Here’s what seems to have happened:
1. In the normal course of things, some children developed severe peanut allergies.
2. Awareness of this problem grew. It’s not clear whether the actual incidents grew or not, but almost certainly not. It was probably more a matter of growing access to information.
Fed Up, a documentary produced by Laurie David (who also produced An Inconvenient Truth), directed by Stephanie Soechtig, and narrated by Katie Couric. Available through Amazon, YouTube, and Netflix. All of these links are to paid services. You can watch a trailer here on YouTube.
I just finished lunch a little while ago. a totally scrumptious bowlful of lentil-and-vegetable-and sausage salad with my homemade creamy Italian dressing. I enjoyed every bite. And now, if I’m wise, I’ll consider myself to be off the eating bandwagon until dinner, at which time there will be another good meal, perhaps some spinach lasagna with whole-wheat pasta. Or we might go out, it being Friday night and all.
Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin, Crown Publishers, 2015.
This book has generated so much buzz that I almost felt anything I could possibly say would be superfluous, but this has truly been the book of the week for me, so here goes.
The most original insight of the book is that not everyone is the same in their abilities to form and stick to habits. As I’ve mentioned in several recent posts, I am what Gretchen calls an “obliger,” a huge category that is made up of people who have a hard time motivating themselves but are driven by others’ expectations. It’s probably also fair to say that obligers are eager to impress others, to collect what Gretchen calls “gold stars.” As I recognize more and more the truth about my basic nature I am driven more and more to work with it instead of against it. There is no way I can change myself into an “upholder,” someone who responds as readily to inner as to outer expectations, or a “questioner,” who will do the work as long as good reasons are given for it. Being an “upholder/questioner” seems ideal to me, but that’s not what I am.
The Big FAT Surprise: Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz, Simon and Schuster, 2014.
Let me say that I hope Teicholz makes a ton of money from this book. She deserves that, having spent the past nine years doing the research for the 337 pages of text plus 100+ pages of notes that comprise this book. And the message is: Whatever you think you know about what current research tells us constitutes healthy eating, you’re almost certainly wrong. If you go back and actually look at the original data for the studies that have been so influential in our dietary thinking over the past few decades, as Teicholz has done, you’ll find that they don’t actually say what it’s been said that they say.
So, for example, take a look at the so-called “Mediterranean Diet,” beloved in song and story. What does it consist of? Lots of vegetables, lots of whole grains, fish, and the very occasional serving of red meat. The fat of choice is olive oil, gallons of it.