Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Hurts So Good


I've been pondering a lot lately. Normally this can be very dangerous and lead to disaster, but this time I've been pondering food. OK, I often ponder food. I love food. What I have been thinking about lately is why "good food", meaning tasty food, is often not good FOR you. Lets take my favorite food products for example:

Heavy Cream

Butter

Whole Milk

Fried Bologna

Steak

Pork Fat

Duck Fat

Dr. Pepper


These are all natural occurring foods, with the exception of the bologna which is a processed meat product, that contrary to popular belief is NOT made of cow lips and pig nipples, rather it is a type of smoked sausage that becomes extra delicious when fried on a griddle. Cream, butter, Steak, all come from the cow which was clean even to ancient Israel.....well, maybe not the way I eat my steaks. And then Dr. Pepper which is obviously blessed. If you haven't heard my story about when I was in college and trusted God to supply me a missing nickel and then found it laying at my feet in front of the drink machine I went to a nickel short, in faith, then you just did.


Anyway, why does cream and butter have to slowly collect in your arteries? I typically have at least a couple cloves of garlic and some onion or shallot which is supposed to help clean them out so I think I wash out the bad effects. But not just cream and butter, everything dairy is full of cholesterol, cow meat is terrible for you, sugar causes all kinds of problems, and drinking pork fat is never advisable in any situation.


Of course the easy answer is moderation. Americans are notoriously bad at moderation. We rarely teach moderation in anything. We typically have knee jerk reactions in life. Ex. "Twinkies are yummy, so I will eat 40 of them". The church (in the South) puts bans on alcohol because people can't practice moderation, but we don't ban sugar and butter and the same ones who imposed the ban on alcohol are double fisting chili dogs after their victory at the convention. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America.


I guess if we would practice moderation then a little butter or cream is fine for everyone. I wish it wasn't bad for me. I really like cream sauces and butter. I really like frying things in butter, pork fat, or duck fat. I really like Dr. Pepper. But I can't afford to have heart disease so I have to eat things that won't kill me.

5 comments:

Tim said...

Ah, yes, the old moderation challenge. I know it so well. Great thoughts!

I think moderation is important even if something isn't bad for you. There is just something to be said for doing everything in moderation. In fact, I heard that Aristotle said the key to happiness is everything in moderation.

Too much money can be bad. Not enough money can also be bad. Moderation is the key, whether or not it's actually unhealthy.

OKeedokey said...

I'm glad you want to be more healthy. Your family appreciates it!

stephen lee cavness said...

i like to eat healthy in moderation...

Arkansas's Swiss Family Imholz said...

I think back in the old days,(and as I get older I tend to do that more often), building log cabins, riding in a bumpy horse-drawn wagons cross country and walking eleven miles to school counteracted the "bad?" stuff in our veins. In those days, getting scalped by an Indian was a more pressing matter.
The only conceivable counter-balance in today's time would be riding a mechanical bull as one maneuvers through the internet.....or....that word, moderation.
:-)

Emily Doss said...

http://www.365cheeses.com
I found this web site and it reminded me of that time that you were going to try every cheese known to man.