You Are What You Eat Part II

First, a disclaimer: I am not a doctor or nutritionist.

By reading further, I hereby agree that I hold the writer harmless for any misleading information or off-the-wall interpretations of my own devising.

I did inherit a keen interest in health issues that had me reading health-related articles from my childhood years on. I began taking supplements nearly 50 years ago, starting with Vitamin C in 1968 to ward off hangovers. I suppose I could have quit drinking, but I wasn’t ready for such extreme measures. Yet.

I added unprescribed prescription diet pills to the mix around that same time. “Better Living Through Chemistry” was a meme widely adopted in the Sixties and Seventies, supporting the then-popular notion that “If it feels good, do it.” Probably feels pretty good to jump out of an airplane without a chute and just soar like an eagle! But…then there is the landing…(This just in: see link, but “don’t try this at home!”)

If you are wondering about the apparent contradiction between my interest in health and my relentless attack on my own health, let me refer you, once again, to Natalie Cole: “That’s an addiction for you. It drives out all the sane ideas and reinforces all the crazy ones.” Slick cried out to be fed and my “logical” brain went along for the ride, bullwhipped into a frenzy by my crazed Drug Zombie jockey.

Much more on this to come as I dedicate a post to Slick and the Drug Zombie.

During a temporary lull in the severity of the attack, when I tapered onto marijuana and off beer and speed, I reevaluated my diet after reading Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit in 1971 *. Prior to that, I had thought that a “balanced diet,” meant that if I had a slice of pizza in one hand, I needed a beer in the other. Turns out that a frozen pizza has about the same amount of nutrition as the cardboard “tray” it sits on.

If you agree with the basic idea underlying my previous post, "You Are What You Eat,” that you can’t create muscle, for instance, out of processed foods, even if you eat steaks (muscle), because you won't have the nutrients that power the systems that break the steak protein down to amino acids and reassemble them as your muscles, you are probably left to wonder, “where do I find these foods?”

While most articles on nutrition give folks the basic ideas we’ve all seen, “leafy greens, colors…,” because people’s tastes vary so much, it is hard for an article to address “an average person’s daily diet.” Also, individuals’ DNA and “microbiomes” vary, so what works for me, may not work for you. It will take some experimentation.

If you do begin a new nutritional program, ease into it to give your microbiome time to adapt. And add one food at a time, so any effect will not be confused with that of another new food. And for some foods, there may be an initial side effect as your system adapts, like gas, so start with small amounts.

Let’s start with something simple: Try adding yogurt first. BTW, “lactose intolerance” doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t tolerate yogurt. As many cultures around the globe with a reputation for longevity have discovered, yogurt is a useful part of their diet.

As I struggled with this complex piece, lengthy even if broken into segments, I just realized that there is no need to give you an “indigestible” amount of information in one serving. Changing a lifetime of nutritional habits (addictions) is a slow-but-steady “early recovery” issue too.

Crash diets lead to wrecks. Sudden weight losses, followed by sudden weight gains, lead to the famous “yo-yo” effect that actually makes sustainable weight loss more difficult as our metabolism responds just like it would have 50,000 years ago, by going into survival mode: “Slow down the engines, boys! Stuff every calorie into fat cells! Who knows when we’ll eat again!”

So let’s pause here, while you run out for some yogurt, ready to begin your recovery. While plain, unsweetened yogurt should be your goal, when I first tried it out, in spite of my lifelong love of buttermilk, I couldn’t handle it. I started with the Cinnamon Apple Pie and worked my way down to the plain, my last stop being with the Lemon, mixing the two together at first. I love the taste now. I make my own, using twice as much powdered skim milk as called for, yielding a product quite similar to cream cheese.

I didn’t like the taste of my first beer either. Alas, things that are truly good for you don’t make you feel like you have finally found paradise, so quit looking for food that induces an orgasm. “oh-ohh-ohhh-ohhhh-ohhhhh (Taylor, T. Home Improvement). I seem to recall there are better ways to achieve those.

See you next week with another suggested food and some tips.

*Adelle went overboard, as early enthusiasts/adopters often do, but her general ideas, adapted through many iterations, have served me well. More on supplements to come.

If you have a topic you would like me to write about, please leave a comment on the blog, reached by clicking on the title, underlined in blue.