adding to it.
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