Monday, April 04, 2005

Ah, Nuts: Peanuts, only a few years ago, were declared to be unhealthy and fattening. Now researchers have concluded that they are good for you again.

Caffeine has gone through the same back and forth. As have eggs, tuna, and rice. Every time something is declared bad for you, a few years later it's found to have lifesaving qualities.

Nothing about the peanut has changed since last decade, only the research surrounding it has. That's why I've stopped paying attention to what health experts say, much to the chagrin of whomever I'm dating at any point in time.

I've come to rely on the eat-what-tastes-good diet. My theory is that humans' taste buds have evolved to entice us with what our bodies need and to spit out what's bad for us. Try this simple experiment: Put a juicy piece of steak in your mouth. Taste good? That's because the fats and the proteins are crucial for an active lifestyle. Now put a piece of cardboard in your mouth. Not as good is it? Sure enough, it has no nutritional value whatsoever. Now put a year-old, frozen-food bean burrito that's fresh out of the microwave into your mouth. Tastes pretty much like the cardboard? Go ahead and throw it away.

This diet only works if you take part in a common ritual of our evolutionary ancestors, commonly known as: going outside and moving around. It doesn't work so well if your activity is confined to maneuvering your swivel chair.

And another key component of this diet is, as with all things else in life, moderation. Try eating eggs every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That doesn't even sound like it would taste good -- a strong indication that this is bad for you. And for you chocoholics, sugar is good for you, so long as you exert yourself from time to time. But if you eat too much of it, you feel sick. Listen to your body. It speaks to you. And in this case it's saying you look fat.

I don't know if my diet will catch on the way the Atkins and other low-carb diets have. But I simply refuse to believe that the greatest scourge of human existence, lately, is bread. Civilization was built on the creation of bread. Now we have to order our Whopper without buns.

So forget what the so-called "experts" say. You should only listen to guys who run anonymous blogs.