Eating Better

The title here is meant to be a bit deceiving.  No one is bored of health.  We're all grateful for our good health and wish good health for everyone.  What I am bored of, is the TERM "health," in its various forms. . . especially when used to promote better eating habits.  Every day, we're barraged with urgings to "eat healthy," have "healthy snacks," prepare "healthy meals," and practice "healthy exercise."  With VERY, VERY few exceptions, there is no mention of how delicious these snacks and meals can be. . . or how good it can feel, to exercise.  Using the label "healthy" seems to justify to the users and marketers, that they've done due diligence.  They haven't. Want some examples?  I know you probably don't, but because you opened my blog, you're about to see them.   SALMON:  Healthy fats, healthy protein.  But sadly, the word "healthy" just encourages people to eat it, without...

Let me begin by saying that this is NOT a justification, but an EXPLANATION. Stress i sn't a THING . . . it's a REACTION to a thing (called a stressor).  Stress is one of the most primitive of emotions, related to what some call "fight or flight."  It prepares our bodies to get us out of trouble.  To offer the example used in my grad school physiology class, if we were confronted by a huge bear, our bodies would have to respond, to enable us to survive.  Our heart rate would increase (get that blood to all organs), capillaries would constrict (lessens bleeding), our mouth would be dry (prevent any unneeded loss of body fluid), and so on.  Stress isn't something enjoyable.  It's survival. For most people, stress is also accompanied by a loss of appetite.  Before a critical exam, most students aren't thinking of eating.  Nor are candidates for a job, waiting their turn for the interview of their lives.  Or someone who's just been given...

Okay, okay.  I can hear the groans.  ANOTHER grumpy old guy complaining about Valentine's Day.  Not so, not so. I'm not going to get into the origins of St. Valentine's Day or the history of the saint.  Or that St. Valentine's Day is celebrated on or about the Feast of Lupercal, a fertility rite, in ancient Rome (Lupercal is one of the opening scenes, for Shakespeare's play, "Julius Caesar.")  But everything has gone way too far.  I grew up in an era when it was a nice (sweet) gesture, to give the ladies in your life (Grandma and Mom included) a heart-shaped box of chocolates on this calendar date.  But now, from shopping channels to food outlets, chocolate has become the lingua franca of the Day.  The currency, by which everything is measured. Even my RD friends on Twitter seem to be outdoing themselves, offering "healthier" ways to enjoy chocolate or combinations of chocolate and fruit or chocolate and grain.  Hey! I heard that! ...

E thyl alcohol is a simple molecule, easily absorbed from the digestive system and having various effects on the body/mind.  It is said to relax us, in small quantities.  In beverages, it can provide a pleasant accompaniment to a meal.  But this is no surprise.  Humans have been consuming beer (or forms of it) for millennia, as they've also consumed wine.  Spirits not so long.  So why the blog entry? Well, despite its ability to relax us and to provide a pleasant beverage to go with a meal, alcohol also acts on our brain's inhibitory center.  We all have mechanisms in place, to prevent us from doing unsafe or even silly things, in our daily lives.  Our brain's mechanisms keep us from walking into the street, without looking both ways.  They keep us from donning a lampshade and doing a hula, at a party with co-workers.  You get the idea. Turns out, our brain's basic protective mechanisms also prevent us from significantly overeating...