Digressions on Food

My 76-year-old Poppop had a procedure done on his heart yesterday (Grandmom says they don't call them "operations" anymore. It's "procedure" now. I wonder if "The Game of Operation" I played as a kid is marketed as "The Game of Procedure" now.)

As I was walking with my mom to the food court in St. Thomas hospital (which, by the way, offers no "Mc-fill-in-the-blanks, thank God--why any hospital would allow one of those fast food joints to set up shop is beyond me--except that it helps ensure repeat business--for the hospital, that is. I am the great digresser tonight.) So my mom says to me:

"Poppop said that the older he gets the more he wishes he had taken better care of himself."

Man, I needed to hear that. Yes, I think an awful lot about what I eat (and don't eat), the chemicals I'm exposed to, the sedentary life I live, the lack of fresh air I breathe, the limited amount of water I drink (and the excessive amount of tea I consume). . .I'm on a much better track now than I was a year ago, two years ago, ten years ago. . .but if I don't continually read about health and nutrition and exercise and all the other issues that are on my mind right now, I quickly lose perspective and could fairly easily slip back into the Standard American Diet (SAD).

Here's an unsettling quote from an MSN article I read tonight by Allison J. Cleary:

"The average American consumer eats three burgers and four orders of fries each week. A typical American child now gets one-fourth of his or her vegetables in the form of French fries or potato chips. Half our nation's family food budgets are spent in restaurants, with fast-food operations and chains getting the lion's share of the spending."

What's really funny to me is that my husband is sitting next to me on the couch eating a burger and fries from Fat Mo's. I ate a salad and veggie entre at Marche Artisan Foods in East Nashville this evening. . .all by myself. It was glorious. I need to add Marche to my list of favorites. Oh, that place is delightful.

I just read this post aloud to my husband who says that he would rather have gone to Marche with me than eat a burger and fries on the couch. He also doubts that our percentage of spending on food at fast food restaurants would round up to be 1 percent. That, alone, is a HUGE change from three years ago.

James just said, "My stomach is upset. You can put that in your blog, too."

With that, I'm going to get ready for bed.