Trim Healthy Indulgence

This is Part 4 of 5 in the series by Mark Jaffe: he is a partner in the Chicago office of Patton Boggs.

The Work of Clean and Decent Eating

On the surface of things it is nothing new that unhealthy eating should be discouraged. Once upon a time healthy eating came naturally to people. For centuries it was said that the only way to stay healthy was through regular exercise. More recently, the anti-eating folks worked to turn people into dieters by promising them all the wonders of healthy eating: a more wholesome diet, a healthier body, and a longer life. With all the fuss, there is still so much to admire about the promises made by the anti-eating folks. Diet and physical exercise in this day and age are at the forefront of the anti-eating machine.

Unfortunately, for people, they are not true. Those who continue to emphasize eating well are ignoring basic body chemistry and eating habits for what is best for one’s body and mind. In effect, people are being taught to treat food as something that needs to be fed to people and that eating tends to be a quick fix and leaves people feeling hungry and hung-over often far more than they actually are.

Bad Medicine

The anti-eating folks sometimes dismiss the benefits of eating well to the point that they may even end up eating themselves. For example, in his 2004 book, The Surprising Benefits of Eating Well, Eric B. Holman claims to make health claims for eating a variety of foods that benefit both the brain and body. Belly down, Mr. Holman! Let’s eat tasty and nutritious foods to raise blood pressure and lower cholesterol. I’ll be darned if I go along with his advice! But even if you eat a lot of inexpensive foods and include as many whole foods and fruit and veggies and greens as he claims you will rarely be able to expect to be able to drop to zero excess body fat.

It helps, of course, that there is so much evidence that eating a variety and variety of high quality food is critical to health. The best high-quality food you can eat is the kind that is fed to and eaten by your body. Naturally high quality food supplies a number of crucial vitamins and minerals to the body, including antioxidants and vitamins such as Vitamins C and A and B6.