When we hear the word “alien,” a great many visions appear iens before our eyes. For example, to some people, “alien” means someone from another planet, a fabulist’s version of outer space, a creature with bulging eyes and antennae growing from its head. Actually, we need go no further than the tabloid rack in the local super- market’s checkout aisle to do research on this kind of alien.

 

For others, an alien is someone who comes from another country, a geographic alien. I know from experience that being an immigrant from another country creates a great deal of emotion. It also creates a reaction on

 

I know from experience that being an immigrant from another country creates a great deal of emotion.

 

the part of natives, such as suspicion, fear, and sometimes, acceptance. The greatest emotion is within the alien. Even when the alien becomes a citizen of his or her adopted country, inside we always feel that something is missing. For example, when something familiar to native-born Americans arises, I sometimes have to ask my daughter or my husband for its meaning. This happens to me most often when I try to relate to my daughter’s life. Her childhood songs are completely different from my childhood songs. If I try to sing something from my childhood to my daughter, she listens with a laugh hiding politely behind her face. Any immigrant parent will tell you that the first reaction from one’s child who was born here is “you just don’t understand.”

 

And when I return to my native home, times have changed so much that I fail to recognize my childhood culture. Even with my old friends there, I am an alien. I have difficulty relating to the lives they live today, the same difficulty they have trying to relate to my new life.

 

For me, when I hear the word “alien,” I think of Sigourney Weaver, who starred in the most frightening movie I’ve ever seen. To this day, when I fly anywhere, I take my own food, wrapping it and sealing it to make certain that it carries no alien seed that will grow in my stomach.

 

Even though the movie “Alien” is scary, we realize upon leaving the theater that our lives will return to normal. More frightening for me, as a nutritionist and a chef, are the alien ingredients we ingest as part of our daily diet. I’m talking here about food additives and preservatives all chemically inspired that we find in frozen meals, boxed food and drinks. We will pay a premium for a high-class bottle of water that boasts of being pure, without additives. The same is true when we pay extra for gasoline that we think will help our automobiles, but we do not use the same caution when it comes to taking care of our own bodies.

 

I am convinced that the onset of all the allergies afflicting our population today is the result of consuming the variety of chemical additives in the food we eat on a daily basis. The same may be true of the wildly accelerating cases of cancer in our society. While we cannot control other causes of these afflictions, such as the environment or our own genetics, we have absolute control over what we eat.

 

My goal is to encourage Americans to cook their meals from scratch, making certain that they know what goes into each meal. I know the arguments: lack of time, lack of fresh ingredients, lack of cooking skills. But as Michael Pollan has written, if you have time to spend two hours watching a cooking show on television, you have time to cook a meal for your family.

 

Lemon Cilantro Lentil Soup (serves 6)

1/4 cup olive oil 1 medium onion, julienned      1 pound lentils, washed 10 cups water 4 cloves garlic 2 cups chopped cilantro 1/4 cup lemon juice salt and pepper to taste 1 cup small pasta shells In a heavy soup pan, heat two tablespoons of olive oil. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until golden. Add the water, the lentils, the salt and the pepper. Stir and bring to a boil. Cook the lentils until they are soft but not mushy, about 10 minutes.    In a saucepan, heat the rest of the olive oil and cook the garlic and 1 cup of the chopped cilantro for one minute. Be careful not to burn. Add the lemon juice and the cilantro mixture to the boiling lentils. Cook for 5 minutes.   Add the pasta shells, stir and cook until pasta is al-dente.   Spoon the soup into soup bowls, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve.

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