A salad of winter wheat berries and edamame beans with a mirin vinaigrette ($11.75 a pound) was a bit on the whole-earthy side, but I felt virtuous eating it.
Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a professor of medicine who specializes in cardiology and endocrinology at the University of Colorado in Denver, said he was concerned that New Yorkers might feel so virtuous eating trans fat-free foods that they would overlook the dangers of saturated fats, which also contribute to obesity and heart disease.
The grill's genius is its combination of centuries-old science (Newton's earliest discovery: grease rolls downhill) and the more recent principle that Americans will buy anything that makes them feel virtuous about eating grilled sausages and baby back ribs.
Daniel Young, the food critic and writer who hosted the event, says that falafels, while potentially healthy, are now in the category of "dude food" – like tacos, cheese burgers or fried chicken, they are all about moreish, tasty, non-virtuous eating.
Daily, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Don't try to be virtuous and eat light at Joy Burger Bar in East Harlem.
If I am feeling like eating something particularly virtuous, I swap the tortillas for sturdy leaves of spring greens to wrap everything up in.
Their dietary restrictions commonly cause sufferers to feel proud of their "virtuous" behaviour even if it means that eating becomes so stressful their personal relationships can come under pressure and they become socially isolated.
At 27, Gwyn Wellborn of Salem, Ore., described a sudden onslaught of slicing, stabbing abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea in late August, days after eating baby spinach at work, thinking she was being especially virtuous.
Growing attention to the quality rather than the quantity of what we eat activates virtuous cycles of 'zero km' production, with renewed interest in non-preserved, additive-free food.
As a form of gratification it seems far more virtuous than raiding the fridge, she added with a laugh, "like not having your cake and eating it too".
If you're already financially secure and we've priced in the negative externalities of activities like driving and eating meat, then walking to work, lowering the thermostat and eating lower on the food chain isn't virtuous.
