Things you learn while trying to eat right
A year ago I made the mistake of subscribing to a nutrition advice publication called “Eat right or die!” They gave my name to other health and nutrition magazines. Now I’m drowning in food-related advice and factoids. Here are some examples.
Did you know that if you try to cook a rabbit in your microwave oven, the rabbit will really not appreciate it? You should first boil the rabbit in a large pot; the way Glenn Close did in the film “Fatal Attraction.”
Next time your mother-in-law gives you a box of grapefruit or grapefruit juice, she may be trying to kill you. That’s because science has identified more than 85 common drugs that may interact poorly (i.e., explode) when brought in contact with grapefruit. Not actually explode. Just make you dizzy or cause gastrointestinal bleeding.
If you don’t eat right and put on too much weight, chances are your brain will turn into oatmeal faster than if you ate properly and stayed slim. Furthermore, if you have a low level of vitamin C and beta-carotene, you may be inviting Alzheimer’s disease into your life. So check with your doctor. Or at least have a beta-carotene discussion at your next bridge club or Elks meeting.
Nutrition newsletters can be disillusioning, even though helpful. For the past 23 years my Aunt Rachel has been giving me 10 pounds of sea salt at Christmas. “It’s better for you than table salt,” she said. And I believed her. So I spent the ensuing 12 months putting sea salt on everything I ate, including tapioca pudding. But Aunt Rachel was wrong. The experts now say that sea salt is “not viable” as a sodium-reduction measure. It contains almost as much sodium as table salt, and really doesn’t taste that much better.
For years, scientists and the food industry have been removing transfat and gluten from our diets. Where does all that unwanted stuff go, once it’s taken away? I have wondered that, and now I have an unconfirmed report: Nebraska. My sources tell me that two separate fields – each 5 miles square, 40 miles west of Lincoln – have been set aside for the gluten and transfat. Both substances will remain there for the next 20 years while the experts answer this question: “What are we gonna do with this stuff?”
Have you noticed that during the past few years TV programs about food and cooking have increased almost as much as Spanish-language channels? Along with whiter teeth, clear skin and trashy sit-coms, Americans love food. One result of that is that more babies are being given the names of food items. Don’t be surprised if you hear about infants named Aspic, Watercress, Finocchio, Ratatouille, Cumin and Horehound.
Do you suffer from osteoarthritis? Are you easily confused by what you read? If so, forget about doing research on the various drugs and food supplements aimed at reducing arthritis pain. You’ll end up not knowing whether to toss out or keep most of the contents of your bathroom shelf. A detailed report in “Nutrition Action” reported on studies of glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, fish oil, krill oil, Vitamin D and SAM-e – all of which have been touted as painkillers for arthritis patients. The verdict on the studies: you might as well flip a coin to decide whether to buy these medicines. Pain reduction was either absent or minimal. I’ve been popping glucosamine tablets for years, but now I’m quitting.
Alzheimer’s and peanut butter? Those were main items in a University of Florida study, in which subjects were asked to sniff a spoonful of peanut butter as it was held several inches from their noses. Of 94 patients tested, 18 had already been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s. All 18 were less able to smell the peanut butter with their left nostrils than their right nostrils. A degraded sense of smell is a recognized Alzheimer’s symptom. Because Alzheimer’s usually affects the left side of the brain first, researchers believe the sniffing test may help to better detect the onset of the affliction. But they warn the public that self-administered peanut butter tests be avoided, since odor sensitivity can be affected by many factors.
In your nutrition reading, you are sure to find a warning about your favorite food or drink. The experts have a knack for finding something dangerous in almost every food or beverage known. But don’t be discouraged. The flip side is that, each week, scientists discover that a previously-banned item has been given the okay. Even as I finish writing this column, I see on the Web that moderate consumption of beer may help ward off cancer. And several times a year researchers change their minds about coffee – one month it will bring an early death, but a short time later we learn that caffeine may cure impetigo or conniption fits. So don’t give up – just keep reading, and eating.
Bob Driver is a former columnist for the Clearwater Sun. His email address is .