Rose_P

Thanks for this inspiring comment! I've never been officially obese, but just hated to see pounds gradually creeping up on me, and also had to worry about glucose because all my relatives on my dad's side wind up with type 2 diabetes sooner or later. Some of them have lived into their 90's, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have been better off without this particular disease. As a young person I had hypoglycemia for many years, and it's often a precursor of diabetes. It robs you of vitality, and is often overlooked as a health concern because the sufferers tend to be slim and free of obvious health problems. With that condition you tend to feel tired and unmotivated, and very often emotions are blamed rather than physical health. A big dose of sugar provides a temporary boost, so the hypoglycemic person will often discover binging on sweets as a "consolation", but the effect quickly wears off leaving you feeling even worse. Luckily, I was diagnosed in my early 30's, and was given sound advice by a hospital dietitian. I felt so much better when I avoided junk food that I never really got too far overboard. But when everyone around you is freely indulging in all the things that you know are unhealthy of you (and really for them, too!) it's very hard to avoid the bad stuff. It all seems so delicious!

Restaurants are a huge pitfall. They know that their customers want rich, sweet, salty, fatty food in huge portions and that if they don't dish it up their competitors will. Once in awhile there will be new restaurants that try to emphasize healthier offerings, but they tend not to last long. The vast majority of Americans want their junk food. If you sit down and they don't quickly bring you a mound of fried chips or rolls you feel something's missing, and the first thing they ask you when taking your order is what you'd like to drink. Almost all the beverage choices are loaded with sugar and/or fat, and many have caffeine or alcohol. The latter will loosen your inhibitions about what and how much to eat, so everyone goes away happy until we wind up in the hospital with a coronary.

I also agree about the canned tomatoes and ought to make more of an effort to avoid cans. For quite awhile I've been a bit cavalier about some risks figuring that since both my parents died in their 60's, there's not much likelihood I'll ever be old, but at some point I decided to focus on the fact that I had aunts on both sides who lived into their 90's. If I happen to take after them, I could have as much as 30 more years. Why squander that? Genes are only part of the picture, and a lot can be done to minimize whatever strikes we may have against us from that source. Also, being of the generation that lived through WW2, my parents both had a lot of stresses in their early lives that I was fortunate enough to have been spared.

On the subject of BPA, did you know that it's frequently found at dangerous levels in the thermal paper often used to print receipts?! http://www.thefactfinders.org/1/post...-receipts.html I don't know how to rate this level of risk, but the risk-to-benefit trade-off here is zilch. We don't get any good whatever out of this and should be demanding that stores abandon this technology immediately.