When it comes to Nutrition, the Glass is Half Empty

Being the sanctimonious type, I find my friends volunteering information about their diet without prompting. It comes with the territory. You only have to harangue someone about their diet a couple of times and are forever thereafter assumed to be interested in what healthy food they have been eating.

“I had some broccoli with my dinner on Wednesday and a salad yesterday for lunch,” was the statement proudly and cheerfully sent my way recently, apropos of nothing. When I hear this sort of thing, depending on my mood at the time, I either offer congratulations and change the subject or tell them a version of what follows.

Nutrition does not work like a distance learning qualification or a bank account, where you can contribute positively when it suits, make progress each time you do and yet during the periods you are not contributing see no erosion in value.

If you eat nothing but lard, your health will deteriorate to the point where you eventually die. Your bank account will be closed with a zero balance - even if you had built it up to a five figure sum with daily broccoli and salad in the preceding 30 years.

It is primarily the lack of vitamins and minerals that lead to the decline in health. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the absence of vitamins and minerals in your diet for several meals in succession will also affect your health, albeit that it may be imperceptible. It could be the difference between catching a cold and not catching a cold – not that you will never know for sure. Over several years, the effect will no longer be imperceptible, but again, you won’t know for sure what caused what.

What else was my friend eating during the 48 hour period her ‘story’ spanned? I dread to think. Even if the rest of her diet was not composed of junk, one has to conclude that it also did not include fruit or vegetables of any kind, or she would have included them in her story.

The fact is that where nutrition is concerned, the glass is always half empty. Long term, optimism will not serve you well.

See Also:
Cone Theory and the Mystery Doctor
Roll the Dice