THE DIET OF ICONIC FIGURES OF PEACE

When people talk about great historical figures, they tend to focus on accomplishments, philosophies, and fascinating biographical details. That's understandable, but it's problematic for me.

When it comes to great people and great art, almost every angle has been thoroughly investigated. At this point, there's probably an accompanying info-graphic for anything you'd like to know. That said, I'm still humbly mining obscure data, looking for connections where none likely exist.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. You probably know a lot about his life and times if you grew up in the United States. But do you know what he ate? That's what I thought. It's time to examine...

THE DIET OF ICONIC FIGURES OF PEACE

Martin Luther King, Jr.

You can take the Civil Rights leader out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the Civil Rights leader. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia. As a Georgian, King loved many traditional Southern foods. His favorite delicacy was allegedly pecan pie. I've got to think the oleic acid and natural fiber in pecans kept King healthy and energized during his many endeavors. The rest of the pecan pie was less wholesome, but you can get the least-processed, healthiest version of the necessary components—brown sugar, butter, crust of choice, sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, etc.—at your local Foods For Living.

King was said to have loved fried chicken. If you're not interested in traditional fried chicken, and you're skipping the above pie, you can still do a culinary King tribute with this pecan-encrusted chicken.

King also loved his collard greens. Why collard (and mustard and turnip and kale) greens never became a staple of Northern U.S. cuisine is a mystery to me. They are adored everywhere from Croatia to Brazil to the Kashmir region of India. Eating collards is essentially a rite of passage if you're south of the Mason-Dixon. As an excellent source of Vitamin C, soluble fiber, and a modulator of the innate immune response system, collard greens should be a staple everywhere. Adding pork shoulder and fat back is optional.

Gandhi

According to the Gandhi Foundation website, Mahatma Gandhi's diet was a product of his strong beliefs about the nature of life and morality. If you handed Gandhi a fun food survey, and he stopped leading a monumental campaign of nonviolent resistance for a second to fill it out, it might look like this:

Name: Gandhi

Favorite Coffee Blend: I do not consume coffee. Unnaturally stimulating the reflexes and mind is a poor substitute for true spiritual growth.

Favorite Deli: New Delhi. If you are referring to storefronts where flesh food is freely dealt and consumed, I do not have a favorite—they are all abhorrent to me.

Favorite Milk: That which comes from an animal is likely to be diseased. I reluctantly drink goat's milk under compulsion from my doctor.

Favorite Omelet: I prefer food that does not necessitate a massacre of the unborn. Even sterilized eggs are the result of an aberration in nature, and only possible through the unwise meddling of humankind.

Favorite Craft Brew: I do not appreciate this line of questioning. I will take this space to express my humble belief that attaining purity through diet alone is impossible. A clean diet is one step on the path to spiritual purity, but taken alone, is useless.

Barack Obama

Our President, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 (to much controversy), has a hard job: being married to a figurehead for public health and diet reform. So what does someone under nonstop scrutiny eat to stay healthy, alert, and photogenic? Some of Obama's favorites, the ingredients for which are all available at FFL, include:

• Salmon rice bowl with a ginger lime sauce
• Arugula salad with mushrooms and goat cheese
• thin crust pizzas with vegetable toppings
• chicken and spinach salad with toasted sesame dressing
• spinach simmered in yogurt, obviously inspired by aloo saag

I'm impressed with the Commander-in-Chief's selections—he doesn't skimp on flavor, while remaining committed to a balanced diet. Too bad he can't do the same with the budget, am I right? (Was I really supposed to abstain from making a single political pun in the entire entry?)

Malala Yousafzai

As the most recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala is one of the most inspiring and universally adored figures to emerge in recent years. She's had a lot on her plate lately. But a lot of what, exactly? It's hard to say, but as a Pakistani, she had a wide variety of delicious food to choose from. (Malala no longer lives in Pakistan, but rather in Birmingham, England—a city less renowned for its culinary traditions than for its industrial music scene and rampant poverty.)

 Malala is from the Swat district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Pakistan is a place of regional diversity, and cuisine can vary greatly from place to place. The cuisine of Malala's native province is known as Pashtun cuisine. 

Pashtun cuisine favors lots of rice dishes, with liberal kebabs and spiced meats thrown in for good measure. Regional highlights include:

• "Ghatay Rujay, literally 'big rice,' a rice dish, resembling risotto, prepared only in Charsadda where the small grain rice needed to make it is grown."
• "Kichrei, sticky medium-grain rice cooked with mung beans and onions, topped with melted qurot sauce. This is mostly eaten during winter."
• "Londei, (spiced lamb jerky cooked with rice)"

The next time you put a fork in your hand, ask yourself: is this something one of the Iconic Figures of Peace would eat? Of course not. No one would eat a fork. But regardless of what you're eating, remember, perhaps, that the very reason you have the freedom to eat it where you do may or may not have something to do with some of their accomplishments, which they wouldn't have accomplished without eating. I'm just saying, be grateful and eat more greens. Organic greens. From Foods For Living.