Salad & Salmon
Despite the odd treatment of number ("less fries"?), the CNN headline yesterday gave cause for optimism: "White House urges less fries, more fish". So, after all the years of denying the damage that killer fats have been doing, the move against meat is getting support from the office that counts. But wait, there's a "may" in the very first sentence of the report:
"Cut back on foods like french fries made with artery-clogging fats and eat more fish and other foods that contain healthy fats, the government may start advising consumers." Why the conditional? Aren't the dogs in the streets barking that the trans fatty acids in fried food are poisonous? Well, maybe they are, but we mustn't addle those poor consumers with warnings say the jolly bakers and their caring friends in the food industry. The second sentence here is audacious in its arrogance:
"The FDA also is looking at putting a warning on foods that have trans fat, which consumer groups support but the food industry opposes. Manufacturers argue that a warning would confuse consumers and cause them eat more saturated fat, which also is unhealthy."
Given this kind of mendacity, it won't be easy to get out the message that omega-3 fatty acids can prevent coronary disease. On the other hand, this may be the moment that Dr. Ronald L. Hoffman has been waiting for. He's been promoting a diet that stresses the value of omega-3 oils for some time now and it's rapidly gaining attention.
Called "The Salad and Salmon Diet", it focuses on three food groups: "the foods to emphasize, the foods to enjoy in limited moderation, and the foods to avoid." Fish, particularly fresh salmon, trout, tuna, sardines and mackerel are central to the concept. The notion of a daily diet of fish for one's protein needs might be off-putting to many, but I've been trying it for three weeks now and can only report positive results. OK, I don't stick strictly to the diet but I've seriously upped the fish intake and cut down drastically on the meat, the bread and the dairy produce, and I can tell you I feel much better as a result.
Diarist of the day: Count Ciano, 31 May 1938"A great hullabaloo is being made in Germany over the people's car -- seven million are to be built and almost every family will have its own little car. Mussolini's comment, upon reading a report on the subject, was that this will promote the spirit of hedonism already innate in the Germans and make the people less warlike. If you turn your people into bourgeois, you also turn them into pacifists."
