Eat. Drink. Be Merry.

I was reminded today of some people's obsession with nutrition, as opposed to healthfulness.

A company sent the magazine a resveratrol-packed chocolate bar that claims to have a bajillion times as many antioxidants as red wine, blueberries, açai and goji berries and chemotherapy combined (or something like that). This bar will cure your as-yet-nonexistent cancer, just by you looking at it. It will lower your blood sugar. Then it will save the world.

I have thought for years that a relative of mine has orthorexia (only I didn't know it was called that until recently), and I wonder how much it is compounded by her work in the nutrition field. When I was a youngster, I remember, she was making almost-no-fat meals out of a cookbook by Dean Ornish, and I noted aloud that his name sounded suspiciously like "denourish." As the low-carb fads came around a few years ago, she tried those as well in attempts to get her "numbers" (cholesterol levels, blood sugar, other leading bad-stuff indicators) down. All this, mind you, for a 5'1" woman who I've never seen weigh more than 115 pounds. I'd be surprised if she's been over 100 in the past five years.

She has developed a type of pre-diabetes (as I understand it), and feels betrayed since she has always "done everything right," and she doesn't "deserve" this. (Do people with full-blown diabetes "deserve" it?) Well, she's never enjoyed just chilling out. Her blood pressure has been high despite exercise. But then, she won't exercise because it makes her lose too much weight. She's so fixated on this constellation of numbers...

I can't imagine living like that. Not eating this food or that food because it's a "carb bomb" (as she called a Thanksgiving dish my brother prepared last month). Have a taste, and enjoy it, and a glass of wine, and enjoy it. Watch those blood pressure numbers fall. And don't buy in (literally and figuratively) to ostensible "health foods" just because they market to your anxieties. If you want chocolate, eat some damn chocolate. And enjoy it.

A life spent tripping over numbers and eating by "rules" just doesn't sound that fulfilling to me (although one friend in particular manages her diabetes exceptionally well, and eats pretty well too). Yeah, I've gained 20 pounds back since moving to New York. I chalk that up to eating and drinking more, and exercising much, much less. And I'm trying to find a balance there. But I'm not going to turn to fake, "value-added" food to save me.

Of course there are soooo many people who are legitimately struggling with disease (e.g. diabetes) or weight as a real health and lifestyle problem. And I hope that each of them finds the combination of lifestyle factors that work for them to be happy, and healthy, and pain- and disease-free. But it's a slap in the face to people who have actual problems to see someone who is basically fine counting calories and agonizing over a "carb bomb."

So eat real food. And enjoy it.

one.

I love food. Is that quite clear yet? I guess this blog exists for me (and you, my dear potential readers) to explore what that means.

One of my main interests is yoga. I often think, and say, that doing yoga gives me permission to eat whatever I want and enjoy it. I don't mean that in a calories-in-to-calories-out-ratio kind of way. I mean it like this: Yoga has taught me, and continues to teach me, that being a human being is very much about the senses. The act of creating meals from scratch tickles allll the senses. Smelling sweet, spicy, and savory aromas wafting through the whole apartment. Seeing brightly colored fruits and vegetables mingling in the pan, mellowing with a little cream. Hearing the crackling, popping sound of seeds, or the low roil of boiling water, full of potential. Feeling the dry, comforting heat of an oven or the sharp OW! of a slipped paring knife. And the best - tasting not just the finished product, but during each step along the way.

Yoga also teaches me that enjoyment is a good thing (I know - who has to be taught, right?). And cooking is downright fun! The process of creating a unified something from a bunch of little somethings is so fulfilling to me. And then, of course, there's the eating.

Before I worked at the paper, I liked food, a lot, but now cooking is part of me. When I started there in January 2005, I became responsible for the production of two weekly features sections. I refer to only one of them as "mine." This attachment wouldn't be the case if not for the amazing women I work with, reporter Kathy and editor Lesli.

Oh - and for the record, I'm a stickler for Associated Press style. I must differ, though, on one point. The stylebook lists "chili" for all food-related uses. I diligently, if begrudgingly, follow that rule for print copy. Here, you will see that spelling used only if I'm referring to a concoction headed for a bowl. Members of the capsicum family are, of course, "chiles."

If you happen to be a member of AFJ, lobby your representative to lobby AP. Peppers everywhere are counting on you.