Nutrition roulette

For him who has ears to hear ...you don’t have to read this, ok?

Russian roulette, the “game” where presumedly drunk people put one bullet in a revolver and spin the wheel and take a shot at themselves, is a stupid game. I doubt that anyone I know would ever play it. It’s ridiculous. Because NO ONE WANTS TO DIE.

But we eat like we do.

Now we all die. My husband’s grandmother passed away last week. She was 93, in her right mind, and not physically miserable. Oh sure, she was a little confused sometimes, and was in a nursing home, but she was still up and about, visiting and chatting with friends. Still using the bathroom. She lived a long and pretty healthy life. She got up to go to the bathroom Monday night, got back in bed, and died.

I think that’s what we want. To live a long time and be pretty healthy and active and then die at a ripe old age.

But we eat like we are invincible. Heart disease and strokes and diabetes are almost entirely preventable. And cancer is 70-90% not genetic. Some of that is environmental, and some of it we can’t actually do much about. But a whole lot of it we CAN.

We just want to live and have fun. No one wants to eat like me. I’m extreme. I get that. But having a stroke or heart attack or open heart surgery are also extreme. No one wants to do that either.

We live in this delusion that disease is random or genetic and can’t be helped and we just hope it isn’t us. But more and more, it IS us. Something like 37% of us will get cancer at some point. More than half will have heart disease, and the estimates are that half the population will have diabetes in 30 years. (Not quoting sources right now - this is more of a rant and a challenge to anyone who has ears to hear to find out for yourself)

If you are someone I love (or someone someone else loves), please consider changing your mindset from a subconscious game of nutrition roulette, hoping you won’t be one of the unlucky ones. Please do some research of your own, find out what your body needs (Hint: it is isn’t just to be thinner) and do that. Every little bit helps. Every salad, every green vegetable, every onion, every berry. Broccoli is better than drugs. Whatever you take in of animal products, make it less. Go for a walk.

Let’s unload our cultural dietary revolver. It’s not too late.