The Natural Food Movement's MAHA Makeover
The political right used to mock “health food.” Then they co-opted it.
Twenty-some years ago, when I was a college student in Vermont, my friends and I would make regular treks across the Canadian border for sandwiches at Café Santropol in Montreal. Tucked in between slices of hearty brown bread, and thickly layered with downy cream cheese was either black currant jam and sliced bananas or oil-packed tomatoes with enough wispy bean sprouts to house a family of fairies. Those vegetarian sandwiches (paired with the cafe's eclectic vibes and bohemian clientele) were worth the pilgrimage.
Café Santropol, which opened in 1976, turns 50 this year. It joins fellow North American natural food pioneers like Berkeley’s Chez Panisse (1971) and Ithaca's Moosewood (1973) in the half-century club. But as lovely as it is that these culinary icons still exist, it is hard to make the case that the movement they were born from still does.
