People don't eat nutrition, they eat food.

I wish I could take credit for that headline, but I can't. Someone else wrote it. It was the title of a recent nursing abstract by Melinda M. Manore, PhD, RD, CSSD. The headline was good, but the article was dull. All about why people should be referred to dietitians. Written for people in the healthcare world. Boring to it's core.

However, the title stuck with me.

Because it is true.

Some people seem to eat healthy all the time. I don't, even though I do try. But I eat things I shouldn't because, well, because I like them. Like cake and mashed potatoes and even a Coke once in awhile. And chocolate, too.

When I was growing up, we all just ate food. We never thought too much about it. I think back now and I see that my mom fed us The Zone diet. Except she didn't call it that; she called it dinner.

A starch, a protein and veggies. Pretty much every night. And we were thin and healthy and everyone enjoyed eating. We even had ice cream and pie and other delicious desserts she would make every week.

What we didn't have were large portions. We also never ate any processed foods.

And that I think is the difference.

We didn't have high fructose corn syrup in all of our food. We never had a list of ingredients that we could not understand on everything. We ate real food. Simple, real food. Like milk and cheese and bread and butter. Meat and potatoes. A salad. And fruit.

Then the 80's hit, and suddenly fat was the demon. Everything became fat-free. Processed and fat-free. And, as we all ate all that fat-free stuff, we all became fatter. And sicker.

I don't know where common sense went. Now sugar is being labeled toxic. It is crazy. Really crazy.

I think we should all just return to eating food. Real food. And start enjoying it again. When you eat what you like, it makes you smile and you feel good. And you need less of it because you feel so satisfied. And happy.

No one is happy eating Lean Cuisine or a protein bar or meat for every meal with no carbs. That is just crazy.

We should start a revolution of common sense. We don't need calories labeled on everything we eat. We know that if something is HUGE, that it has a lot of calories. We know if it is dripping with grease it is probably not good to eat too much of it. We know that if we cannot understand what the ingredients mean, it is probably not going to do our bodies any good. We know that we don't need a drink so large that it has an undertow. We also know we can eat ice cream one day, but not every day.

We have common sense. I know we do. But the "experts" are confusing us. Telling us that this or that is good or bad based on the most recent study. The one that contradicts a study from last week. And the week before.

So we need to stop listening to the experts and follow our own instincts once again.

I think we will all be happier and healthier for it.


It would be nice if the Food and Drug Administration stopped issuing warnings about toxic substances and just gave me the names of the one or two things still safe to eat.
~~~Robert Fuoss

Believe nothing, no matter where you have read it, or who has said it; no matter if I have said it; unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
~~~Buddha

Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.
~~~Josh Billings

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.
~~~Alfred E. Newman