Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Food for Thought: For the first time ever, I may have been right about something.

A few months ago, I shared with you my secret to a healthy lifestyle. I call it the eat-what-tastes-good diet.

The logic is simple. If it tastes good, it has to be good for you, because our taste buds evolved to enjoy the foods that our bodies need. Mix in some outdoor activity and exercise, and you're living just as well as our evolutionary ancestors (nevermind, Mr. Hobbes, that their lives were generally solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short).

Now academic researchers are touting "intuitive eating". It's a no-diet diet that sets you free to eat whatever you want, with one major caveat -- you're only allowed to eat when you're hungry.

That befuddles me, because I don't understand why people would bother eating when they're not hungry. But then again, I'm always hungry and am well known to be scavenging my office for free food.

Still, it has had some success. Then again, so have the Atkins, South Beach, Slim Fast, Jenny Craig, and Abu Ghraib diets.

The lesson here is that there's no reason to overly restrict your lifestyle. Just so long as you feed your primal urges in -- say it with me now -- moderation.