Eat That, It’s Good For You

3/18/2015

The Lay of the Land

By Lyn Messersmith

Eat That, It’s Good For You

            Do modern moms still say that? I grew up hearing it all the time, and likely a lot of readers did too. Some of us were fed that line about the starving Armenians, which held little persuasiveness. I think kids are born with an unwritten rule imprinted into their brains. “If it’s good for you, you aren’t going to like it,” and I was perfectly willing to ship my oatmeal and liver to Armenia, wherever that was.

            Some adults took a lighter approach: “It’s good for what ails you.” But nothing ailed me, or at least nothing I’d admit to, if it meant eating the offering of the moment. It’s my considered opinion that a lot of dogs got fat on what kids slipped under the table while mom wasn’t looking.

            On reflection, it’s amazing that someone as rebellious as I was never challenged an adult as to how they came by the knowledge of what food was good for us. Anyone who claimed that eating bread crusts would make your hair curly didn’t have much credibility in my book. I wanted curls, but there was a limit to what I’d endure for the privilege, and the alternate claim that bread crusts would put hair on your chest was even less appealing.

            “What’s good for you” has undergone numerous changes over the years and I’ve come to suspect that the folks who make those decisions are influenced by political agendas. We all studied the food pyramid in health class, and took the recommendations as gospel. It wasn’t a big deal for the middle class, who had always eaten pretty much along those lines. The underprivileged were glad to get whatever they had, and the prosperous, well, they could, and would, do as they chose.

            For a while the emphasis was on protein, but then grains came into fashion; now we are encouraged to eat mostly fruit and veggies, with lots of nuts and legumes supplying protein. Very little meat is recommended. Fats, carbs, sodium and sugar have variously been in and out of fashion, and dairy is alternately considered beneficial or harmful. Last week in the grocery checkout I overheard this.

            “Hey Joe, did you listen to the news this morning? You can have all the bacon and eggs you want; cholesterol isn’t a big deal anymore.” I’d listened to the same newscast, and chuckled, because years of diet watching and statin drugs didn’t lower my cholesterol, and going off meds and eating bacon and eggs regularly, didn’t raise it. I’ve come to agree with my dad, who maintained that eating a little of every food group was the way to stay trim and healthy. Emphasis on little. The tendency to super-size has likely had more to do with declining health of Americans than anything.

            One eastern city proposes a tax on sugary drinks and snacks to help reduce obesity and diseases like diabetes. Let’s think about this. There are taxes on booze, tobacco, telephone use, and gasoline. Do you know anyone who has stopped smoking or drinking alcohol because of a tax? Are you still driving? Talking on the phone?

            Come on, Uncle Sam, get real. Be honest. If you want more money, (and he always will) just say you’re raising taxes. Don’t insult our intelligence with the fairy tale that a tax has ever deterred someone from doing what they wanted. And if you really have no clue what foods are good for me, just say so. Those of us who care about our health will continue to eat what we decide is good for us. Plenty of lean beef. Maybe not Brussel sprouts.