The G Running Diary

Health Food Kick: 2/2/04

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Why is it that when people talk about healthy food, they always say, "It actually tastes pretty good"? I think it means it might taste good if you were starving, or if you can imagine that you are "actually" eating something that tastes good. Most of the best tasting food is not considered good for you. Rich sauces containing lots of butter, desserts full of egg yolks and cream, these are the things that immediately come to my mind. Sure I can cook healthy food. But it seems to take the addition of those bad for you things to make the dish stunning. A chunk of chicken in lemon juice and herbs is fine, but I'd like it so much better in a lemon herb cream sauce, and I'd have it with pasta, which is also bad for you. True, all things in moderation. Give me coffee over herbal tea any day. But the caffeine is bad for you, so you switch to decaf and even that has too much caffeine plus the acidity of coffee is bad for you. I like a lot of butter on my bread or toast, which doesn't matter because even the bread is bad for you, never mind the butter. So try to think vegetables. Well, the best salad I've ever made included potatoes and eggs and oil, which is ok for you, I suppose. Steamed vegetables are the last thing I would make or order in a restaurant. That always seems to be the healthy choice item that restaurants will offer. How bland and awful.

Most people have a drive to live longer. It is a basic instinct called survival. And if you are going to be around longer, you want your body to look half-way decent. Apparently, all this bad food will age you faster. But here's the thing. Who wants to die in a body that is pristine, that hasn't been used? It seems a more natural process that you live your life, use it up, and then you die. Do you really want someone to say, "That's the healthiest dead person I've ever seen"? There is, of course, a balance. It's kind of like when people retire with a finite amount of money. They have to guess when they will die, so that they don't run out. What a shame if you happen to live longer than you estimated. So, you've only been given one body, you shouldn't use it up right away. But if you try to preserve it to the extent that you are not really living, what good is that?