Fitness and Nutrition

[Donotremove]

I see that the First Lady's remarks to Larry King, when interviewed by him last Tuesday night, about nutrition and childhood obesity has got everyone with an opinion up-in-the-air with their knickers twisted and baying on television. I hope she turns a deaf ear to all of it. Faulted for airing information about her daughters in public, she has said what better examples could she cite than those from her own experience?  Right on, Michelle. You go, girl.

I do wish people, when interviewed and asked what one thing would help the most, would give the first priority to STOP DRINKING SOFT DRINKS, or COLAS, or whatever you want to call them.

[madupont]

Donotremove,

I know that they are supposed to be very bad for you according to current findings just announced this week.  I have a caffeine addiction inherited from Mom like the alcoholism that I mentioned struck Eugene O'Neill before he was even born. I think it had more to do with hospital coffee while she was in nursing; which is by the way, the worst coffee in the world. But apparently it is the sugar that is bad for you in COLA.

I seldom see Larry King but I missed another equally interesting interview Rachel Maddow was said to have had with an improbable person,while I was busy catching up. I am no way ready for  Chinese New Year's but Gung Hoy Fat Tsoi, anyway.

[barton]

  I have a caffeine addiction inherited from Mom like the alcoholism that I mentioned struck Eugene O'Neill before he was even born.


Uh-HUH.

[madupont]

Yep, once when I was about 10, and discovered Coca-Cola existed. And then, Pepsi in the approach to my mid-Seventies. Over sixty years in between hits is not bad considering some of the other addictions  that you can only do twenty years on and then that's it.

Although I remember that summers in your twenties if you live in an Italian neighborhood requires a breakfast of preferably Pepsi and Pizza(compared to coke and maybe no pizza), until you graduate to cafe and biscotti.

My mother didn't consider  coffee as caffeine. Coffee was food; in the same way that Doctors could recommend Camels as their favorite brand of cigarette. In those days, it was not the cigarettes but the brand; just as much as what you ate didn't matter as long as  you had food to eat which seems to be the rule of thumb for Americans today because it is big bucks to those who control the production and distribution, which means if you eat in the US,you are doing better than living in Haiti.

[barton]

If you take a long walk and your toes swell a little and turn reddish -- is that bad? 

[Lhoffman]

Shoes or socks a little too tight?

Haven't been walking for a while?

Perhaps a sodium issue related to something you had eaten in the hours preceding the walk?

[weezo]

If you take a long walk and your toes swell a little and turn reddish -- is that bad? 

Yeeah, that is bad. A bit. It means you are holding too much  fluid. Maybe you eat too much salty food. Maybe it's a sign your blood pressure is going up. Best to mention it to the doc.

[Donotremove]

High blood sugar?

[barton]

Thanks for the speculations.  No fluid retention anywhere else, at any other time, no blood sugar issues (semi-vegetarian with normal metabolism and tend to be skinny), and not eating salty food due to a tinnitus I've had for years.  BP normal.   I will check with a doctor.  Suspecting it might be an allergic reaction, maybe fungal. 

 

   

[madupont]

Now you have me curious about the connection of salt and tinnitus, since I seldom salt food(more often use it for the cleansing of "complicated" vegetables designed  to require cleaning rather than paring; or the exceptional eggplant which also requires a short period of salting to remove bitterness before cooking and prevent it from absorbing excess of oil while being cooked).

Do not generally salt meat while it is cooking, under the theory that this toughens it. Poultry on the other hand may be washed with salt(just like the vegetables but, not at all for the same purpose, since vegetables hide insects uninterested in chicken);a process generally referred to as "koshering".

Observations on salt, as a rule: "One tends by middle-age to cut back drastically on salt just in case. Join the club!".

[madupont]

Ps.

I heard the most astounding story last night from someone who had never mentioned it, in all the half century or so that I've known her.

Has to do with Barton's remark,"...your toes swell a little and turn reddish -- is that bad?"

You may have to remain alert to whether you have any recurrence of swelling either in ankles or knees, which are either circulatory problems, or "rheumatism", arthritis...?

First of all plan to inquire about it with your physician.

Now, I'm going to tell you the story that has to do with when people had less access to a doctor in the South. 

I was told about the passing away of a gentleman that I met  on all of one occasion who had a most amazing name which may possibly have indicated his origins or that of his parents.  He was a very light-skinned man descended from refugee slaves. When it came time for his funeral, his grand-daughters noticed an unknown woman in attendance. She had come up from Memphis and it turned out that the deceased gentleman had long gone to Memphis in the winters whereas the woman from Memphis  came North in the summers.

Since their grandmother had passed away quite some time before their grandfather, the grand-daughters up North took to calling the woman from Memphis on the phone every so often.  Their mother was not one to be shy in any way so, she says to me, M. was talking to me recently on the phone when I was complaining about my knee now that Spring is here..."
            "...And, the weather is warmer.", I completed the sentence for her.

     "She told me,"What you do for that is use a little castor oil".

"Never heard of that one; I've heard  caffeine and Brazilian herbs..."

      "No," she said, having misunderstood, "You don't  drink it;you rub it on."

"Yes, I know; topical."

Now, whether it is actually curative, I can not say. What her father-in-law's elderly mistress had to say was "it takes away the pain";and,"give you no trouble again".  My informant was planning to get up early today for a trip to the pharmacist where she had ordered some castor oil.
 

[barton]

Madupont -- it's no secret among piano tuners that salt intake doesn't help the ears.  But, as you noted, restricting salt is not a bad idea for anyone into middle age or past it. 

Swelling toes can also be from gouty arthritis, which my dad had from time to time.  Uric acid builds up in the toe joints and then the toe swells when its warmer.  The treatment is push fluids, lower protein intake, and warm socks.

[madupont]

Madupont -- it's no secret among piano tuners that salt intake doesn't help the ears.  But, as you noted, restricting salt is not a bad idea for anyone into middle age or past it. 

Swelling toes can also be from gouty arthritis, which my dad had from time to time.  Uric acid builds up in the toe joints and then the toe swells when its warmer.  The treatment is push fluids, lower protein intake, and warm socks.

I know, my father developed that too. He was great on beef, of which I was not very fond. I preferred seafood; and that is not likely to have less salt either.  So for many years I have been drinking tea, lowering protein or changing the form of it to a vegetarian variety and, I have my warm socks on, right now, as the sky is lowering with rain clouds in the darkness and I was planning a trip to the mail-box but perhaps it is too late.

[barton]

This is disturbing....

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1106395.html

[madupont]

DID YOU READ THE LETTERS?  (JUST 3)