Remy's Law : If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff.

I was not really a kid-y kid. I couldn't wait to go to law school, from as young as I can remember. I toyed with the idea of being a veterinarian, but the thought of putting animals to sleep ended that. I also considered being an Egyptologist, but my father thought that was ridiculous, so that ended that too.

It's only recently that I've even considered a career outside of law, but fortunately, I enjoy my job so much that chef school has to just be one of those daydreams.

I mention this because the entire premise of movies like "Ratatouille" and "Julie and Julia" are based on following a dream that involves food, and passion. And can you get any better than those? Not in my opinion.

I got a great present recently from my mom. She found a stuffed animal "Remy" with an apron, a chef's hat and a big felt "wooden" spoon on a recent trip to Florida. She hesitated buying it for me because she thought it was a bit silly to give a 38 year old self-declared minimalist a stuffed animal but, with two young grandchildren, she was satisfied with her default options.

When I saw him sitting in her kitchen, I was overcome with a relaxed enthusiasm and (dare I say it) glee! He is SO cute, and my favourite movie character of all time. He's a RAT.

Who wants to be a CHEF.

IN PARIS! The very premise of the movie is just sheer genius.

I am often reminded of his mantra "If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff".

The good stuff really can elevate any dish to being fabulous. The mediocre stuff can make every meal you eat, and every meal you serve, at best marginal. And the good stuff can elevate YOU to fabulous. Guess what the marginal stuff can do?

Walking back from run for the cure with Melanie and Evan, we got to discussing fast "food". It is decided law that what we label "fast food" is NOT REALLY FOOD. It is a food-like substance. Chemical molecular structures which imitate food. Like a bad Las Vegas Drag Queen, who hasn't shaved, and has no makeup on.

Look at a fast food "chicken" sandwich. Or a "hamburger". Surely if you're a meat eater, you have eaten the real version of these dishes. They look absolutely nothing like chicken or ground beef. And yet every day "billions and billions" of people consume these molecules, under the delusional belief that they are "eating". Worse still, children are being given these chemical cocktail ingestions with no thought to what is in them because they are labelled "food".

I read a great book on a trip to Manitoba last summer called "In Defence of Food". The book had three simple premises. Eat food. Mostly Vegetables. Not too much. One of the sub-premises was that if your great great grandmother wouldn't have recognized the substance or ingredients as food, it isn't food. Isn't that a great rule?

It's so simple! And yet, we are members of the first generation in human history who are expected to have longer life expectancies than our children. As a group, we are literally poisoning our human selves with imitation food.

You are what you eat.

Eat the good stuff.