December 2024

There’s something magical about Christmas trees-especially when you’re seeing them through the eyes of a grandchild. This past Saturday, we took our grandson to Cornerstone Christmas Tree Farm in Pocahontas for what turned into a heartwarming, hilarious adventure in the art of holiday tree-picking.

Have you ever heard the expression that you are what you eat? I don’t think it means that you will become a bean or a chicken, or even a taco. Instead, I believe it means you will either be healthy or not, obese or not, skinny or not. In 1983, when my wife at the time became pregnant with my youngest son Chris, she shocked me with all the restrictions that she put on her diet, and inadvertently on mine. To be brief, she abstained from alcohol and cigarettes and some other bad habits. She also refused to eat or at least tried to resist anything containing Monosodium Glutamate or BHA or BHT or nitrates or nitrites. Those things she read are bad for a developing fetus. But she made me much more conscious about what I ate in the process. I will be the first to admit that I was a sugar addict most of my life. It truly is one of the most difficult addictions to control. But later on, as I began to age, I started finding out more and more about the foods that we were eating in these later years, beginning in the later 50’s and 60’s and getting worse every decade after that. My wife Kerry remarked later on after we got together how, when grocery shopping, that I seemed to shop the outer perimeters of the store - dairy, meat, produce. She noticed that I bought few packaged foods or, better yet, processed foods. Foods precooked with only a need to warm up to eat. Foods now in the stores seem to put their importance more on the artistic display of the food or the packaging than the quality of the food itself. Even your meat is packaged into plastic wrapped containers that contain Carbon monoxide and dioxide and/or nitrogen. The O2 is reduced to keep down the growth of bacteria. So many of the processed foods and drinks contain high fructose corn syrup. This singular product can contribute to insulin resistance, obesity and weight gain, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and other health issues. We also need to beware of the chemicals I mentioned earlier about my wife and son to be. I am a people watcher, and I can’t help but notice that people most everywhere are packing on pounds, but so many of them get their calories from fast food restaurants. We need to keep in mind that these establishments, especially the big chains, are motivated not by your health, but by the dollars they ring up and how their stockholders profit. In the last 3 year Kerry and I have almost quite eating out, unless it is just absolutely necessary. We cook simple foods, a lot of them are Mexican style dishes, with a small amount of meats, and lots of onions, tomatoes and peppers. We buy a good sharp cheddar cheese and grate it ourselves. We even make our own salsa, and it is kept refrigerated, and contains no preservatives. Preservatives are a big problem with foods today, and one of our health hazards. We limit severely our intake of soft drinks, or sweetened teas. Neither of us drink alcohol at all. I never have, and in my 86th year, I see great benefits from that. I know you are busy, and food takes time, but you owe it yourself to pay attention to the foods that you eat, you will be happy later on if you do. Our incoming administration has mentioned that they will be placing Robert Kennedy Jr. in position to watch over our foods. I have no love for Mr. Kennedy, like I did for his awesome father and uncle, and many of his ideas I find ridiculous, but he promises to work to correct some of the problems of our food manufacturing, and I can get behind him on that. So pay attention, read the labels on what you buy to eat, and don’t let your urges drive your diet. Learn to eat proper portions, you will be surprised if you get in a habit of eating smaller portions, how soon you will notice the affects, and surprisingly you will find that your hunger abates. Take care of that body. It is the only one you are going to get in this life. Remember, comfort food is usually the first one that will make you uncomfortable quicker. Thanks.