Comfort!

March 23rd, 2013| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Comfort!

I was in Paris for several days last week. And I subsisted entirely on comfort food! At least, it made me comfortable—the crepes, chocolates, and cheeses.

“Comfort food” is that which provides a nostalgic or sentimental feeling to the consumer, and is an easy-to-digest meal, soft in consistency, and rich in calories, and, more often than not, woefully poor in nutrients.

Crepes, chocolates, and cheeses.

“Comfort foods may be consumed to positively pique emotions, to relieve negative psychological effects or to increase positive feelings.”

I, most assuredly, felt real good after a galette …—well, two, actually: one savory, one dessert. Yup, I felt real good! Made me want to have another. But I resisted the wiles of the evil one tempting me to indulge.

So I hopped over next door to a chocolate shop and had a hot chocolate instead—the kind that comes in a bowl and which is thick enough to be cut with a knife, and especially the kind that is laced with heavy hazelnut syrup.

Finally, I began to feel real, real, good!

But back to the galette. It’s actually a sort of crepe, made of buckwheat flour, a Breton specialty popular in French crêperies.

The one on the left was a “Montagnarde,” with raclette cheese, scrambled eggs, lots of bacon, and nutty gruyere. Quite comfortable, thank you. Especially when washed down with artisanal apple cider.

And then, of course, one needs dessert. So I had another galette, a classique, with salted butter caramel (yes!!!!), bananas, and crème chantilly (sweetened whipped cream flavored with vanilla).

Talk about comfort!

[Be comfortable—visit Breizh Café, 109 Rue Vieille du Temple 75003 Paris, France. +33 1 42 72 13 77. Closed M/T]

Anyhow the CDC is putting a damper on my comfort. They say I’m only “eating my feelings,” and that 11.3% of the average American diet consists of such horrible, detestable, disgusting comfort food. “As lifestyles become more hectic, fast-food consumption has become a growing part of the American diet.”

But me—I was pretty relaxed out there in Le Paris! Very comfortable!

But the wise folks in nutrition labs reportedly find that such a diet is “emotionally detrimental” in the long run. Negative moods were “significantly higher after these behaviors”—i.e., after those felonious, rotten, irresponsible behaviors of consuming comfort food.

Perhaps that’s why I felt kinda down after returning to Dallas and resuming my “uncomfortable” diet of dry cereal. And peanut butter. And Diet Coke.

But the white-coats are right. The Bible agrees.

Have you found honey? Eat only what you need,
That you not have it in excess and vomit it.
Proverbs 25:16

Even comfort food should be in moderation. Or else …

Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.
Proverbs 23:20–21

So …

… put a knife to your throat
If you are a man of great appetite.
Proverbs 23:2

For the cravings of the flesh are counter to godliness.

For many walk—of whom I often told you,
and now tell you even weeping—
they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite,
… who set their minds on earthly things.
Philippians 3:18–19

After all, our comfort doesn’t come from crepes, chocolates, or cheese.

Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me
and to accomplish His work.”
John 4:34

And that’s the best kind of comfort you can find!

2 Comments

  1. Harindranath March 24, 2013 at 11:58 am

    AK
    Excellent piece considering the over-nutrition among many, with less activity and no spirituality.
    HN

    Reply

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