The Lilacs Are Out!

So I’m changing the theme color to lilac for a while.

(Lilacs are my favorite.)

Where the Heck Have I Been?

OK, first question out of the way - no, I have not fallen off the wagon.  In fact, I’m continuing to lose weight at about a pound a month, same as always.

What’s really happened is that my career is taking off!  I’m much busier, and less bored, during the work day.

Also, this is somewhat less important, but WordPress changed its #$%@*!! authoring interface, and I absolutely hate it.  They made all the features I used all the time less prominent and emphasized all the distracting little stuff I couldn’t care less about.  WordPress people - if you’re reading this - I still hate it.  I don’t really need to see how many posts I’ve written every time I log in, so that does not need to be at the top of the main dashboard page.  On the other hand, when I write a post, I really need to see my categories without scrolling down below the fold, and I need to see ALL of them, not just the most frequently used.  And it used to be much easier to add a new category - the new UI adds several mouseclicks to that process.  So I’m slighly dissatisfied with WordPress now.  Not dissatisfied enough to move my blog, but dissatisfied enough that I am not motivated to write as often as I used to.  >grump<

Recommended Reading: In Defense of Food

Here’s the label on a box of animal crackers that someone is storing in the work fridge (why the fridge? don’t these have a shelf life of 100 years?):

“Good source of calcium.”

To paraphrase Mark Sisson, adding a nutrient to a junk food doesn’t turn it into a health food.

You know, I think all of us low-carb / Paleo / slow food / traditional nutrition / WAPF types have been a little hard on Michael Pollan.  I have a few bones to pick with In Defense of Food, namely an inherent contradiction between his injunction to eat “mostly plants” and his suspicion of corn and other grain products.  (Michael, dear, if we are supposed to limit animal products AND limit grains, where are we supposed to get enough calories to fuel our bodies?  Swigging down glasses of olive oil?)

But the fact that food manufacturers bother to put labels like “a good source of calcium” on foods that are largely made of sugar suggests that it boosts sales.  Which means that people are falling for it.  Which means that Pollan’s advice to avoid foods that make health claims is necessary.

And my own experience supports this, too - I have extremely educated friends with decent incomes who tease me about my insistence on spending more money for cream that doesn’t have added thickeners and stabilizers, or think I’m too picky when I avoid commercial salad dressings because they are made with ingredients that can’t be procured for home use.  So Pollan’s advice not to eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize is also sorely needed.

So go read In Defense of Food.  But more to the point, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably already get and agree with 90% of what Pollan says - so give copies of the book to your less enlightened friends.  You know, the ones who buy things like Diet Coke Plus.

(Disclosure:  I work for a company owned by the same company that owns Penguin Press, the publisher of this book.)