5 posts tagged “eating well”

All my annual exams fall right around this time each year.

Last week I had my eyes checked. I hate that dilated part. Anyhoo. We talked about the fact that I'm not wearing my contacts any more. He told me that he finds as people move to bifocals, they usually give up their contacts. He listed a bunch of reasons why, all of which applied to me. So now I don't feel so bad about being a "lazy" contact wearer.

Mammo is next week and the dentist the week after.

Today was my "girlie" annual exam. I am thrilled with my numbers!

Cholesterol: 248 from 261 (-13)
Triglycerides: 185 from 217 (-32)
HDL: 61 from 53 (+8 - which is good).
LDL: 140 from 187 (-47)

OK, so they're still high: cholesterol < 200. Triglycerides < 150. LDL < 100.  But it's coming down because I've lost weight. My doctor says in 10 pounds or so my numbers might be normal. Whoo!

However, for two years now I've had blood in my urine, so she said she's sending me to a urologist. I hope she forgets. And she wants me to be Brac tested. Ugh. I can never be without a job because I won't be able to afford all my pre-existing conditions!

You must go read this article. It very clearly explains why we should be so afraid of corn. Yes, corn.

. . . corn takes the place of our sugars, our salts, our starches, our fats, our remedies and our beauty treatments. While there is nothing intrinsically toxic about corn derivatives and their products, there is nothing nutritious about them either, despite health claims to the contrary. The pervasiveness of corn in the American diet promotes a homogeneous and environmentally hostile agriculture industry by relying on large-scale unicrop farms.

When we eat this much corn, we not only discourage genetic diversity among crops, we also bankrupt our bodies of the nutrients we require. But, more sinister than this, these synthetic foods trick our bodies into thinking that we are getting the nutrients from foods that they mimic. When we drink a lime soda, our body expects Vitamin C because of the tart taste and asorbic acid, but we also cannot process this synthetic asorbic acid ("Vitamin C") with the efficiency of that found in say, a lime. Our brain asks us to continue drinking the soda, waiting for the nutrient. Instead, we get several hundred calories from corn-based sugars and no fiber with which to absorb the sugar as we would if we ate the lime. It is a deeply cynical business model that renders basically all industrial food companies into corn pushers.

What food item would you miss the most if it were removed from your diet and recipes? 
Submitted by scorpion1116.  

Chocolate.

Mom thinks my tummy issues are because of my diet. That I am lacking something. What that something might be, I don't know. She asked the other day if I am going to "keep this up."

Truth is, I don't know. Right now I do not crave meat. Beef in particular. Which is interesting because I was very much a beef girl. If the options were beef or chicken, I always went beef.

Now, I crave crab legs. Or scallops. Or shrimp. And hot dogs, oddly enough.

There are some who as vegetarians eat a pescetarian diet. However, eating any animal is not a true vegetarian diet. Then there is the flexitarian, a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat.

When I think about a steak or hamburger, I just envision those factory farms and that's then end of that. Maybe if we had better access to organic beef, I'd reconsider.

But for now, I'm still a vegetarian. I don't know if or when the day might come to change that. I'll let you know if it does.