Recovering from surgery in hospital, I was visited by an old friend who said “I expect you’ll survive” adding hastily “Oh don’t worry I checked to see if any of the docs had been struck off. No, it’s the food that could kill you!”

What was laughingly called lunch arrived in a plain brown wrapper er a cover. Before tasting I asked who the chef was.The answer”Our dietitian.”

I had an immediate relapse.

Dietitians/Nutritionists have been the most baleful of all influences on our food. They believe that you eat to live – period. Food is fuel. The only value it has is in calories which express energy. Nutritionists are puritans redux. Every time I read that chocolate is so good that it’s “sinful” wink, wink, I think of the cartoon of the vicar jumping the lady doing the flowers. “Oh Vicar, that’s not right. “No but it’s nice,”

The message is pleasure isn’t good for you. Worse,by promoting every fad, they’ve also harmed our health. If the role of animal fats, cholesterol in heart disease had been subject to far more research (such as recently conducted by Gary Taubes), there would have been no anti-fat hysteria, no substitution of butter with the deadly transfats margarine.

Dr. Walter Willett, the top nutritionist at the Harvard Achool of Public Health, apologized to his patients for that lethal gaffe, or rather to those who were still alive- and who are now obese, thanks to another nutrition gaffe. Anti-fat nutritionists advised eating lots of carbs with the result that in the past twenty years, we have collectively put on 20 lbs.

These thoughts are churning inside me as I make my way to Four, Toronto’s first upscale resto dedicated to “healthy food.”The pioneering chef is the very talented Gordon Mackie. Even the wines have a mission. “Our goal was not to seek out marketability but to source {from} those vineyards operated toward the highest commitment with awareness and Consciousness to their chosen craft.”

I assume that means they didn’t pick popular wines.

Now to the food. Four, and beats me why there isn’t a more inviting name, has replaced Soul of the Vine in the Commerce Court South pod beneath the CIBC building on Bay and King. I’d arranged to meet two friends from Grub street days, and all of us got lost in the mole surface runs lined with identical stores. Finally I spot Four beside a charming take-out stand of sandwiches and desserts.

The entrance seems to take you into another restaurant (Far Niente) and is the first hint that some serious Feng Shui makeover is needed. The room is somber, anchored by a shiny glass bar which is surrounded by different levels of tables. We arrive at l and within twenty minutes the room is emptying out – these mall places have a very small lunch window. This does not augur well for savouring entrees costing $20 up.

Our server Patrick does a great job boosting Four, he says the hummus plate is very popular. So we see from the bar where Consciousness cocktails are being consumed.

But hummus! I thought Mackie would be channeling Michel Guerard’s Cuisine Minceur and making low-fat meals as original as the rich cream and egg combos of the classic cuisine. The chickpea dip available from 7/24 shops isn’t what I had in mind.

The first courses are familiar from those HeartSmart dishes on some restaurant menus. I wonder when the sea is going to run out of calamari because here it is once again, grilled and tender with a chunk of Tuscan bread, mixed bean salad, blood orange dressing. The blue cheese/tomato salad with Balsamic red onions and EVOO. My Hot and Sour Chicken soup comes without most of the advertised ingredients and instead with unadvertised red peppers.

Our verdict: unexciting.

I don’t mind a wait between courses but if we weren’t having a good time gossiping we would grumble more about the uncomfortable seats, the occasional drip from the pipes above, the fact that we’re sitting at a high table so our knees knock – and that the next course takes almost an hour to come.

When it does, the bison burger is cold. The ocean perch has a salty crust and comes with an anemic accompaniment of shredded lettuce, lentils, little peas. The grilled breast of chicken is coated with a hot tikka-masala /yogurt sauce but the chicken itself is dry.

Our verdict: So little attention paid to making the food enticing.

The desserts are Leslie Steh’s creamy verrines, shot glasses containing trifle-like mixtures of tiramisu, raspberry cheesecake, and key lime pie,

Our verdict: 200 calories each, fills the health bill deliciously.

Overall: this a brave effort to turn us on to healthy cooking. But a revolution is needed. There should be bowls of antioxident rich food on tables the way frites are in other places. Of course that would be expensive, but then eating fresh healthy food is expensive.

In the spirit of transparency, Four provides a nutrition sheet on demand. I scan it with interest. The bison burger is 489 calories with 24 g of fat, 486 mg of sodium. I went home and pulled from the fridge Lean Cuisine’s Honey Mustard Chicken. It’s 260 calories, 5g fat, and 700 mg sodium.

Amazing how salt makes food taste good. In terms of taste, Lean Cuisine leaves Four trailing in the dust.

Of course nutritionists will slam Lean Cuisine as they do any tasty food. If there’s so much salt in Lean Cuisine it’s their fault because they rubbished fat. My advice: get over it.

* 1/2 Four. 187 Bay St. Commerce Court South concourse. 416-368-1444. No wheelchair. Lunch for two: food plus tax $70