Sometimes I read things like this and I just have to rant. And since no one is around to rant to, my dear readers will bear the brunt of the rant. In case you aren't an NYT "member," the gist is that a reduced calorie diet (eating 30% less than the usual amount of daily calories) will prolong our lives considerably and reduce the occurrence of some old-age diseases.
My rant is this: what exactly is the point of living 140 years (as one scientist projects) if I have to eat 30% fewer calories than I currently am? I honestly don't think that I really consume that many calories as it is. Probably if I actually added it all up I would be getting less than 2000 a day. Fewer? Please. And it's not like this is the fountain of youth where no one will ever die. We'll still die. And we'll have eaten way more lettuce and way less cheese . And what is the point of that? I wish we could focus more on making the end of our lives more pleasant rather than trying to prolong the inevitable. How about more people become geriatric specialists (most medical students don't want to be geriatric specialists because it doesn't pay very well and isn't glamorous) and fewer people feed monkeys very small amounts of food for 27 years? I honestly think that would make a bigger difference in people's lives.
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Har har! [That is a hearty guffaw at those monkey-feeding scientists]
Though, the newly discovered radical in me must point out that many Americans (ususally of lower socio-economic status) could afford to cut some calories. We don't all have access to fine cheeses and garden grown veggies. And we certainly aren't educated about how to eat healthfully because it's all a part of the man's plan to keep us down (read: the global facist regime is behind all the world's atrocities, including McDonald's and fat people). It's probably part of the plan, as well, that those same "fat" people don't read or have subscriptions to the NYT, meaning their access to information on which to base their world views, understandings, and assesments of calorie intakes is limited. [end Lauren's little rant]
P.S. I love you KT and this is not an anti-rant, so don't be mad at me. It's an in-addition-rant to damn the man all together.
But seriously, I agree, that's why it annoys me so much that we're spending all this time on reduced calorie monkey diets when it's completely obvious that we shouldn't be eating 15,000 calories every day and we probably should be focusing our efforts on getting people to eat healthier in general and taking good care of them when they're old. Whew!
hear hear, kittyandpants! What a great little rant. More cheese, less lettuce!!!
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