I was a Girl Scout. I went to camp. I wore a sash covered with badges. I sold cookies. But I am no longer 12 years old. In one memorable scene from the movie The Addams Family, young Wednesday Addams asks the uniformed adolescent ringing the bell on her front door if the cookies she is selling are made with real Girl Scouts. Well, Wednesday, I would say that yes, in a way they are. Continue reading →

I heard a great concept this week: the “health span.” It’s not exactly your lifespan, but rather the length of time you live in good health. So if you live to be 85, but spend the last 10 years of your life in declining health, then your lifespan may have been 85, but your health span was 75. Now let’s apply this concept to populations instead of individuals, because that’s where you see how we can make a real difference. Continue reading →

An important article called “Can We Say What Diet is Best for Health?,” by David Katz and Stephanie Meller from Yale’s School of Public Health, was published in the scientific literature this week, and James Hamblin wrote a story about it for the Atlantic. He titled it “Science Compared Every Diet, and the Winner is Real Food.” You know, I would have edited out the word “Real” and called it simply “Food.” Then I would have reviewed for the reader the differences between Food and manufactured calories. Continue reading →

It’s a conversation that has lasted for more than fifteen years, one month at a time. Two members of our book group, Mo and Netta, have folded themselves comfortably, side by side, into big chairs separated by just a small table. Our host today, Deena, lies nearby on the floor, her head on a large, soft cushion.

Except for Zoe, the rest of us sit on various parts of the couch, facing all our friends and the big chairs opposite, with the coffee table in between. Casual tonight in a t-shirt, jeans, and baseball cap, Zoe has seated herself cross-legged on the floor, halfway between me and a crackling fire.

Continue reading →

From what I’ve heard, people tend to divide the diagnosis of diabetes into three categories, two of which they suspect aren’t the real thing. Or at least not worth worrying about. Take, for example, diet-controlled diabetes. They’re not really sure if this is even worth mentioning, but they’ll take a shot anyway. “My sister might have something, I’m not sure, but she doesn’t have to take anything for it, as long as she eats right.” “Okay, so maybe diet-controlled diabetes?,” I ask. “Yeh, I think so,” comes the reply. More on this below.

The second is diabetes controlled by oral medications. They’re not sure if this is the real thing either, but they figure they’ll mention it, just in case. “I think my dad has diabetes,” they might say, “but he just takes a pill for it.” When I reply with “Well, okay, that’s important to know,” they nod, and then look relieved to have done the right thing by bringing it up.

Continue reading →

Today I’m thinking about “junk food.” So called junk food, that is. In my mind there’s junk and then there’s food; there’s no such thing as junk food. It it’s junk then it can’t be food. If it’s food, it’s not junk. Junk food? Really? Who put this one over on the American family? Junk food? What a joke. There’s some kind of logic to this. It’s fairly obvious: it’s one or the other, and if it’s junk, then it can’t be food.

Here in my virtual reality corner of the internet, I’m working to create a quiet storm around this concept. I post week in and week out about the differences between real food and manufactured calories. My commitment to this blog is so great that I post even when I’m on vacation, which makes it a working vacation. What’s that? Okay, I’ll cut back on those.

Continue reading →