December remains a food month in every respect. Desserts appear at the door - Ranger Bob loves a certain brand of cookies and brings a box or two. More treats arrive by mail - crackers, cheese, and sausage. Frozen food arrives packed in dry ice. On our cul-de-sac neighbors bring various supplemental temptations. But I digress.
January is the penitential month, when gym attendance and new memberships soar for two weeks, sometimes three. The hottest fictional reading is January Diet News.
Some readers said they enjoyed the posts on nutrition, so I am going to start them again,
I have never warmed up to the cholesterol fad, which strikes me as great for the cardio industry but questionable on the medicine side. The cholesterol drugs block the liver and cause all kinds of mischief. Everyone praises Omega 3 fat - they are rich in that oil.
Walnuts are hailed as the one of the best foods for the heart. They are high in fat, which balances the cholesterol level and very satisfying as a snack. We began getting them in two-pound bags, after being told they were prescribed as daily intake by another person's doctor. We buy them in two-pound bags and store them in a large plastic food keeper.
Eating walnuts as part of a healthy diet may decrease your risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death globally.
Walnuts help maintain healthy cholesterol levels and decrease blood pressure, two of the major risk factors for heart disease.1,2 They are also a rich source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which is the plant-based omega-3 fatty acid. Walnuts contain 2.5 grams of ALA per ounce.
Research has found that omega-3 fatty acids may decrease the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP) in those with high cholesterol.
Salmon and olive oil are also encouraged.
Baked Walnuts
The walnut promoter also suggested baking them. That only takes a short time in a frying pan. Baked walnuts are even more delicious.
My problem was enjoying them on a bed of ice cream. No one makes good nutty ice cream, imagining that specks of them and some flavoring will work magic. So the combination of baked walnuts on vanilla ice cream was lethally attractive to me for some time.
One half-cup of ice cream is one unit of carbohydrates, and the ice cream habit invites more than that, sometimes much more. Secondly, eating ice cream does not satisfy for long but creates an ice cream craving for later in the day, maybe morning ice cream too. The crooked politician in All the King's Men liked to talk about having peach ice cream for breakfast in the morning at the governor's mansion.
Growing up in a bakery meant access to freezers with ice cream. Living near Wharton Field House meant a short walk to Whitey's Ice Cream and Country Style.
Besides its ability to grow fat, ice cream has the potential to slow down the body. It is a cruel fact that high blood sugar makes the users lethargic, so the quick charge of a big dessert yields sluggishness that no sugary product will help.
Cheer Up!
The best step for health, according to the Harvard Medical Newsletter, is to go on two walks per day. Sassy insists on a 7 AM walk each day and itches for the second one at 3 PM. She has a great chance of seeing Pat, John, and Sam at 7 AM, Ranger Bob at 3 PM.
We were lucky to get her in Phoenix, and she learned the morning routine right away. She built up her frame walking and running for the ball at the park.
