Hey, let?s eat

November 11, 2011

West Chester, Iowa

To the Editor:

Let?s start by admitting I am neither a dietitian nor an outstanding example of a human physical specimen. It would be nice for me to find an anorexic and give them 30 pounds ? we would both be better off.

We have all known people who all their lives have eaten ?wrong? according to the government and media. Eskimos eat a diet extremely high in cholesterol, and do not have high cholesterol. Chinese and Japanese eat many wrong things, and are not fat until they come to this country and eat what the advertisers suggest.

We could quote many examples. Millions of people eat meat, potatoes, gravy, eggs, milk, etc., and grow very old, being healthy all the while. Our government has told us to eat grain, grass (lettuce), and almost no eggs and meat. (The food pyramid.) They finally realized it was doing no good. We were getting fat with this. It scrapped that for a new system that flies in the face of millions of people who grew old and healthy eating real food ? meat, potatoes, gravy, milk, and eggs.

Some of those telling us how to eat are very large, and obviously don?t take their own advice. Also, don?t tell me what to eat with a cigarette in your hand.

It is interesting to note after hearing how horribly we eat, we are living longer all the time. How can this be?

Some suggest we become vegetarians. There are more than 70,000 people in the United States over 100 years old, and that number is increasing all the time. Not one ? not a single person in that group ? is a vegetarian. Not a good recommendation. Not sure I want to join them.

The egg industry has survived years of media and dietitians telling us how bad they were for us, with millions of people eating them all the while, enjoying long, healthy lives. Now finally even the media, dietitians, and government admit eggs are good for us ? excellent protein.

For me, the last straw was milk. I was raised on a farm, drank thousands of gallons of milk ? with the cream still in it. I?m 75 years old, healthy, still drinking milk. Dentists are amazed I have 32 teeth. Apparently most people don?t.

We have been told for years to drink only 2 percent or skim milk. I will quote from the Sept. 12 issue of Time magazine from an article by Dr. Oz. ?Even the case against whole milk, condemned by some critics as nothing less than a glass of liquid fat, is a lot more complex than it seems. It?s true that kids who drink a lot of milk drink a lot of calories, but milk can actually help control weight, since calcium binds with fat in the food digesting in your gut, meaning you absorb less of that fat. Some studies have seen no significant difference among skim, low fat, and whole milk when it comes to weight control. What?s more, when you take all the fat out of milk, you?re left with too high a concentration of natural sugars, which interact like candy with your hormones, especially insulin.

Children are now getting diabetes at high rates, and much younger. My, what a surprise.

I will not pretend to tell you how to eat, except to eat good, natural food, exercise way more than I do, and enjoy both food and life.

Sincerely,

Tom Thomas