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| Christina and I worked at the Yale School of Medicine. She carried out research for a well-known expert in raising children, Joan Fassler. I retrieved articles on a wide variety of maladies at the main medical library. We took the campus bus to the Sterling Library and visited with Roland Bainton |
The Yale medical doctors explained how the human body works in dealing with drug addiction. The liver - a complex chemical factory - learns how to break down the newest chemicals and improves its breakdown speed during the first dose.
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| I worked the medical library in the stacks to retrieve journal articles for various researchers. My favorite magazine titles were The Journal of Railway Injuries and Medical Pickwick (humor). |
That is the genius behind Antabuse, where the pill stops the breakdown of alcohol and makes the patient violently sick. The same blocking mechanism is used with statins, a very expensive replacement for walnuts and almonds. The oil in those nuts takes bad cholesterol out of our systems, which was proven to me by two blood tests, months apart. The second test, after daily doses of walnuts piled on ice cream, had perfect numbers for cholesterol. However, the blood sugar level was scary, but it went back to normal after losing 35 pounds (no ice cream).
That weight loss convinced me that Dr. Joel Fuhrman was the most sensible and accurate advisor about weight.
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| Sterling Library at Yale |
Breaking the Cycle
Doubtless we all get used to certain foods, even addicted to them. Grocery stores are fanatical about providing the worst foods in the most alluring way, maxing the highly profitable and hiding healthy foods in the corner.
My change to vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries was almost monastic. I dropped the high fat, high sugar, salt drenched foods, with a mixture of reluctance and disdain.
One thing really helped - becoming habituated to healthy foods. Frozen vegetables are low in salt and delicious when warmed up together with beans and tomato paste:
- Onions and peppers
- Sweet peas
- Broccoli
- Asparagus
- Cauliflower
Each ingredient became more delicious and satisfying. Raw greens did not appeal to me, so I tried chopped, frozen greens in the mix - very inexpensive, tasty, and easy to parcel out. I added blueberries and walnuts to the mix warming on the stove. The frozen greens are turnip, spinach, and kale - all loaded with nutrition.
When my father had blood sugar problems, he had all kinds of trouble. He ran into the Jackson 70-year pancreas warrantee - and lived another 15 years quite handicapped by his habits.
Desserts
My mother taught students how to distinguish the desert from desserts in her English classes. "The desert has only one s, but we always like two desserts - two s's." And she brought donuts to class - the best donuts in the region.
They do not have Antabuse for desserts, but something else works better - fresh fruit. Apples replace apple pie and become far more appealing than mounds of sugared cooked apples surrounded by crust made from white flour and grease, crowned with ice cream or whipped cream or cheese - all fat products. Raw apples bind up the sugars in fiber, which is lost in cooking. Cooked apples are candy.
I look for favorites in the frozen vegetables but I start with fresh fruit - the best apples are Number 1. They seem expensive but are nothing compared to the cost of prepared food and prescriptions. Some other fresh delights are:
- Blueberries
- Pineapple
- Oranges
Meanwhile, I read over various articles and books about nutrition. I laugh at the special diet fads that promote the "latest thing" while ignoring the medicine of God's Creation in plain, undoctored foods.
Exercise is another potential habit or addiction. More later.
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| Yale Divinity School |
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| YDS - Day Mission Library |
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| For campanologists - the Harkness Tower |
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| More for Church Mouse Campanologist |
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| Harkness Bell Tower |
