| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
05th
June 2010
Watch
what you eat
 The
strains of an advertising jingle playing
on television came to my ears while I
was in the kitchen. I was frying an egg
for breakfast and appropriately enough,
the tune which was intruding on my thoughts
was that of an ad put out by the egg producers
of America; you know, the one which ends
with the catchy line, “ the incredible,
edible egg”.
All the propaganda came to mind; the “scientific
findings by all the reliable researchers”,
which scared the pants off me with the
information about how eggs are bad for
you. According to what I’ve heard,
the two greatest purveyors of cholesterol
on this God’s green earth are chicken
fat and egg yolk. As far as I know, I
may as well be holding a loaded gun in
my hand, in place of this frying pan with
a fried egg.
But then, out come the “confirmed
results” from the pro-egg scientists,
that eggs are being maligned. They have
been found to contain much less cholesterol
than was previously reported, so you may
go ahead and indulge yourself; eggs are
delicious and good for you.
Who to believe? I am an egg lover myself,
and would love to give credence to the
pro-egg guys, but what if they’re
wrong? At best, what if their published
findings are just little slanted on the
side of the egg producers, especially
if the latter are funding their research?
So I resort to my rule-of-thumb opinion,
which I always fall back on in these situations
in case of doubt: whatever was good enough
for our parents and grandparents, as long
as it’s natural, organic, chemical-
and pesticide-free, is good enough for
me. Lots of them seemed to have survived
to a grand old age without the restrictions,
substitutions and alternatives which we
seem obliged to live by today.
Now please, I don’t want anyone
reading this to rely on any of its content
for its medical value; I have no medical
qualifications whatsoever. And there may
be doctors glancing through this article
who may be prone to say things like, “this
guy doesn’t have the faintest idea
what he’s talking about. Doesn’t
he realize that statistics show that the
life expectancy of the human race has
been extended considerably of late, and
that it’s mainly because of proper
dietary habits which we’ve taught
the layman: how to keep away from polysaturates
and white bread and butter and eggs and
stuff?”
I tell you, lend them your ears, folks;
listen to them; heed their words. I try
to, albeit with a lot of regret. Regret,
because I love good white bread and butter
and eggs and stuff. I probably love polysaturates
too, but I doubt that I’d recognize
one if you plunked it down on my plate.
You most likely would have to point it
out and identify it to me. You know like,
“Here’s a polysaturate sandwich
for lunch (or here’s a bowl of polysaturate
soup), I hope you like it. I myself find
it delicious.” Then I could sample
it and give you my opinion.
But back to pick up my thread, where I
left off. Isn’t it funny how so
many things which God has created and
(we thought) made wholesome and tasty
for our consumption, turn out to be not
good for us? Used to be: “Bread
is the staff of life”. Now we are
told to keep away from bread. Unless it’s
wholewheat, and even that, we should partake
of sparingly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
They
replaced butter – good old wholesome butter
– with margarine. Now I hear tell that
margarine is not all that it’s cracked
up to be: something about it having unforeseen
side effects; like causing cancer and other
little malaises which may be worse than whatever
it was that butter did to you in the days when
you used to eat it.
But the one which I found most ironic, is the
case of the egg. The ordinary chicken egg which
we are so accustomed to, and which, as I said
before, I am standing here holding in a sauce-pan
like a loaded gun. For the life of me, I cannot
understand how God, with all His Wisdom, would
take His time to create a food which may be
eaten raw or cooked: I mean, it may be boiled;
or fried; sunny side up or easy over or hard
yolk; or scrambled or whipped; or fluffed up;
or poached; hard or soft; in omelettes; or egg
nogs; or pancakes; or regular pound cakes; to
thicken sauces or gravies; or mixed with a variety
of other foods; in other words, possessing the
capability of being prepared in a multiplicity
of ways, more than almost any other single food;
and then He makes it “not good for us”?
It seems to defy logic.
Do you know that ground vegetables (yams, sweet
and Irish potatoes, tannia, etc.) are too starchy
for you; cakes and pastries too sweet, as are
candy, chocolate, almost anything containing
sugar and honey; red meat is indigestible and
laden with cholesterol; well, we’ve dealt
with bread, butter (and whatever goes for butter
goes as well for milk and cheese), eggs and
chicken; coffee and tea contain too much caffeine;
and of course you shouldn’t drink anything
alcoholic or smoke.
Isn’t it miraculous that our parents and
grandparents survived at all?
I wouldn’t mind following all the instructions
and substituting all of the above with whatever
replacement that modern man had invented, if
it were not for the fact that the new stuff
just does not prove all that trustworthy. You
know, ten years after they have you taking that
new substitute sweetener in place of sugar,
someone discovers that the sweetener causes
cancer in laboratory rats or something. “Well,
don’t feed it to laboratory rats,”
you might say. But seriously, the conclusions
are that it may do the same thing to humans.
And since you’ve ingesting the darned
thing for ten years now, it’s too late
to save yourself by abstaining.
What a life! One just doesn’t know what
to eat. It’s a case of damned if you do
and damned if you don’t. Well damned for
damned, I think I’ll just go ahead and
eat what tastes sweet in my mouth; in the hope
that it doesn’t turn sour in my, you know
where. I’ll do like our forefathers and
try to exercise a lot … and take my chances.
It may turn out to be a short life, but a happy
one
See you at the
dinner table.
Discuss
Story
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
