“It’s Heck to Be Fat and Forty.” This is something that my grandma used to say all the time, especially trying to get out of a chair or walking long distances. Now that I’m over 50, I couldn’t agree with her more as I too am developing more aches and pains. In our culture especially, there is a belief that once you reach a certain age, your body starts to break down. And if you watch TV for any length of time, you see all the drug ads that just reinforce that belief. There’s a pill for everything, and many things I never even heard of. What the heck’s Low T and Non-24? Then I look around and there are lots of people, my 70+-year-old mother included, who don’t have the aches and pains we’re all told are the natural and inevitable consequences of getting older.
I went in for a physical recently and the doctor asked me 3 times what meds I was on and the importance of giving her a full medical history. She found it very hard to believe that I wasn’t on any medications. None. Vitamins sure, the occasional OTC pain reliever, and that’s it. And my labs showed that I didn’t need any either, in fact, my cholesterol was on the low end. Then she was having her “talk” with me about my labs and how my health would continue to deteriorate if I didn’t get my weight under control, even though I had lost 15 pounds since the last time I saw her a couple of years earlier. Huh? All she saw was that I was overweight and if you’re overweight, then you must have X, Y, And Z medical problems. It's as simple as that. This got me to thinking…
Sure, I’m considerably overweight and I love baked goods as much as the next person but I also eat well. I love fruits and veggies and I easily eat the recommended 12-15 servings of them in a day. Meat is expensive, especially since I predominantly eat Organic, so meat tends to be more of a flavor enhancer rather than the primary focus. I also don’t eat a lot of processed foods. To me, scratch tastes much better and my heart sings when making food. I keep reading about all the chemicals in our food, used to process or grow our food, how the FDA and USDA don’t make food companies test to see if what they put in our food is safe, only pull it if they find out it isn’t. (That seems backward to me but I digress!) This has led me to follow three simple rules based on Michael Pollan's Book, "Food Rules":
If I can’t pronounce it (Tartrazine, Propyl Paraben, D-Panthothenyl alcohol, Monoisopropyl citrate)
If it’s not something I would have in my kitchen cabinet (brominated vegetable oil, MSG, cellulose, artificial sugar, or guar gum)
If it’s something my grandma wouldn’t recognize as food (Yogurt in tubes, liquid or spray cheese, neon-colored foods and drinks)
Then, don’t eat it.
I used to drink Mt. Dew like it was going out of style. It wasn’t unusual for me to have 4-6 cans a day, and when I was really stressed out 8. (That’s like 1000 calories a day, just on caffeinated, sugar water.) Not only was I getting worried about the amount of sugar in them, 46 grams per can, I was getting worried because it wasn’t “real” sugar. It was High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) something the news was reporting concerns about nearly every day. Eating excess sugar leads to an inflammatory response that leads to aches and pains. I also found out, when I finally bothered to read the label, that it has brominated vegetable oil in it. (That doesn’t sound that bad, but oil in soda?) Yeah, well, California just banned it starting in 2027. For years, I had eczema and had to put special prescription creams on it to clear it up. A couple of months after I got off the Mt. Dew, I noticed that the eczema cleared up. Hmm…. Now that’s interesting…
Then I was reading about plastics (Yes, I read a lot) and how they leach into our food, especially when heated. Many of the chemicals in them are considered hormone disrupters (That doesn’t sound good at all.) Now I only use glass jars and containers (and is better for the environment). When I can’t find something in glass at the store, once I open it, I transfer it to glass. Other things like mayo and salad dressings, once I found out how incredibly easy they are to make from scratch, it was a no-brainer.
So what does all of this have to do with “It’s heck to be fat and forty?” What I’ve learned is partly I don’t have to buy into the fact that as we age, our bodies break down. There are a lot of people who are defying that fact. Being fat doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to be sick. I need to be mindful of what I put in MY body and check labels because that may be making me sick and leading to all these aches and pains (or worse). I loved my grandma dearly and I took what she said and just took it as “The Truth.” Now I’m finding out, that may have been her reality, but it doesn’t have to be mine.
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