EDITOR’S LETTER
THIS MONTH, MH SORTS THE MEAT FROM THE GRISTLE
We deliberated at length over what to call this issue. I think – though I’m still not entirely sure – that we just about called it right. We know you know that the secret to every active man’s success comes down to what he puts inside his body. We know that you want quick prep tips, simple ingredient hacks and smart recipes to fuel change and progress. Even so. The Nutrition Issue. Not exactly a puller, is it?
Reader, we considered lusty alternatives. There is a renowned American men’s magazine that has an annual Love, Sex and Madness Issue. Now that’s a theme! Who doesn’t want, well, at least some of the first two? Still, you would do well to exercise caution here. Readers like me have been disappointed to find upon purchasing these editions that neither love nor sex was duly forthcoming. The promise of amorous relations and neurosis was nothing but a dirty lie. So that’s why we chose to abandon working titles such as The Gluttony & Gainz Edition! Or The Steak & Abs Special! Yes, they trip off the tongue a little more readily than The Nutrition Issue. But do they promise goods and deliver truth? No. They’re little more than glib hashtags.
There’s a serious point buried in here somewhere. When commentators speak of 2016 being the year of ‘post-truth’ they’re generally talking about how the political conversation was hijacked by sensation and misrepresentation as fuelled by social media. But the same might be said of the food conversation. In the realm of dietetics, never before have people been so thoroughly overwhelmed and impressed upon by ‘wellness’ dilettantes and opportunistic quacks. And from the Sugar Papers scandal to the clean-eating rage, never before have we been so misinformed.
So this is our 2017 Nutrition Issue: a straight-up, informative and (we hope) fun guide to your gut and how to love it, inside and out. Yes, there are avocados. But there are sausages, too. Crucially there is veracity. Ahead of the Brexit vote, Michael Gove famously stated that people have had enough of experts. He was wrong. We’ve had enough of charlatans. This is our riposte.