Thought of the day

Our direct ancestors--every one of them up the line--managed to stomach their dinner and stay healthy long enough to have children. Most stayed healthy long enough to care for them. Future generations will presumably be able to stay healthy eating today's diet precisely because so many are sick from it in this generation (and perhaps a future "Michael Pollan" will be writing books that advise a return to Big Macs and fries).

Likewise, our sense of taste must also be the result of millions of years of this evolutionary process, always encouraging us to eat such-and-such a food in this-or-that situation. When you really need vitamin C, lemons taste fantastic.

But now it's changed. Modern science has a hundred different ways to create a sour taste, most of them cheaper than lemon juice. I wonder what happens when one drinks a mixture of four or five "all natural food acids", like those in coca-cola, when their body really wanted vitamin C.

And when we need calcium, while our ancestors would have chewed a while longer on that mammoth bone, we grab something else white and crunchy--perhaps a Montery-Jack falvored Cheez-It®. Are we all making (a less severe version of) the same mistake as those poor mulnurished children driven to eat chips of lead paint?

And do we overeat precisely because the statistical relationships between taste and food has been broken? I'm reminded of a line from Fight Club, when Tyler pours lye on Jack's hand:

TYLER:  You can go to the sink and run water over your hand ...
JACK: yes!  yes!  water!
TYLER:  ... or you can use vinegar to neutralize the burn

Anyway, here's a promise to myself--from now on, when I want something sweet, I'll eat a berry or a satsumaimo. If I feel like something crunchy, I'll go for a carrot rather than a potato chip. What on earth have I been doing to myself all these years!