Feeding the Body

Golly, it's hard to know if one is being clear when writing about immaterial things, like nonexistence. Was I clear in my last post ("Being and Nothingness") that the awareness of impermanence I took away from undergoing general anesthesia was encouraging?
It was. (I mean, after the nausea passed.)
It's like I now possess a Cosmic Hallway Pass, good forever, to wander freely, hanging out in the stairwells of reality, smoking in the bathroom of existence.

But all this metaphysical stuff is not the only change I've been pondering.
Somewhat unusually for me, I've also been pondering the physical.
Like, maybe even with my Cosmic Pass, I should stop skipping gym class...

See, I've been feeling a little sad that I burdened my internal organs with so much Ben & Jerry's "Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream" ice-cream this spring. Turns out cholesterol is one of the things the gallbladder deals with.

Thanks to my island-dwelling ancestors who ate rocks (Sicilians and Scots, both), I am generally healthy as a mule, and I've rarely considered the connection between my actions and my organs. As a child of the Sixties, when America discovered yogurt, and as a former cook at a whole-foodsy restaurant, I know a lot about the theory of healthy eating. I just haven't bothered much with its application.

Now, however, though it's too late for my gallbladder, I've decided I'd like to change my relationship with food.
I firmly believe there is nothing more boring than reading about people's food plans, unless its listening to people talk about their furniture, so I won't go on and on about this. Anyway, you all know this stuff too. But I came across a list on the Mayo Clinic site of the Top 10 Healthy Foods and they're mostly stuff I love, so I thought I'd post it. It did not include dark chocolate, like in the photo above (not Mayo's); but I don't like chocolate much anyway. It did include:

almonds
apples
blueberries
broccoli (I far prefer kale)
red (including kidney) beans
salmon
spinach
sweet potatoes (skip the marshmallows)
vegetable juice (doesn't count if you add vodka)
wheat germ (whatever...)

And I'm putting together my own secondary list:

coffee (I'm gonna die anyway. It stays.)
a glass of red wine (sweartogod, counts as Health Food: Mayo says so!)
olive oil (the food of my father's people!)
garlic ("as good as ten mothers")
crusty bread, sprinkled with sesame seeds
stinky cheese
steel-cut oats (the food of my mother's people!)
maple syrup
oranges (smell like Christmas), lemons, limes
warm spices (my favorites!), such as ginger, turmeric, ground black pepper, red pepper, cumin, coriander, cardamom
white rice (I know, I know! But aesthetics require something white to highlight the beauty of all the colorful foods)

And a special slot for a rotating indulgence. (Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream ice-cream is barred for life.) This month's entry:
lemon chiffon pie with a gingersnap crust

I haven't actually made this yet, but I fully intend to. Though maybe not with this hi-falutin' recipe I linked to. Sea salt? Get real. Salt from the ground was good enuf fer my Missouri relatives, who subsisted entirely on pie and lived until they were 86 without benefit of health care (those that made it past five, that is--all those rows of babies' graves'll break your heart, no lie) and it's good enuf fer me.

OK. So, invite me for dinner and feed me, eh?